Every year, 1.2 million Americans have a heart attack.
Exercise affects the function of hearth muscle, but it also affects the blood vessels, from the large aortic artery to the large capillaries.
Exercise:
- can boost your HDL (“good”) cholesterol
- makes the lining of blood vessels more flexible
- has beneficial effects on risk factors for heart disease like lipids, blood pressure and insulin sensitivity
If partially blocked arteries are more elastic, they can relax better and send more blood to the heart muscles.
You don’t have to be an athlete to protect your heart.
In a study that tracked nearly 40 000 women for five years, those who walked briskly for at least an hour a week were half as likely to be diagnosed with hearth disease as those who did no regular walking. The risk was even lower for women who jogged or did other vigorous activity.
What’s more, researchers have tested the impact of exercise training on people who already have heart disease.
“If they are assigned to an exercise program, they have a lower risk of dying and dying from heart disease,” says I-Min Lee, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.