Build a strong heart through exercise, that is. Cardiovascular disease unfortunately is a leading cause of illness and death in our country. In fact, while most of us women worry about breast cancer, heart disease is the # 1 killer of women in America (and men too). One important thing we can do to help to prevent it, is to exercise. Our heart is a muscle, just like the other muscles of our body, so since February is Heart Month, let's discuss some reasons to build ours up!Consistent research has shown that physical activity is essential for heart health, and a recent study of over 5000 previously inactive men and women who began exercising on a regular basis were studied over a 16 year period. They reduced their risk factors by 40% versus the control group of less active people.
We can strengthen our heart muscle and our entire cardiovascular system through regular aerobic exercise. Studies have also shown strength training benefits our cardiovascular system as well. So, here are just a few but very important reasons to exercise for our heart.
Exercise will
Strengthen our heart muscle. A strong heart muscle doesn't have to work as hard to deliver blood throughout the body. A strong heart muscle with a strong stroke pumps more blood per beat, and it doesn't have to produce as many beats per minute! In other words, our heart becomes a more efficient machine producing less beats over a lifetime which correlates with our living a longer life.
Keep Our Blood Moving. Exercise increases our circulation, including strength training for our lower body muscle groups. This helps to increase venous blood flow return to our heart. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise and physical activity correlate with lower blood viscosity (blood thickness). Higher blood viscosity can increase our risk for heart attack, and stroke (let's not forget the importance of water here too).
Keep Our Blood Vessels Younger.We also contribute to the health of our blood vessels through regular aerobic exercise! Just reducing our heart rate by 10 beats per minute over the course of a lifetime means over 5 million blood pressure pulses are reduced, saving wear and tear on the inner lining of our blood vessels. Exercise keeps our vessels more elastic as well lessening that hardening effect (this includes pumping iron too!).
Help to Lower our Blood Pressure. All the above contribute to Lowered Blood pressure. High Blood pressure, called the silent killer is a major risk factor in cardiovascular disease. Let's not forget that exercise helps to relieve stress, which contributes to high blood pressure too.
Beginning an exercise program or pushing ourselves to work out even when we don't feel like it, is something we can do for our heart ( it benefits our brain too!). And if we hate the pain of aerobic exercise, let's take some comfort in that it is only during sustained aerobic exercise that our brain releases those "feel good endorphins", our body's own pain relievers!
In a future tip we'll take a closer look at the components of aerobic exercise including how to monitor our heart rate. For more information on heart health, warning signs, and the GO RED campaign for women, go to http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200000
Here's to building a strong heart and our health!
© 2006 HealthNewsDigest.com