7 Benefits of Exercise for Heart Health [Infographic]
Happy American Heart Month! This is a month to highlight the ways that you can lower your risk of heart disease and improve your overall heart health. Regular exercise is one of the best ways to improve your heart health, prevent cardiovascular disease like heart disease or a heart attack, and help you recover after a cardiac event. A physical therapist plays a critical role in helping you exercise safely to improve your heart health and regain cardiovascular endurance and capacity progressively through a personalized and targeted exercise program. Check out our infographic to learn about the 7 benefits of exercise for heart health!
Understanding Cardiovascular Disease
The heart is a powerful muscle responsible for pumping blood throughout the body, delivering oxygen and nutrients to organs and tissues. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes alterations in the heart’s ability to pump blood effectively. Heart disease is a systemic cardiovascular disease that can lead to serious cardiac events, such as high blood pressure, heart attack, heart failure, and heart rhythm abnormalities. It is the leading cause of death globally and is a silent disease, often not diagnosed until an individual experiences a cardiac event.
Risk factors for heart disease include high blood pressure, atherosclerosis (or coronary artery disease, which involves plaque buildup in your arteries), a history of a prior heart attack, family history of heart disease, smoking, a sedentary and non-active lifestyle, being overweight, high cholesterol, diabetes, women over age 55, and men over age 45.
A heart attack occurs when the flow of blood to a section of the heart is blocked, typically due to coronary artery disease when plaque builds up ion the arterial wall. Heart failure is a syndrome in which the heart fails to meet the needs of the body; the heart is unable to pump blood effectively, so the body does not get enough blood and oxygen. The body then compensates over time to provide enough blood and oxygen to vital organs, which can lead to symptoms of fatigue, shortness of breath, lower limb swelling, pulmonary congestion, and decreased exercise tolerance.
Cardiac Rehabilitation
Cardiac rehabilitation is a structured exercise and education program designed to help individuals with heart conditions improve cardiovascular fitness, reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, and enhance quality of life. Cardiac rehab is initiated in hospital following a cardiac event with intensive inpatient care. Physical therapists play an important role once a cardiac patient is discharged for outpatient rehabilitative care.
Physical therapists can oversee and develop exercise programs customized to the cardiac patient’s unique physical capabilities and requirements, creating a progressive aerobic and resistance training program for CVD patients. A gradual program of aerobic exercise is essential to rebuild cardiovascular endurance and capacity and optimize oxygen utilization by the heart and muscles slowly and safely. Resistance training is another crucial component of cardiac rehab, using weights to work the major muscle groups. Resistance training has been shown to improve traditional CVD risk factors, such as blood pressure, glycemia, lipids, and body composition.
7 Benefits of Exercise for Heart Health
Regular exercise not only can prevent the onset and development of cardiovascular disease but also is a critical therapeutic tool to improve outcomes for those with heart disease. Exercise requires the heart to pump more blood throughout the body, increasing cardiac output and blood pressure. Over time, individuals gradually adapt to the healthy stress that exercise places on the heart and body and the heart becomes stronger, taking fewer beats and effort to push blood through the body and leading to a lower heart rate. Experts recommend that adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week and at least two sessions of resistance training each week.
Research has shown that regular exercise is associated with decreased markers of inflammation, improved metabolic health, enhanced insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial function, decreased circulating lipid concentrations, improved vasculature, and decreased heart failure risk. These health benefits of exercise occur through adaptations in the heart and arteries, skeletal muscle, liver, and adipose (fat) tissue.
Exercise has many benefits for your heart health:
Exercise strengthens your heart and blood vessels. As you exercise, your breath and heart rate increase to pump oxygen and blood to muscles. This causes the heart to respond by working more efficiently and becoming stronger.
Exercise lowers your blood pressure and bad cholesterol, while boosting your good cholesterol. Aerobic exercise helps open the blood vessels, improving their ability to move blood throughout the body and lowering blood pressure. Exercise also positively influences cholesterol levels by increasing the levels of "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and reducing levels of "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and triglycerides.
Exercise improves your muscle function and enhances your endurance. With exercise, your muscles and tissues become more efficient at extracting oxygen from your blood, which reduces the need for the heart to work so hard to pump blood to the muscles. Insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake by muscles are also enhanced by resistance training.
Exercise improves the flow of oxygen throughout the body. Aerobic exercise has been shown to improve the circulation within the heart as well as throughout the entire cardiovascular system. Exercise also enhances the efficiency of oxygen and nutrient delivery to the body’s peripheral tissues and can reduce systemic inflammation.
Exercise reduces the risk of heart disease, heart attack, or heart failure. Research has shown that exercise lowers the risk of heart disease and diabetes by 50% and stroke by 35%. By lowering high blood pressure, exercise significantly reduces the risk of a heart attack, heart disease, or heart failure. Heart attack patients who follow a formal exercise program such as with a physical therapist during cardiac rehab have been shown to experience a reduced death rate of 20-25%. Another study of 12,591 people found that weekly strength training was associated with a 40-70% decrease in heart disease risk factors..
Exercise improves mood and reduces stress. Consistent exercise helps boost your mood and reduces anxiety by stimulating the release of endorphins. Individuals who exercise regularly have a lower risk of depression by 30%.
Exercise helps you maintain a healthy weight. Daily exercise increases your metabolic rate, which helps you burn more calories even at rest, which can help you maintain a healthy weight.
