WELLNESS CONNECTION · Fitness

Heart Disease Awareness

By Michael Brazeal, M.A., Director of Fitness

February 26, 2010 - 9:16AM

February is Heart Disease Awareness Month. To remain heart healthy, one of the areas you can proactively address is lifestyle change. At the forefront is exercise. It is well documented that regular exercise has powerful benefits and is proven to be effective at reducing health risk.

With aggressive exercise, heart disease can be held in check (and even reversed). When performed consistently, exercise can lower blood pressure, reduce bad cholesterol, increase good cholesterol, help to control blood sugar and manage body weight. Exercise training, particularly cardio, provides a dose-response relationship. That is, the more you exercise and the greater the effort, the greater the benefits. Of course, there is a point at which you can overdo it (for most people, this is usually not the case). Adults should spend at minimum of 2.5 hours per week raising breathing and heart rate as well as strengthening muscles.

A Harvard alumni study demonstrated that individuals who burnt the most calories per week had the lowest all-cause mortality. In other words, those that expended the greatest number of calories per week died of all causes of death less often than their more sedentary counterparts. In addition, the effect exercise has on weight control has long been known. Losing just 10 pounds can lower blood pressure significantly as well as reduce cancer and diabetes risk, not to mention a boost to the immune system, stress relief and increased energy levels. Exercise is the all-natural, all- organic way to better health and wellbeing. Exercise is medicine!

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