Using Exercise To Maintain A Healthy Heart
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the biggest killer in the country after HIV/AIDS. Every hour in South Africa, 5 people have heart attacks and 10 people have strokes.
Obesity is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and South Africa has one of the highest rates of obesity in the world.
One of the best gifts you can give your heart is physical activity. Active, fit people develop less CVD than people who are overweight and do not exercise. If cardiovascular disease does develop, it tends to be at a later age and is less severe. Johns Hopkins University research has even shown that for some heart conditions, exercise is as powerful as medication.
For people who have been recently diagnosed with heart disease and who participate in an exercise programme say that they can get back to their lives and work, have more self-confidence, lower stress, and less anxiety than those who don’t exercise.
What are the benefits of exercise?
Exercise lowers blood pressure: Exercise works like beta-blocker medication to slow the heart rate and lower blood pressure.
Exercise is key to weight control: Being overweight puts stress on the heart and is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
Exercise helps strengthen muscles: A combination of aerobic exercise (like walking, running, swimming, and other vigorous heart-pumping exercises) and strength training (weightlifting or resistance training) is considered best for heart health.
Exercise can help you quit smoking: Smoking is one of the top risk factors for heart disease because it damages the structure and function of blood vessels. People who exercise are more likely to stop smoking as they get fitter, or never start in the first place as smoking compromises their health and fitness levels.
Exercise can stop or slow the development of diabetes: Exercise can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by over 50% by allowing the muscles to better process glycogen.
Exercise lowers stress: Stress hormones can put an extra burden on the heart.
Exercise reduces inflammation: Chronic inflammation is reduced as the body adapts to the challenge of exercise on many bodily systems.
How much exercise is enough?
Thirty minutes of exercise a day provides maximal health protection. Research has shown that intermittent activity (like 10 minutes of exercise three to five times a day) has similar cardiovascular benefits if performed at moderate intensity.
What does ‘moderate exercise’ mean?
Exercise intensity levels are very subjective and depend partly on your current fitness level. Moderate exercise leaves you slightly breathless but still able to talk in short sentences, rather than being totally out of breath.
How can you fit more exercise into your day, or become more physically active?
Try these tips:
- Park your car at the far end of a parking lot, so you have further to walk
- Choose the stairs rather than the elevator.
- Spend part of your lunch break walking.
- On bad-weather days, try walking indoors at a mall.
- Wake up a bit earlier and exercise before you do anything else.
- Use a wearable fitness tracker to count your steps. Try increasing your daily steps by 500 each week with the goal of reaching 10 000 steps per day, a level that can produce many health benefits.
This World Heart Day, commit to taking care of your health and your heart through exercise and maintaining a healthy weight. Always consult your doctor before starting a diet or exercise programme.
If you would like more information about Blood Pressure screening or Cardiovascular Health, contact us on 0861 GOLIFE (465433) or SMS 43821.