How You Can Decrease Your Mortality Risk Factor With Exercise
In the United States, heart disease is the number of cause of deaths by illness. And it doesn't have to be this way. Because, this is a disease in which your life style choices have a great influence on your odds of developing heart disease.
What are the risk factors associated with developing heart disease? Obviously, a prime one is hereditary. That, you have no control of. But, there are a number of risk factors over which you do have a degree of control. Of these, the main ones are smoking cigarettes, obesity, and the amount of exercise that you do. But, while all of these are certainly important, it is the amount of exercise that you engage in that appears to have the most radical effect on the odds of you experiencing vascular problems or developing coronary heart difficulties.
The problem can be reduced to one word - atherosclerosis. Basically, this is a situation where arterial walls in the body gradually begin to narrow - primarily due to plaque clogging them up. There has been a ton of research, over the years, showing that - at least in this country - because of our poor food and exercise habits, this accumulation of plaque, or fatty deposits, begins before most of us have reached the age of twenty.
In addition, many studies have demonstrated that if someone starts a program designed to limit the amount of calories that he takes in and, at the same time, increases his exercise level, he can affect the health of his blood vessels. Specifically, his atherosclerosis can be dramatically slowed down. And, in some cases, atherosclerosis reversal will even take place.
There is one study, in particular, that demonstrated this. And that is a one that took place at Harvard University almost 10 years ago. The researchers were able to assign specific ratios to the amount of mortality risk based on the amount of physical activity that a person engaged in.
So, for instance, assuming that you were to engage in enough physical activity, during a week's time, that burned 0 to 1,000 calories, your mortality risk ratio was basically left unchanged. And, if you were to up the amount of exercising that you did so that you burned through 1,000 to 2,500 calories over the course of the week, your mortality risk decreased to just under 75% of the average person. Finally, if you exercised enough to burn 2,500 calories or greater, your mortality risk decreased to nearly fifty percent of those who had engaged in none or very little exercise.
As they look into the data in greater detail, a clearer picture begin to emerge. It appears that the reduction in mortality was due primarily to two things. The first is that those who engaged in more physical activities, generally were able to keep their weight within normal limits also. And, seeming as how excess weight is one of the prime factors that leads to premature hardening of the arteries, keeping the weight down naturally was a factor.
And, the researchers discovered that exercise did one other thing as well. It resulted in a marked increase in the flexibility of the arteries and blood vessels that make up the vascular system. This is critical because it means that the heart does not have to work as hard to pump blood throughout the body and to the major organs. Fundamentally, it seems all too clear that exercising is one of the most clear cut ways of lessening your odds of developing heart disease.
What are the risk factors associated with developing heart disease? Obviously, a prime one is hereditary. That, you have no control of. But, there are a number of risk factors over which you do have a degree of control. Of these, the main ones are smoking cigarettes, obesity, and the amount of exercise that you do. But, while all of these are certainly important, it is the amount of exercise that you engage in that appears to have the most radical effect on the odds of you experiencing vascular problems or developing coronary heart difficulties.
The problem can be reduced to one word - atherosclerosis. Basically, this is a situation where arterial walls in the body gradually begin to narrow - primarily due to plaque clogging them up. There has been a ton of research, over the years, showing that - at least in this country - because of our poor food and exercise habits, this accumulation of plaque, or fatty deposits, begins before most of us have reached the age of twenty.
In addition, many studies have demonstrated that if someone starts a program designed to limit the amount of calories that he takes in and, at the same time, increases his exercise level, he can affect the health of his blood vessels. Specifically, his atherosclerosis can be dramatically slowed down. And, in some cases, atherosclerosis reversal will even take place.
There is one study, in particular, that demonstrated this. And that is a one that took place at Harvard University almost 10 years ago. The researchers were able to assign specific ratios to the amount of mortality risk based on the amount of physical activity that a person engaged in.
So, for instance, assuming that you were to engage in enough physical activity, during a week's time, that burned 0 to 1,000 calories, your mortality risk ratio was basically left unchanged. And, if you were to up the amount of exercising that you did so that you burned through 1,000 to 2,500 calories over the course of the week, your mortality risk decreased to just under 75% of the average person. Finally, if you exercised enough to burn 2,500 calories or greater, your mortality risk decreased to nearly fifty percent of those who had engaged in none or very little exercise.
As they look into the data in greater detail, a clearer picture begin to emerge. It appears that the reduction in mortality was due primarily to two things. The first is that those who engaged in more physical activities, generally were able to keep their weight within normal limits also. And, seeming as how excess weight is one of the prime factors that leads to premature hardening of the arteries, keeping the weight down naturally was a factor.
And, the researchers discovered that exercise did one other thing as well. It resulted in a marked increase in the flexibility of the arteries and blood vessels that make up the vascular system. This is critical because it means that the heart does not have to work as hard to pump blood throughout the body and to the major organs. Fundamentally, it seems all too clear that exercising is one of the most clear cut ways of lessening your odds of developing heart disease.
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