It's unfortunate but true: many of us don't appreciate the value of exercise to our health until we've suffered a set-back and it's being prescribed as a way to recover. Nowhere is this a more true statement than with heart disease. It can also be a preventative measure. In fact, regular exercise is measure that each of us can undertake to help reduce our risk of one of the leading causes of death in the United States: heart disease.
Risk Factors
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a number of medical conditions and lifestyle choices can place you at a higher risk for heart disease. These include high blood pressure, being overweight or obese and lack of regular physical activity. Since regular physical activity or exercise can have a positive effect on many of the medical and lifestyle risk factors for heart disease, it is viewed by many experts as a key to preventing heart disease.
Health Effects of Regular Exercise
Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that exercise benefits your heart health in many ways. For example, a reasonable amount of regular exercise can improve your blood pressure, help you control your weight and positively affect such things as cholesterol and diabetes.
Types of Exercise Recommended
According to MayoClinic.com you should perform 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise most days. This can include such traditional forms of exercise as walking, biking, or lifting weights. But, you can also include, and shouldn't discount, such activities as gardening and housekeeping as part of your daily exercise. The key is to move your body, or move things -- such as weights.
Effects on Blood Pressure
Your blood pressure is directly related to the amount of force necessary to pump blood through your system to the working muscles and tissues. With regular exercise, you strengthen your heart, and a stronger heart has the capacity to pump more blood with less work or effort. The decrease in the force produced on your arteries due to your stronger heart, translates to a lower blood pressure, according to MayoClinic.com.
The University of Maryland Medical Center reports that because regular exercise helps to keep your arteries elastic, this also leads to improvement in your blood flow and blood pressure.
Losing Weight and Bodyfat
Reducing your body fat and unhealthy excess weight will go a long way to reducing your risk for heart disease. As a matter of fact, because many of the risk factors for heart disease -- for example high blood pressure and high cholesterol --- are directly related to obesity or being overweight, by reducing your unhealthy body fat or weight, you may also positively impact these other risk factors. Both aerobic exercise and resistance or weight training have a role in your heart healthy exercise program.
Expert Insight
The University of Maryland Medical Center recommends you seek the advice and clearance of your physician before beginning a workout program. This will help ensure that if you have preexisting heart disease or risk factors for the condition, these are taken into account before you begin your exercise regimen.
