Heart Disease And Exercise

Need to know about the connection between heart disease and exercise? Exercise is essential to your heart health, and you can learn how exercise can help prevent many problems associated with the heart, including heart disease. Daily exercise is essential in everyone's life. It not only helps reduce your risks for certain health problems and medical conditions, but also helps reverse certain medical problems, like heart disease.

Those who stay active and exercise regularly have a sixty to seventy percent lower chance of developing heart disease than those who do not. The recommendation is for at least thirty minutes of exercise every day. You can break it up into intermittent shifts of exercising if that is more convenient. Simply doing ten minutes at a time three times a day is better than no exercise at all. Getting your heart rate up for thirty straight minutes is ideal, however, so the more exercise you do, the better.

Exercise also helps to lower your blood pressure. A normal blood pressure is preferably in the area of 120/80. If your blood pressure starts to climb due to lack of exercise, this could put you at risk for heart trouble and disease. You should get your blood pressure checked regularly to make sure it is staying within normal limits.

Exercise plays a role in your cholesterol levels as well. Regular exercise helps to keep your cholesterol within normal limits. Cholesterol levels can be checked with a simple blood test, and if your cholesterol levels are not within normal limits and stay outside normal limits, you may be more susceptible to heart disease. The goal with cholesterol is to have an LDL, which is also known as your "bad" cholesterol, lower than 160. Your HDL, which is your "good" cholesterol, should be over 45. You should also keep your triglycerides no higher than 200. Triglycerides have become a significant predictor of heart disease, especially in women.

Exercise plays an important role in how efficiently the heart works and how it wards off heart disease. Your doctor can help you design an exercise plan that will help keep your heart healthy.

Resources:

American College of Cardiology

EurekAlert