As a CCU nurse, I see many, many obese, out of shape individuals roll through our doors. Some have just had a heart attack, some have just discovered they need to have a quadruple bypass and some are barely hanging on by a thread after their heart stopped and they were revived with CPR. A trend that has become apparent is that the age of patients who are requiring these interventions is becoming younger and younger. Heart disease is now the number one killer of both men and women in America and inactivity is the number one risk factor.
Some of my patient will come in from cath lab after getting their stent, drinking a coke and eating a candy bar. People who just had open heart surgery will be eating cheeseburgers the very next day. It makes me cringe! How on earth can someone do this to their body?? Don't they understand they only have one heart?!
I think people fall into two categories: people really don't understand and people who really don't care. There isn't much we can do for the people who don't care, people need to be motivated to change, you can't make them. But there is a lot we can do for the people who just don't understand. The CDC has found that people with heart disease can decrease their risk of heart attack, the need for open heart surgery and their risk of death from heart disease all with exercise.
Here's three HUGE reasons you should exercise to improve your heart health:
- Get you off your blood pressure meds
- One study showed that of people who began moderate-intensity exercise program, 50% of them had decreased their blood pressure so much, they were able to stop taking meds!
- Get you off your cholesterol meds
- Exercise reduces your LDL (bad cholesterol) and raises your HDL (good cholesterol). Again, this can mean the difference between taking meds or not. Popular cholesterol medication such as Lipitor have a lot of nasty side effects, including muscle weakness. Getting off these meds can make a huge difference in your quality of life
- Getting rid of weight related diabetes
- You might think diabetes doesn't have much to do with your heart, but you're wrong! People with diabetes are 2-4x more likely to have heart disease. Controlling your weight with exercise lowers your blood sugar and can even eliminate your type 2 diabetes! No more meds, finger pokes or insulin shots. Doesn't that sound great?
There is so many more reasons exercise is good for your health, I could go on and on. Overall, you should shoot for 30 minutes a day (or at least most days) of moderate intensity exercise. A beach body program like 21 Day Fix is the perfect way to incorporate this into your life. The 30 minute videos are easy to fit into your daily schedule. Think about it, 30 minutes is only 2% of your whole day. Just 2% of your day can provide all the heath benefits I listed above and many, many more. If you are ready to make a change and take a step towards heart health, let's chat! I can help you come up with a plan to improve your life. Email Me!
Sources:
http://www.healthline.com/health/heart-disease/exercise-statistics#2
http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/physical-activity/exercise's-effects-on-the-heart.html
http://www.heart.org
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