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Can Supporting Microcirculation Help Us Age Better?
Angiogenesis Concept
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Hello there,
Can our behavior dictate how we age?
When we think about aging and our blood vessels, we often focus on what happens in large arteries, like plaque buildup and stiffening. But a quieter change may be happening at the very end of the vascular tree.
A 2017 mini-review poses that many everyday “lesser ailments of aging”, including muscle weakness, cold intolerance, and subtle memory lapses, may share a common contributor: a gradual decline in the body’s microcirculation driven by reduced angiogenesis.
The Aging Microcirculation
Studies show that capillary density declines with age in multiple tissues, including brain, skeletal muscle, skin, kidney, and others.
Why does that matter? Capillaries are where oxygen and nutrients actually reach tissues. If capillary networks thin over time, tissues may become less resilient, slower to repair, and more vulnerable to stress.
What Drives the Decline?
Capillary maintenance depends on a balance of angiogenic signals, including growth factors like VEGF and FGFs.
Lower levels of angiogenic growth factors in older animals and humans, suggesting that aging can resemble a “deficiency state” for pro-angiogenic signaling, analogous in concept to age-related hormonal decline. Aging is associated with endothelial dysfunction and impaired angiogenesis, shaped by oxidative stress, inflammation, and reduced nitric oxide signaling.
The good news… angiogenic responses can still be augmented, even in older age. This is one reason the idea of “pro-angiogenesis therapy” has remained scientifically compelling.
Pro-Angiogenesis Therapy: Promise, Limits, and Caution
Promise → If declining microvascular density contributes to functional aging, then carefully restoring angiogenic signaling could improve microcirculation and ease age-associated symptoms.
Limits → Although angiogenic therapies can stimulate vessel growth and appear safe, long-term clinical benefits have been mixed or equivocal, highlighting how difficult it is to track and translate vessel growth into functional outcomes.
Caution → While boosting blood vessel growth could help ischemic or aging tissues, dysregulated angiogenesis can also contribute to diseases, including cancer and retinal disease, so any pro-angiogenic strategy must be targeted and rigorously tested.
What You Can Do Now: Food + Lifestyle That Support Pro-Angiogenic Biology
Clinical evidence shows that certain lifestyle habits support endothelial function, nitric oxide availability, and angiogenic signaling, all of which are relevant to microvascular health.
1) Challenge your muscles and your lungs 🏃♀️
Exercise is one of the most reliable physiological triggers for angiogenic signaling in healthy tissue. A single bout of exercise can increase skeletal muscle VEGF expression, supporting the biology behind exercise-driven capillary adaptation.
Try: brisk walking, cycling, swimming, or interval-style walking
2) Build meals with nitric-oxide supporting vegetables 🥬
Dietary nitrate (found in foods like arugula, spinach, and beets) can increase nitric oxide bioavailability, which supports vascular function and may influence angiogenesis-related processes.
Try: a daily “nitrate veg” habit, such as arugula in salads, spinach in soups, or roasted beets.
3) Try a Mediterranean-style eating pattern 🫒
Randomized control trials show Mediterranean-style eating patterns can improve endothelial cell function, an important proxy for vascular health.
Try: olive oil, legumes, nuts, fish, vegetables, fruit, and whole grains as the default, with fewer ultra-processed foods.
What This Means Right Now
Pro-angiogenesis therapy research may be important for the future of aging. Its core insight is powerful:
Healthy aging may depend on preserving the body’s smallest blood vessels and the signaling systems that maintain them.
As research advances, we may see new ways to support microvascular health with better precision, whether through lifestyle interventions that protect endothelial function or therapies designed to restore angiogenesis where it is truly needed.
Stay connected with us for evidence-based updates on angiogenesis, vascular health, and the biology of aging.
Download our Free Guide to learn more about foods that can help support your microcirculation.
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Check out this weeks youtube video to see our mascot Dr. Angio bringing complex health and research topics to life.
Best wishes,
- The Angiogenesis Foundation
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