As people age, their blood vessels will gradually harden, potentially leading to strokes and heart attacks. With age, many people also find they become less flexible. Most don’t make a connection between the two conditions, however.
Recent research by Motoyuki Iemitsu, a professor at the College of Sport and Health Sciences at Japan’s Ritsumeikan University, suggests there is a strong relationship between age-related stiffness and arteriosclerosis—the thickening and hardening of blood vessels.
A Dec. 15 article published on the website of Toyo Keizai, a Japanese publication, introduced a recent book by Iemitsu called “Blood Vessels are Stronger When the Body Is Soft.” In the book, published in October (there is no English translation available at this time), Iemitsu advises regular stretching of the lower body to prevent arteriosclerosis and the conditions that stem from it….