Risk Factors for Heart Disease
According to the American Heart Association, more than 16 million Americans have heart disease. Left unmanaged, it can progress to a heart attack, stroke or other serious cardiovascular complications like kidney or heart failure. The primary risk factors for heart disease include high blood pressure, obesity, cigarette smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol. Exercise can help reduce your risk for heart disease by lowering your risk for all of these.
Exercise and Cardiac Risk Factors
Exercise lowers blood pressure by keeping the arterial walls distensible and responsive to both diastolic and systolic blood pressure. At the same time, it also helps people reduce their weight, taking strain off of the cardiovascular system. Type II diabetics respond well to exercise by becoming more sensitive to insulin--the hormone that lowers blood glucose. Exercise can also elevate high density lipoproteins, offsetting low density lipoprotein values and reducing the LDL-to-HDL ratio. Finally, people who exercise are less inclined to smoke cigarettes--the single most preventable risk for heart disease.
Exercise After Heart Disease
If you've already been diagnosed with heart disease or had a heart attack or stroke, exercise can help speed your way to recovery and prevent the chances of a second event. Even if you've never exercised, you can benefit from exercising by choosing activities like walking, cycling or swimming to increase your aerobic fitness, lung capacity, range of motion and blood pressure responses to exercise. After you've build a solid platform of aerobic exercise four- to seven-days a week, your doctor may want you to begin adding light weight training to your routine. Building muscular strength will reduce your blood pressure responses to activity and take strain off of your heart.
