The Facts
According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. There are many risk factors, including having an inactive lifestyle, that can increase your chances of developing heart disease. While there are factors such as genetics that are out of your control, there are steps you can take to prevent heart disease and/or lower your risk. One important step is incorporating regular exercise into your daily routine. Visit the link below for the American Heart Association. There are several interactive pages that help you to start and maintain a heart healthy exercise program and to monitor your progress.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
Being overweight is a major risk factor for developing heart disease. People who are overweight tend to have higher levels of low-density lipoproteins in the blood. This is the kind of lipoprotein that's been linked to increased risk of heart disease. Aerobic exercise includes activities such as brisk walking, running, swimming and biking, and if done at a moderate pace, aerobic exercise burns calories. In order to lose weight, you need to burn off more calories than you consume. If you combine 40 to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise every day along with watching your caloric intake, you will lose weight and reduce your risk for heart disease. Losing even just 5 percent of your current weight can make enormous changes in the health of your heart.
Reduce Your Blood Pressure
Having high blood pressure means that your heart is working harder than it needs to. This extra stress on the heart puts you at a high risk for serious problems. Your heart is a muscle, and just like any muscle in your body, when it is exercised it gets stronger. A stronger heart can pump more blood with less effort. Some patients can lower their blood pressure without medication, or stop taking medication if they exercise regularly. It takes about 3 months of regular aerobic exercise done at the appropriate level to see changes in your blood pressure. See the link below for the Mayo Clinic for more information.
Lower Your Cholesterol Levels
Researchers from the University of Texas Cardiology Program believe that exercise helps to promote the activity of the enzymes that remove low-density lipoproteins (LDLs, or the "bad" cholesterol) from the blood and blood vessel walls. These enzymes transport the LDLs to the liver where they can be removed from the body. They also found that exercise increases the size of specific proteins that carry and transport cholesterol through the blood, giving it less of a chance to build up in the body. The recommended amount of exercise to help lower cholesterol is at least 40 minutes of moderate exercise at least 5 days per week. See the link below for WebMD for more information.
Open Your Arteries
Your arteries provide a passageway for the blood to flow through your body. Your arteries are elastic. As the blood is pumped through them, they expand; as the blood passes through, they relax. If you have a build up of plaque in your arteries, the passageway narrows, which means less blood and oxygen get through and your heart must pump faster and harder to deliver the same amount of blood as it did before the arteries narrowed. When you do aerobic exercise, you make your heart muscle pump harder to deliver the needed oxygen and blood to the body. As the increased volume of blood is pushed through the arteries, your arteries expand to create the needed room. With time and an appropriate level of exercise, the arteries will expand and widen permanently.
Increase the Number of Capillaries
Since aerobic exercise makes your heart pump harder to deliver the needed oxygen and blood, your body responds by creating more passageways. Capillaries carry the blood from the arteries and veins and deliver it throughout the body. Regular exercise actually increases the number of capillaries in the body. With more capillaries, your heart does not have to work as hard to pump the blood through the body.
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