Heart Disease Prevention - Why Exercise Important For Heart Disease Prevention?

Regardless of age, weight or physical abilities, physical activities or exercises can help prevent many health problems, especially heart disease. It is proven heart health improves with just 30 minutes of exercise on most days. Click the link below to find out more.

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Heart Disease Prevention - Can Counting Calories Help Prevent Heart Disease?

Modern lifestyles such as sedentary and unhealthy diet have been accused to be the culprit to cause such epidemic. Losing as little as 3-5 percent of the body weight can reduce the heart disease risk, according to the American Heart Association. Obviously, losing weight is the only option for people who wish to prevent from getting these diseases. Find out more at:

Heart Disease Prevention - Can Counting Calories Help Prevent Heart Disease?

Be Physically Active To Prevent Stroke!

A stroke occurs when the brain cells die because of a lack of oxygen. This can happen when there is a rupture of an artery that feeds the brain (hemorrhagic stroke) or an obstruction in the blood flow (ischemic stroke). A stroke patient can suddenly lose their ability to speak, has immobility of one side of the body, have memory problems or might even end up with death.

Previous studies have shown that physical inactivity is the second most important risk factor for stroke, after high blood pressure. According to a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of South Australia and the University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA, if a person works out enough to break a sweat on a regular basis, he or she is less likely to have a stroke compared to people who are physically inactive.

The researchers, whose findings were published online July 18, 2013 in journal ‘Stroke’, claimed that their study was the first to quantify protective effects of physical activity on stroke in a large multiracial group of men and women in the United States.

More than 27,000 Americans aged 47 or more were followed for an average of 5.7 years. These participants were part of the REGARDS study (Reasons for Geographic and Ethnic Differences in Stroke) that consisted of equal numbers of males and females, as well as Caucasians and African-Americans.

All the participants reported on how often they did exercise but the study did not include details on how long each exercise session lasted. The researchers found that one third of all the people studied said they exercised less than once a week and these people had a 20 percent higher chance of getting a stroke or TIA (transient ischemic attack). They also found that men who exercised moderately or vigorously (enough to break a sweat) 4 times a week or more were less likely to have a stroke.

Nevertheless, there was a less clear link between vigorous physical activity and stroke risk among the female participants. This could be because women might benefit from less vigorous exercise, such as walking. The study did not focus on less vigorous physical activities. An article published in Stroke in January 2013 reported that walking reduces stroke risk in women.

A TIA or mini-stroke occurs when the blood supply to the brain drops temporarily, causing a lack of oxygen. The short-lived oxygen deprivation is less serious than a full-blown stroke, and it only lasts a few minutes and is gone within a day. Nevertheless, between 10 and 15 percent of people who have TIA might go on to experience a full-blown stroke within 3 months. Approximately half-a-million Americans are thought to experience a mini-stroke annually.

There is no doubt that physical activity is a good way to reduce the risk of developing various diseases including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommended that people aged between 18 and 65 should exercise moderately at least 5 times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes per session.

Why Should You Be Physically Active?

Health experts have long regarded and recommended exercise and physical activities to help people keep fit. Over the past 60 years or so, the health benefits of a physically active lifestyle have been the core of many studies and research. As early as in 1953, an article published in the medical journal ‘The Lancet’ revealed the link between physical activity and coronary heart disease. Of course, physical inactive could put people at higher risk of getting many other diseases, including cancer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type-2 diabetes.

 

Recently, health experts reported on July 18, 2012 in ‘The Lancet’ that a third of the world’s adults are physical inactive and such lifestyle kills about 5 million people each year.

 

A person is said to be physical inactive, as defined in the study, when this person fails to do 30 minutes of moderate physical activity 5 times a week, 20 minutes of vigorous activity 3 times a week, or a combination of the 2. According to researchers’ findings, inactivity increases with age and is higher in women than in men, and is more commonly found in high-income countries.

 

Their findings also showed that about 3 out of 10 individuals aged 15 years or older (about 1.5 billion people) do not have the experts’ recommended amount of physical activity, and approximately 4 out of every 5 individuals aged between 13 and 15 years old are not moving enough.

 

In another study also published in ‘The Lancet’ on the same date, researchers argued that physical inactivity was a risk factor comparable to smoking or obesity. After comparing physical activity levels with population statistics on diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, they reported that physical inactive claimed more than 5.3 million people out of the 57 million deaths worldwide in 2008.

 

The study revealed that about 6 percent of coronary heart disease cases, 7 percent of Type-2 diabetes cases and 10 percent of breast and colon cancers cases were caused by a lack of exercise.

 

Based on a rather conservative estimation made by the researchers, a reduction of physical inactivity by 10 percent could reduce more than 500,000 deaths each year.

 

It is sad to say that people nowadays spend more time in cars and in front of computers instead of walking, running and cycling more. People really require exercise to help their bones, heart, muscles and other organs function optimally.

 

Perhaps, people should not spend too much time on sedentary activities. They could start exercising and slowly build up the frequency and duration in order to match the recommended guidelines.

How Is Intelligence Associated With Heart Disease?

Heart disease is the leading killer of men and women not only in the United States but also in Europe and most industrialized countries. The data collected by the World Health Organization showed that cardiovascular disease (includes heart disease and stroke) and diabetes accounted for 32 percent of all death around the world in 2005.

Diabetes together with high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, lack of physical activity are some of the known risk factors for heart disease. Interestingly, researchers from Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) and Social and Public Health Science Unit in Glasgow, Scotland, recently declared intelligence as a predictor of heart disease.

Published in the February 2010 issue of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, the findings of a study derived from the West of Scotland Twenty-07 Study indicated that lower intelligence quotient (IQ) scores were associated with higher likelihood of getting heart disease and death, and IQ scores were ranked second among other indicators of heart disease after smoking. The top 5 heart disease risk factors identified in the study were cigarette smoking, IQ, low income, high blood pressure and low physical activity.

The study analyzed data collected in 1987 of 1,145 men and women who aged around 55 and were followed up for 20 years. The data collected including height, weight, blood pressure, smoking habits, physical activity, education and occupation, cognitive ability (IQ). The IQ scores were assessed using a standard test of general intelligence.

From the point of view of researchers, there are a number of possible reasons that could explain why lower IQ scores could raise the risk of cardiovascular disease. For instance, a person's approach to healthy behavior (like smoking or exercise) and its correlates (includes obesity, blood pressure) do have something to do with his or her intelligence.

Based on the results of the study, the researchers suggested that health promotion campaigns should be planned with consideration of individual cognition ability (IQ).

Why Should People Walk or Bike to Work?

Exercise forms an integral part in the prevention of heart disease and many other ailments. However, many of the working people are being pressured by heave workload that they can hardly find time to engage in any form of exercises or physical activities.

A large study in United States for health and commuting found that walking or biking to work, even partway, can boost physical fitness but sadly, very few Americans actually do it. In fact, only about 17 percent of workers walked or bicycled any portion of their commute.

According to experts, things like crumbling sidewalks, lack of bike paths and long distances have prevented American commuters from walking or biking to work.

Researchers from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined the tests and questionnaires from 2,364 workers (middle-aged city dwellers) who were part of a larger federally funded study on heart disease risk. These participants, who lived in Chicago; Minneapolis; Birmingham, Alabama; and Oakland, California, were asked in 2005-2006 about their commuting habits in the past 12 months

It was found that those active commuters did better on treadmill tests of fitness, even after accounting for their leisure-time physical activity levels. This indeed suggested that commuter choices do make a difference.

In the study, the male active commuters also had healthier numbers for body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, insulin and blood fats (known as triglycerides). On the other hand, the researchers speculated that women walked or biked shorter distances and they may have done so less vigorously

The researchers acknowledged that the study has a chicken-and-egg problem. People, who are already active, could be the ones who walk or bike to work. In other words, fitness contributes to wanting to walk to work; nevertheless, the reverse might also be true.

Prior research has found that those countries having the highest levels of walking and biking also have the lowest levels of obesity. Nevertheless, little research has done to examine the health of Americans who walk or bike to work. The new study may be the first large US study of health and commuting.

Many cities in United States, workplaces are separated from homes that lengthen commutes. However, cities like Portland, Oregon, that build bike paths have higher rates of cycling. Meanwhile, companies can provide showers, changing areas and secure bike parking to encourage active commuting.

Why Does Obesity Epidemic Prevail in United States?

In general, people gain weight because of over-eating or a lack of exercise or both. At an International obesity conference in Amsterdam held on March 8, 2009, researchers from the health faculty of Australia's Deakin University cited over-eating as the main cause for the American obesity epidemic. This is simply because physical activity could not fully compensate for the intake of excess calories.

When a person is overweight or obese, advice from his or her family doctor on losing weight would surely emerge as numerous medical disorders like diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke and certain types of cancer will most likely be developed. This also means that the risk of having heart disease is much higher.

As revealed by the study, American children had grown on average of 4 kilos heavier over the past 3 decades with adults putting on an extra weight of 8 kilos.

What Americans should weigh today based on their current, higher food intake was calculated and compared to their actual weight. When the weight was found to be more than projected would imply a drop in physical activity.

The findings suggested the American adults had been increasing their physical activity. Same deduction also applied to American children leading the researchers to conclude that changes in physical activity had had no impact on American children growing fatter. The researchers also believe similar findings would probably apply for other developed countries.

In order for the Americans to return to their leaner bodies in the 1970s, children would have to reduce their intake by about 350 calories a day (equivalent to 1 can of fizzy drink and a small portion of French fries) and adults would need to cut theirs by about 500 calories a day (equivalent to a Big Mac burger). The alternative way is to walk for an extra of 2-and-half hours a day for children and nearly 2 hours for adults.

Nevertheless, the extra walking of nearly 2 hours a day is not a feasible option for people to counter the obesity epidemic, according to the researchers. Instead, they suggest people should pay more attention on the energy intake side rather than on the physical activity. In other words, Americans must eat less.

The findings, however, did not mean to dispute the value of physical activity for weight management and overall health.

Is Dozing During Daytime a Sign of Stroke or Even Heart Attack?

It is not uncommon to find people especially those older ones easily doze off during daytime. However, this may not be a healthy sign as this group of people is at high risk of getting stroke, as indicated by a study by United States researchers.

In the paper presented on February 21, 2008 at an American Stroke Association conference in New Orleans, researchers from Columbia University in New York reported that older people who easily doze off during the day have at least 4 times more likely to have a stroke. These people were also at a higher risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems.

Even after the researchers took consideration for things like diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), obesity, physical activity and socioeconomic status, these people were much more likely to end up with stroke.

The study involved 2,153 adults with an average age of 73. The participants were mostly Hispanic men and women aged over 40 and lived in the same community in New York City. None of them had suffered a stroke.

It was found that those classified as doing 'some dozing' during the day had a risk of stroke that was 2.6 times greater for those with 'no dozing', and those who were in the 'significant dozing' group had a 4.5 times greater risk.

Questions on how often these participants dozed in specific situations such as watching TV, sitting quietly after a lunch without alcohol and stopping briefly in traffic while driving were asked. The findings shown that some 44 percent reported no dozing, 47 percent had some dozing and 9 percent reported significant dozing.

The researchers checked again after 2 and half years later to see how many of these participants had strokes or other vascular or heart disease problems like heart attack. 40 strokes and 127 other vascular or heart disease events were detected.

The researchers were not sure what causes the daytime sleepiness and whether this is related with sleep apnea. In fact, other studies have already found that people with sleep apnea who briefly stop breathing throughout the night are at high risk of stroke. Sleep apnea can cause daytime sleepiness too. They believe further investigation is necessary.

Underactive Thyroid Activity Could be a Reason for Weight Gain!

Once a person starts gaining weight, he or she will also start worrying because evidence has shown that overweight will ultimately lead one to diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, and even certain type of cancer.

Besides genes, unhealthy diet, and lack of physical activity, weight gain can also occur among adults having lower thyroid activity.

Researchers from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland found that middle-aged adults having mildly underactive thyroid gland, which still functions in the normal range, might prone to weight gain. Their findings appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine during April 2008.

Thyroid is a gland found in one’s neck, which produces hormones that regulate the body’s metabolism. When a disorder known as hypothyroidism occurs, the gland would be underactive and this in turn causes symptoms like sensitivity to cold, dry skin, fatigue and weight gain. However, scientists are not sure whether thyroid function within standard range will lead to weight gain.

The new study examined the relationship between levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and body weight of more than 2,400 middle-aged adults. In order to stimulate hormone production in the thyroid gland, TSH is released by the brain. Lower activity in the thyroid is reflected when higher TSH levels are found in the blood.

According to the researchers, men and women in the study tended to gain weight when their TSH levels were relatively high but still normal, as compared with those with lower TSH concentrations. Moreover, those participants with TSH levels tipped upwards over the next several years were prone to weight gain.

Though the new findings revealed the possibility of weight gain because of modest increase in serum TSH concentrations within the reference range, it is still too early for scientists to start finding ways to treat obesity by dealing with thyroid hormones. In the meantime, the researchers suggested more research should be done to confirm their findings, and to understand why TSH levels are connected to weight.

The management of metabolism through interaction between the nervous system and hormone-producing glands is rather complex. While the entire system including thyroid hormones might affect weight and obesity risk, obesity might also be capable of influencing the system. In fact, several studies have shown that excess fat tissue might also directly affect TSH levels.

Can Risk of Early Death from Heart Disease or Cancer Be Reduced?

“One should adopt healthy lifestyle” in order to prevent from heart disease, and other medical disorders such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, and so on and so forth. Nevertheless, how many of us will really take this seriously and keep that in mind?

Based on the data provided by 80,000 women in the United States who were between 34 and 59 years old, a long-term study by the Harvard School of Public Health began in 1980. The findings, which were published on September 17, 2008 online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), indicated that women who eat right, exercise and never smoke tobacco were more than halve the risk of dying from heart disease or cancer.

During a period of 24 years, the volunteers participated in the study filled out detailed questionnaires regarding their physical activity, diet, weight, alcohol intake, and disease history. At the end of 2004, 8,882 of the women in the group had died. Record showed that 1,790 and 4,527 of these women died from heart disease and cancer respectively.

According to the calculation made by the researchers, smoking alone accounted for more than a quarter of the deaths. In fact, 55 percent of the death figure could have been avoided if these women had maintained slim, avoided fatty foods and exercised regularly, in addition to not smoking.

The study also found that a glass of wine or beer with dinner every night would offer some help in heart disease prevention. This confirmed earlier research.

Based on the results from the study, the researchers concluded that even small changes in the lifestyle could have a substantial impact on the reduction of mortality rates. Perhaps, people should start changing their lifestyle right away.

Can Living Near Green Space Prevent Heart Disease?

Some earlier studies had already shown that living near green space would improve people’s states of health. However, a new report released on November 7, 2008 by the University of Glasgow indicated that some of the impacts are bigger than thought.

According to the study, parks, forests and playing fields could greatly narrow the health gaps between the rich and poor. In fact, the size of the difference in the health gap is surprising and represented a much bigger effect than what the researchers had been expecting.

In the study, the health impact of parks, forests, and playing fields were examined by dividing England into 5 sectors based on the amount of adjacent green areas and then death rates between rich and poor were compared. It was found that the health gap in the greenest areas between the richest and poorest people as measured by death rates was about half as big as that in the least green areas.

Helping people get rid of stress and allowing them to have more physical activity would naturally help them reduce the risk of heart disease. This is exactly what the parkland and open space could offer and make a difference.

For the very first time, research had shown that physical environment could create such an impact in such a good way with a combination of exercise and restoration. As such, the governments are urged to promote and invest in green areas.

The researchers believe that green spaces are other viable tools for governments to narrow the health gap between the rich and the poor. This is because over long term, government could have a substantial saving on the health care spending if they promote outdoors recreation and hence boost health for their people.

Be Active to Stay Healthy and Biologically Younger!

It is not uncommon nowadays to find that most people, irrespective of their ages, are not keen to exercise or just keep themselves active. Why does such phenomenon prevail?

People’s favorite activities, such as watching round-the-clock television programs, surfing Internet, electronic games, do refrain them from moving away from the sofas or chairs. Such unhealthy lifestyle could even cause many of them become overweight or obese if they also eat whatever they like.

In fact, physically active people do not just look better, they too appear to be biologically younger, according to a study published on January 28, 2008 in the Journal of the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers from King's College London examined 2,401 Caucasian twins and found that those reported having an active lifestyle had biological markers that appeared to be as much as 10 years younger, comparing with their more sedentary twins.

Health experts always urge people to stay active because a sedentary lifestyle does raise the risk of aging-related disease like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure, and premature death. In other words, inactivity may lower life expectancy not only by predisposing to aging-related diseases but also because it may influence the aging process itself.

The twins participated in the study were asked to fill out a questionnaire on physical activity level, smoking habits and socioeconomic status. Their blood samples were also taken. DNA was extracted from the white blood cells to examine the chromosomes in order to determine the length of a generic sequence called telomeres.

The length of telomeres decreased with age, with an average loss of 21 structural units per year. It is believed telomeres play an important role in the ageing process. Moreover, these telomeres were significantly shorter in the men and women who were less physically active in their leisure time. Such a relationship remained significant even after the adjustment for body mass index, smoking, socioeconomic status and physical activity at work.

The mean difference between the most active subjects, who averaged 199 minutes of physical activity per week, and least active ones who averaged 16 minutes of activity per week, was 200 nucleotides. This implies that the most active subjects had telomeres the same length as sedentary individuals up to 10 years younger. Similar results were also found when comparing twins with different levels of physical activity.

The researchers suggested that inflammation and damage caused to cells by exposure to oxygen are the likely mechanisms by which sedentary lifestyles shorten telomeres. Meanwhile, physical activity can also reduce psychological stress, which has also been linked to telomere length.

Sticking to the United States guidelines of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity at least 5 days a week can have significant health benefits.

Exercise May Reverse The Damage Caused By Heart Failure!

Not many people like to exercise. But whether you like it or not, it should be part of your lifestyle if you want to prevent heart disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and many other diseases.

Two recent studies, presented on November 7, 2007 at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, revealed that moderate exercise can help heart failure patients reverse some of the muscular damage (a hallmark of the condition).

According to the researchers of the University of Leipzig in Germany, regular exercise could promote the growth of new cells and blood vessels in muscles that may have become weak and shrunken as a result heart failure, a condition that cause the heart's inability to pump enough blood to the body's organs.

During the 6 months of trial, 50 men with an average age of 56 were divided into two groups: 25 men took part in the exercise experiment while 25 men who were taken as "control group" did no exercise. The group with daily exercise had their level of progenitor cells in the muscle tissue sharply raised but the levels of progenitor cells in the men from the "control group" stayed the same.

Progenitor cells make up a pool of immature cells found in skeletal muscle that can divide into various mature cells as needed for muscle repair. Heart failure patients normally have 50 percent fewer of these cells than healthy people.

The number of progenitor cells became almost normal with the help of exercise. The cells started to divide again and they began to differentiate into myocytes (muscle cells). This is exactly what the heart failure patient’s need - replacement of muscle cells.

The second study in men in their 60s with severe heart failure showed that exercise can also help with the damage to blood vessels that occur in patients with the condition. After 12 weeks of exercise training, the tissue samples and blood tests showed significantly higher levels of immature cells that were morphing into endolethial cells. The density of capillaries or tiny blood vessels also increased 17 percent over the course of the trial.

This shows that whether one has moderate or severe heart failure, exercise therapy will certainly help, and the benefits come from both the regeneration of muscle cells and the formation of blood vessels.

The researchers, however, do not sure whether physical activity can also induce similar changes in the heart muscle.