How to improve circulation after 60
Circulation is two things in Dr. Martin's reading. How open the pipe is, and how thick the liquid moving through it is. Age changes the first one, dehydration changes the second, and neither of them is beyond reach.
What opens the pipe is nitric oxide, and his line on why this is an after-60 conversation is short.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 624As you get older and whatever, a lot of things decrease your nitric oxide.
So the aim is not to accept it. It is to work out which of those things applies to you.
60,000 miles of blood vessels
He starts, the way he usually does, by making you feel the size of the thing.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 624You have 60,000 miles of blood vessels, one-and-a-half times around the equator in your body, 60,000 miles.
Then the picture he builds on it. Your blood is a river. Your blood vessels are rivers and streams, and the job is to keep the blood moving, because otherwise your heart works triple overtime all the time.
That is where his thick blood conversation comes from. He calls it blood sludge, and he says he used to look at it under a microscope in the office all the time. Some people are simply made with thicker blood, but the number one reason he gives is dehydration.
His fix for that is the least fashionable advice on the internet. Water, and only water is water. Not coffee, not tea, not juice, not fruit. He calls it vitamin W.
Nitric oxide, explained plainly
Dr. Martin on what nitric oxide is:
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 624Remember, nitric oxide is an explosion inside your blood vessels.
He is proud of how new this is. When he was in school in the 1970s, he says, we did not even know it existed. It was around 1980 that it was discovered, and the discovery won a Nobel Prize.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 624Hey, our blood vessels have a little explosion inside and it opens them up.
That is the whole mechanism in one sentence. A vessel that opens carries more blood. A vessel that does not stays narrow, and everything downstream of it gets less than it asked for. Hands, feet and legs are the furthest downstream, which is why they complain first.
"Hey, our blood vessels have a little explosion inside and it opens them up."
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 624Cold hands, cold feet and restless legs
These are the ones written off as getting older, and they are the ones he treats as information.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 624A lot of times in legs, when you get restless legs, you have low levels of nitric oxide.
He gives restless legs a second possible cause in the same passage, and it is aimed at women. Borderline anemia. His explanation is food. A lot of women do not like steak, they live on chicken and salad, and he says they end up anemic without ever being told they are. His answer there is to eat more red meat.
So one symptom, two of his usual suspects, and neither of them is your age.
What lowers nitric oxide as you get older
He does not give a tidy list, so here is what he names across the passage, each one his.
- Age itself, which he says decreases nitric oxide through a lot of things at once
- Dehydration, because thick blood moves badly no matter how open the vessel is
- Low B12, which he says is very important for nitric oxide
- Staying out of the sun, since he says exposing your skin to the sun elevates nitric oxide
- Borderline anemia, which he links to living on chicken and salad instead of red meat
The sun one is worth a second look because it runs against what most women over 60 were told their whole lives. He has a name for sunlight on skin, his own word, and he is only half joking about it. He treats it as a booster for nitric oxide rather than as something to be afraid of.
B12 is the other one to sit with. If you are low, you are low for circulation as well as for energy. More on that in why people are so low in B12.
What he saw change in the clinic
This is the strongest thing he says on the subject, and it is worth being clear about what it is. It is an account of what he saw in his own practice over many years. It is not a promise about what will happen for you, and nothing here is a diagnosis or a treatment.
Dr. Martin, The Doctor Is In, Episode 624Hundreds and hundreds of patients, if not thousands, over the years got rid of the restless legs once they elevated their nitric oxide, that little explosion.
He names two things in that passage for nitric oxide. B12, which he says is very important for it, and Navitol, the formula he built around it.
The reason he keeps coming back to this rather than to the legs themselves is the same reason he keeps coming back to inflammation rather than to pain. The symptom is where you feel it. The vessel is where it is happening.
Common questions
How do you improve blood circulation in the elderly?
Dr. Martin points at nitric oxide, the compound that opens the blood vessels, and says a lot of things decrease it as you get older. He also wants the blood itself thinner, which for him means water.
What causes poor circulation after 60?
Low nitric oxide, plus thick blood. He calls the thick blood blood sludge and says the number one reason for it is dehydration.
Are restless legs a circulation problem?
He links restless legs to low nitric oxide, and says hundreds and hundreds of his patients lost them once their nitric oxide came up. He also lists restless legs as a sign of borderline anemia.
Does B12 help circulation?
He says B12 is very important for nitric oxide, which is why it turns up in a conversation about circulation and not just about energy.
Read next: Blood Pressure In Women Over 60: What The Numbers Mean and Are Beets Good For You After 60?.
Where Navitol Ultra Strength fits
Navitol Ultra Strength is the Martin Clinic formula he names when he talks about nitric oxide, the little explosion that opens the blood vessel.
60-day money-back guarantee. He names magnesium in the same conversations about legs at night, and that is Magnesium Bisglycinate.These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before starting a new supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.
