One of the worrisome things about getting older is maintaining your heart health. After all, your heart performs an invaluable job. Consider the fact that it will beat an average of 2 1/2 billion times during your lifetime! Your heart is made up largely of muscle; but, unlike other muscles in your body, it never tires. It just keeps working tirelessly to circulate blood. The key to keeping your heart healthy through a lifetime of hard work is prevention. So, how can you make sure that it can always do its job without interruption or interference? Here’s some simple health advice: exercise!
A recent study found that elderly people who have engaged in lifelong exercise preserve heart muscle at a level that matches that of a 25-year-old.
Researchers enrolled 121 healthy people with no history of heart disease. Fifty-nine were sedentary subjects recruited from the Dallas Heart Study. Some 62 lifelong exercisers, all over age 65, were recruited mainly from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, which had documented their exercise habits over a lengthy 25 years.
The researchers assessed exercise by the number of aerobic sessions per week, rather than intensity or duration. Subjects were broken down into four groups: non-exercisers; casual exercisers (two to three times a week); committed exercisers (four to five times a week); and master athletes (six to seven times a week).
The researchers then took heart mass measurements. They found that sedentary subjects had diminished heart mass as they aged, while lifelong exercisers had heart mass expansion with increasing frequency of exercise.
The researchers hope the results from this study inspire middle-aged people to exercise four to five times a week. This simple act could become an amazing alternative cure for preventing major disease of the heart, including heart failure.
Just remember to get your doctor’s advice before starting any new exercise program if you any chronic health issues.
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