Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Ghost Blood Vessels -- Correction


In my post of June 30, I said the Ghost Blood Vessels video said that the calf is the biggest muscle in the body, but my brother wrote me and challenged that.   So I went back and watched the video again to see what they actually said.  What they actually said was that we think of the heart as the most important mover of blood, but the calves also play an important role in blood circulation.   They didn’t say anything about how big the calf muscle is.  Ooops.

Remember from your middle school biology that, while the heart pushes blood through the circulatory system, flow is very much assisted by the flexing of muscles.  Blood vessels are designed such that blood can only move in one direction, so that each muscle can serve as a sort of booster pump.  Flexing muscles squeeze the blood vessels and force the movement of blood, but it can only move one way--the direction the heart is working to push it.  This is why we stretch when our body wants to increase blood flow.

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