Are you neglecting your 'second heart'? 1 step to activate it now

The “second heart” only starts pumping when certain muscles move.

Your heart beats nonstop to deliver blood to every part of your body, but it gets an assist from another pump that probably needs activating as you’re reading this right now.

“We need the blood to go up the leg to return to the heart … so the calf muscle pump is really important.”Every time the calf muscle contracts, one-way valves inside the leg veins open and blood gets pushed upwards towards the heart; when the calf muscle relaxes, the valves close, which prevents blood from flowing backwards into the legs, Wu says., pressure can build up in the veins and damage the valves over time, making them “leaky” and causing more blood to pool in the legs, she notes.

“A lot of people got varicose veins for the first time or blood clots for the first time,” Hayes tells TODAY.com.How to activate the ‘second heart’ with 1 step If you’re on a plane or stuck at your desk at work and can’t get up, do toe raises — flex the foot up and down — which is the closest you can get to mimicking the motion of taking a step, Wu says.

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