Part 1: The Secret Life of Water Inside Your Arteries

When people talk about heart health, the same ideas usually come up: watch your cholesterol or cut back on salt. Those things are a red herrings, of course, besides hyperinsulemia, seed oils and overeating carbs which are root causes, there’s a deeper story that almost no one talks about. A story about water inside your body, and how it behaves in a way that could be the missing piece of heart health.

Sounds odd, right? Water is just water, isn’t it? We drink it, we sweat it out, we’re told to “stay hydrated.” But in your body, water does something extraordinary. It doesn’t always act like the liquid you see in a glass. When water gets close to the surfaces of your cells, especially the inner lining of your blood vessels, it transforms into a special, structured form.

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Scientists call it EZ water, short for Exclusion Zone water. That name might sound technical, but it’s simple: this water forms a layer that literally pushes out particles and impurities. It “excludes” them.

EZ Water: The Artery’s Hidden Shield

Picture a crowd at a concert. Regular water is like people bumping into each other in chaos. EZ water is like the same crowd suddenly forming neat rows, all facing the same way, moving in rhythm. That’s what happens near your blood vessels — the water organises itself, creating a gel-like, structured layer.

Where does this happen? Right inside your arteries, along the delicate lining called the endothelium. Covering the endothelium is a thin sugar-protein layer called the glycocalyx. Think of it as a shaggy carpet on the vessel wall.

The glycocalyx has a secret power: it helps organize the water just above it into this structured, EZ state. The result is a slippery protective layer sitting between your blood and the vessel wall.

This layer acts like Teflon:

• Red blood cells glide smoothly, without scraping the walls.

• Very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL — the tiny fat particles often blamed for artery damage) are kept at a distance.

• Friction is reduced, which makes blood flow more efficient.

It’s invisible, but it’s absolutely vital. Without this EZ shield, blood would be stickier, particles would slam into the vessel wall, and arteries would wear down much faster.

Why This Matters for Your Heart

Your heart pumps about 100,000 times a day. Every beat pushes blood through thousands of miles of arteries and tiny capillaries. If the walls of those vessels were rough and sticky, the wear and tear would be enormous.

But with EZ water in place, the system runs smoothly. Blood glides. The heart doesn’t have to work as hard. Pressure stays lower. And damaging particles like oxidized VLDL are kept at bay.

This is heart health at the microscopic level. It’s not about a pill, or a number on a lab test — it’s about the natural shield your body maintains with nothing more than water and the right environment.

The Catch: EZ Water Needs Energy

Here’s the twist: this protective water layer doesn’t just appear and stay there forever. It needs energy to form and expand. Without that energy, the EZ shrinks, and your arteries lose their Teflon coating.

So where does the energy come from? Not from food, surprisingly. The main driver is light — especially infrared light, the same kind that makes you feel warm on your skin when the sun shines.

That’s where we’ll go in Part 2: how sunlight recharges your arteries, why it lowers blood pressure, and what that means for protecting your heart.