all roads lead to ...

Ok, I've been slacking on the blog but have been doggie-paddling in school with a group of olympic swimmers. So here is my interesting tidbit of the day then it's back to the books. Test is tomorrow at 100pm. (say a extra prayer for me, please: retention, confidence, peace, clarity of thought and ability to understand the questions-what they are asking)

You've heard the expression all roads lead to Rome. Well, it seems that the same thing can be said of the gut. Atherosclerosis affects most other vessels of the body. Even in the anatomy lab, the arteries that have been affected by atherosclerosis are hard and break when handled. This, however, never happens to the vessels of the gut.

The reason why the heart, aorta, brain, etc are so prone to this build up of plaque is because there is usually one vessel to supply one area. In order to get blood to that area of the body, the body has no choice but to travel that road. Plaque, therefore, is deposited only in that one vessel each time the blood passes that way.

The gut however, has an extensive collateral system. As you would guess, there are many many roads to get almost anywhere in the gut that you want to go. This goes for arteries and veins. The gut even has two venous systems to get blood back to the heart. Most travels through the portal system through the liver then to the heart. But, in case there's a problem with that system, the body also has areas that connect to systemic veins (or the veins that bring blood from everywhere else in the body back to the heart). This way, there is always a way to get the blood back to the heart, even in less than ideal situations.

I found this fact very interesting. The body will often demonstrate what is most important by it's blood supply. And as you can clearly hear, the body is telling you that the gut is very very important. However, if you ever have to run from a bear the blood going to the gut is sacrificed and re-routed to the muscles...but that's for another time.