Word: vessels
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Stealth Killer Your report on high blood pressure is a timely and critical message for every person [Dec. 13]. In your article, you remarked on the role that nitric oxide plays in relaxing blood vessels. When I shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1998 for my research on the role of nitric oxide in cardiovascular health, I knew we had only begun to understand the importance of this unique molecule. Nitric oxide is critically important in reducing blood pressure and promoting total cardiovascular health. I am convinced by my ongoing research that reduced levels of nitric oxide production...
Your report on high blood pressure is both a timely and critical message for every American [Dec. 6]. In your article, you remarked on the role that nitric oxide plays in relaxing blood vessels. When I shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998 for my research on the role of nitric oxide in cardiovascular health, I knew we had only begun to understand the importance of this unique molecule. Nitric oxide is critically important in reducing blood pressure and promoting total cardiovascular health. I am convinced by my ongoing research that reduced levels of nitric oxide production...
...there are a lot of things that can throw off the calibration of the whole fragile system, starting with the vessel walls. When we're young, our vessels are healthy and springy, easily stretching and contracting to accommodate blood pressure as it rises and falls. The arteries, which are a type of muscle, even pulse to help keep blood moving along. But the fibers that make up the scaffolding of the vessel walls can take only so much flexing. As we age, the rubbery tissue slowly gets replaced with stiffer collagen. The vessels don't expand as well anymore...
...left ventricle, which is its main pumping chamber. Increased muscle mass is fine in the biceps, but it's bad in the heart, which must be lean and flexible to work as it should. Worse, if a person with hypertension has high cholesterol, the deteriorating condition of vessel walls creates rough spots that serve as toeholds for circulating fats. As fat collects into plaques, they can break free, particularly if vessels are repeatedly being slammed by blood rushing out from the overworked heart. Breakaway plaque can lead quickly to a heart attack...
Though I have been inspired and changed personally by this process of using artistic medium as a vessel for internal discovery, I sometimes wonder if this freedom, while promoting individual growth, misses the opportunity to encourage something else. I wonder if there is a need for a discussion of the place of my work in a broader social meaning and context. Is theoretical study the only refuge for these considerations? I have become increasingly convinced that much more is at stake in a video or a painting than my own personal expression. And while my drug documentary was admittedly...