Who doesn’t know that exercise is very good for our health? But how many of us are able to spare some time from our busy schedules and exercise regularly. To motivate you, let us tell one more significant advantage of exercise- it improves our heart health and helps us in preventing heart diseases. In fact, regular physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your heart health.
Let us see how exercise improves our heart health:
It reduces blood pressure: When we exercise, our heart can pump more blood with each beat, which enhances its efficiency. Regular workout also makes our heart stronger and a stronger heart can pump more blood with less effort. This reduces the stress on the heart and blood vessels, which helps reducing blood pressure. Therefore, if your BP is high, consistent exercise can help in lowering it.
Lowers cholesterol: Many scientific studies have shown that regular workout can make healthy changes in cholesterol levels. It can increase the amount of HDL (Good Cholesterol) and reduce the level of LDL (Bad Cholesterol).
Strengthens heart muscles: We all know that exercise makes our muscles stronger and also improves their flexibility. Just like other muscles, it also strengthens the muscles of our heart. When heart muscles become stronger, our heart can pump more blood with lesser effort. Thus the strain on the heart decreases.
Maintains body weight: Most of us workout to lose weight and look slim. Obesity or overweight is a potential risk factor for hypertension, diabetes and heart diseases. Regular workout keeps a check on our weight, improves metabolism and keeps us more active. Both aerobic and strength training are beneficial for heart health. Aerobic exercise helps in burning more calories and reducing weight, while strength training improves muscle mass and improves metabolism.
Improves the body’s ability to use oxygen: Our body’s ability to use oxygen, known as VO2 max, is a direct marker of our aerobic fitness. Better the Aerobic fitness, lesser is the risk for heart diseases.
Reduces the risk of Diabetes: In diabetes, either our body does not produce enough insulin or it cannot utilise the available insulin effectively (Insulin Resistance). This leads to increased blood sugar level. High blood sugar can affect many organs in the body like kidneys, eyes, liver and heart. People with diabetes have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disorders and diabetes can also worsen preexisting heart problems. A regular workout can improve the effectiveness of insulin. It reduces the insulin resistance and your body cells can use the glucose more effectively, which in turn reduces blood sugar level.
Improves your mood: When we exercise, our body releases endorphins, also called as “feel-good hormones”. These hormones help in reducing stress and make us feel relaxed and happier. And as you know, tension is a momentous risk factor for many diseases like anxiety, hypertension and also heart diseases; the risk of these diseases also reduces.
Motivates us to stay active: Last but not least, regular exercise motivates us to stay active whole day, eat healthy food and adopt a healthy lifestyle. All these factors are essential for preventing heart diseases.
If you or your loved one is suffering from diabetes, hypertension or obesity, regular exercise is the best thing they can do for improving their health. Although exercise does help improving heart health, regular health checks should not be ignored because certain health conditions do not have any symptoms or warning signs. Therefore, regular full-body medical check should be taken twice in a year if you think you are vulnerable to heart diseases.
At RxDx, we have cardiac health package which includes all the important tests which can help doctor identify any heart related issue at a very early stage. We also have well-experienced physicians and cardiologists who can diagnose and treat heart problems at an early stage.
Compiled By,
Dr Manjari Bansal– Content Writer, RxDx
Inputs given by,
Mr Ashwani Sinha – Chief Impact Officer, RxDx
For further details, please contact: 080-49261111, 6745-8111
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