Exercise For Your Heart
By Linda Tremer

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. One of the best preventatives of heart disease is exercise. If there ever was a miracle cure for heart disease exercise would be it. Any exercise that raises the heart rate will strengthen your heart muscle. And aerobic exercises such as biking, swimming, jogging or brisk walking that cause you to breathe hard will be beneficial. To reap the most benefits you should exercise for thirty minutes at least five days a week.

Your heart is a muscle. The heart needs conditioning and strengthening just like any other muscle. Any kind of stress to the heart can impair its function.

Aerobic exercise will lower your number of heartbeats per minute. This is good because as the heart is strengthened each heartbeat will push more blood. The heart becomes more efficient. Elite athletes have very low resting heart rates.

When exercising, a person breathes more deeply and more rapidly. His heart rate increases. About ten pints per minute of blood is pumped through the heart is during rest. When exercising, the heart can pump up to 50 pints per minute. Thus the blood moves faster through the body during exercise. This helps to reduce the amount of plaque in the arteries. The fast movement of your blood helps to sweep the plaque away.

Extra fat on the body causes the heart to work harder to pump your blood. Exercise helps you lose weight. It increases your metabolism. Losing just ten percent of your body weight can help to reverse heart disease.

Anxiety and stress cause heart problems and high blood pressure. But take heed, moderate regular exercise is a great stress reliever. Endorphins the feel good chemicals are released during exercise.

Exercise can reduce the amount of insulin diabetics need. It can also reduce your risk of getting diabetes. Diabetes can lead to heart disease.

It’s never too late to start to exercise. No matter what your age or fitness level you can start to exercise. One study showed that women who walked cut their risk of heart attack by 30 percent. And if they increased their walking they cut their risk of heart disease in half.

Don’t limit your exercise to aerobics. Strength training also helps the heart. It strengthens the heart and lowers blood pressure and cholesterol. It helps to build strong bones.

Exercise helps to reduce high blood pressure, decrease stress, and increase your HDL (good) cholesterol. You will lose weight if you exercise consistently. Exercise helps to lower blood sugar levels, increases insulin sensitivity, and decreases insulin resistance all factors in heart disease. Controlling them will reduce your chances of contracting heart disease.

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