Exercise and Cardiovascular Health
Jonathan Myers, PhD
+ Author Affiliations
From the Cardiology Division, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
Correspondence to Jonathan Myers, PhD, Cardiology 111-C, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, 3801 Miranda Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304. E-mail drj993@aol.com
Over the past 4 decades, numerous scientific reports have examined the relationships between physical activity, physical fitness, and cardiovascular health. Expert panels, convened by organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the American Heart Association (AHA),1–3 along with the 1996 US Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health,4 reinforced scientific evidence linking regular physical activity to various measures of cardiovascular health. The prevailing view in these reports is that more active or fit individuals tend to develop less coronary heart disease (CHD) than their sedentary counterparts. If CHD develops in active or fit individuals, it occurs at a later age and tends to be less severe.
As many as 250 000 deaths per year in the United States are attributable to a lack of regular physical activity. In addition, studies that followed large groups of individuals for many years have documented the protective effects of physical activity for a number of noncardiovascular chronic diseases, such as non–insulin-dependent diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, and colon cancer.4 In contrast, we see a higher rate of cardiovascular events and a higher death rate in those individuals with low levels of physical fitness.1,4 Even midlife increases in physical activity, through change in occupation or recreational activities, are associated with a decrease in mortality.5 Despite this evidence, however, the vast majority of adults in the United States remains effectively sedentary; less than one-third of Americans meets the minimal recommendations for activity as outlined by the CDC, ACSM, and AHA expert panels.
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What Are the Benefits of Exercise?
A sedentary lifestyle is one of the 5 major risk factors (along with high blood pressure, abnormal values for blood lipids, smoking, and obesity) for cardiovascular disease, as outlined by the AHA. Evidence from many scientific studies shows that reducing these risk factors decreases the chance of having a heart attack or experiencing another cardiac event, such as a stroke, and reduces the possibility of needing a coronary revascularization procedure (bypass surgery or coronary angioplasty). Regular exercise has a favorable effect on many of the established risk factors for cardiovascular disease. For example, exercise promotes weight reduction and can help reduce blood pressure. Exercise can reduce “bad” cholesterol levels in the blood (the low-density lipoprotein [LDL] level), as well as total cholesterol, and can raise the “good” cholesterol (the high-density lipoprotein level [HDL]). In diabetic patients, regular activity favorably affects the body’s ability to use insulin to control glucose levels in the blood. Although the effect of an exercise program on any single risk factor may generally be small, the effect of continued, moderate exercise on overall cardiovascular risk, when combined with other lifestyle modifications (such as proper nutrition, smoking cessation,and medication use), can be dramatic.
Benefits of Regular Exercise on Cardiovascular Risk Factors
Increase in exercise tolerance
Reduction in body weight
Reduction in blood pressure
Reduction in bad (LDL and total) cholesterol
Increase in good (HDL) cholesterol
Increase in insulin sensitivity
Can I reverse the progression of coronary heart disease?
Yes. To understand how, here’s a little background on how heart disease happens.
Most heart disease results from atherosclerosis, which is cholesterol build-up, or plaque, in the artery’s inner walls. Plaque can burst or rupture, which triggers blood clots that may block blood flowing to the heart. The result is a heart attack.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that with healthy lifestyle changes and, if needed, medications, many people are able to stabilize atherosclerosis, making plaque less likely to rupture.
How did I get plaque in the first place?
Plaque is caused by the piling up of LDL “bad” cholesterol and other apoB-containing lipoproteins in the artery walls, resulting in inflammation.
Collectively, these many damaging forms of cholesterol are known as non-HDL cholesterol.
But keep in mind that cholesterol is not the only contributor to plaque build-up. Other plaque producers include type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure
Patients with newly diagnosed heart disease who participate in an exercise program report an earlier return to work and improvements in other measures of quality of life, such as more self-confidence, lower stress, and less anxiety. Importan