If John Hopkins Medicine is to be believed, exercise sometimes can be as good as medication for your heart’s health.
It further goes on to say that regular exercise, clean eating and not smoking could just be your safety net against heart disease.
Heart is a muscle requiring regular exercise. Therefore it’s important to keep blood flowing in and out of it. A simple 30-minute of moderate level of physical activity once a day can work wonders for this. It can reduce the risk of heart disease by 50 percent, according to HearthFoundation.org.
The fact that exercise is intrinsic to a healthy heart is affirmed by doctors as well. Both Dr Dinesh Mittal and Dr Vaibhav Sharma, leading cardiologists of New Delhi, agree that it’s important to incorporate regular exercise in our daily schedules for a healthy heart.
Dr Sharma agrees and recommends cardio workouts to strengthen not only the heart, but the lungs as well.
Humans are not moving enough, quite literally, and the brunt of this inactivity is being faced by their bodies. According to a Lancet study, backed by data by the World Health Organization, lack of exercise is leading to an increase in non-communicable diseases like hypertension and cardiovascular problems, among others.
The recommended level of physical activity, according to the study, is either 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, per week for an average adult. Conversely, an average of both of the two activities combined will also serve the same purpose.
The doctors suggest that an average adult should exercise for 30-40 minutes at a time about five times a week.
Dr Mishra points out some things to pay attention while exercising and they are as follows:
If you’re exercising excessively to stay “fit”, ignoring the pain, it can lead to a rare condition called rhabdomyolysis, commonly called rhabdo. In this, overworked muscles start breaking down and release a harmful protein into the bloodstream. Read more about this here:
Exercise remains the key to heart health, but this study says that you don’t need crazy intense workouts to achieve those results.
European cardiologists studied a small group of 170 veteran endurance athletes against a control group of the same number of sedentary people. They found that people who ran more than 8 kilometres a day had a much higher incidence of narrow arteries and plaque deposition than the couch potatoes. Read more about this study here:
Also Read: Can Exercise Really Hurt Your Heart?
However, before you begin, please take into account any pre-existing medical conditions. It’s always exciting to start a new exercise regime, yet it’s important to keep the enthusiasm in check. This will ensure that the programme is sustainable and does not end up causing more harm than benefit.
Dr Sharma goes ahead to also advise professional guidance and support for exercise.
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