Covid19 and Inflammation

At this point most everyone has been exposed to the Covid-19 spike protein through natural infection or vaccination. There is a definite link to Covid19 and inflammation. It is clear that the vascular system, specifically the tunica media, becomes inflamed. What’s the tunica media and how does it affect your health?

Let’s get a quick understanding of the tunica media.  As you can see in the above image, the tunica media is the middle layer of our blood vessels, ALL blood vessels (including the vessels of the lungs, heart and brain). It is made of mostly smooth muscle tissue with small amounts of skeletal muscle. Its prime role is to make sure vein and artery tissue stay strong yet elastic to manage blood flow and pressure. The health of the tunica media is a major influencer of artery wall cuts that lead to a buildup of plaque. Plaque which clogs the arteries and lead to heart attacks. So let\’s explore the issue with tunica media inflammation. 

First, the inflammation of the tunica media causes the release of interleukin-6. This, in turn, creates a cascade of inflammatory agents resulting in the now infamous cytokine storm.  Thus, this inflammation also creates a scarring of the tunica media leading to arteriosclerosis, as mentioned above. If you want to take a deep dive into what the scholarly journals have to say on Covid-19 and tunica media inflammation you can do so here.  

How to heal the inflammation?

The big question is, what can we do from an exercise standpoint to heal and strengthen the tunica media?  My preferred method of treatment is pumping, generally with manual osteo-aticular pumping combined with exercises for each brach of the vascular system.  As a side note, the above treatment is usually carried out after the “containers’ have been addressed.  You can learn more about the “containers” in my previous blog. 

Joint pumping is a hands on therapy treatment to aid the movement of fluids to restore balance and stability to damaged parts of the body. In this case, that is the vascular system. The therapist pumps the joints above and below the affected tissue to increase and improve blood flow. This allows you to have more awareness around that part of the body before you begin the exercises. 

The exercises are the self balancing part of the treatment. These are made up of specific a sequence of muscle contractions  that follow a path of veins from the foot up to the inferior vena cava, the large vein that that carries blood from the torso and lower body to the right side of the heart to get oxygen from the lungs. You can imagine how this is important given all the complications we have seen, heard of, or experienced in the recent past.  

Each segment allows movement of the blood through the body. These segment have  dynamic movement portion, a hold and a draining movement. Most importantly, these exercises are not limited to Covid! They apply to varicose veins, reduced blood flow, and all around good heart health. 

Where to go?

When you are ready to  receive a treatment or learn take control of you health and vascular system with our circulatory exercises you can do so via our in person and online options. Pierce Family Wellness helps motivated people, like you, connect with fitness!