There are lots of good reasons to try and follow a healthier diet.

You lose weight, you feel good, but the main reason, to live a longer, happier, more productive life.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. happier, more productive life.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

How can we improve the capacity of our blood vessels to repair themselves?

Here's our first story. The capacity of our

blood vessels to repair themselves is dependent on endothelial progenitor cells

that emerge from stem cells in our bone marrow to patch up any

holes in our endothelium, the innermost lining of our blood vessels that keeps our blood flowing smoothly.

Lower levels of circulating endothelial progenitor cells in the blood

correlates with arterial diseases like erectile dysfunction.

Higher numbers, on the other hand, are correlated with significantly reduced risk of death from cardiovascular causes.

Before we explore how to boost our levels, let's first establish cause and effect. A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled

trial was performed in men and women with peripheral vascular disease, a circulation disorder characterized by the narrowing of blood vessels outside of the heart of brain.

The artery supplying blood to their legs were so ravaged by a disease that they can only walk about a minute

where the muscles in their legs cried out in pain from lack of oxygen.

For each study participant, one leg was randomly selected to be injected with cells from their own bone marrow and the other was injected with their own peripheral blood as a control.

Not only was pain-free walking time significantly extended in the marrow injected leg,

they were less likely to subsequently lose it.

A severe limb ischemia lack of oxygen from peripheral vascular disease carries a 10 to 40 percent

amputation rate within six months. In the control group, 14 percent were forced to

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