The US Public Health Service has documented the risk factors of heart diseases based on a long-term study that examined the health history of various groups in the society. This study enables high-risk groups persons alert even before symptoms start appearing.
The highest risk factors as listed are male sex, age over 35, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high levels of certain fats in blood, and a family history of cardiovascular disorders.
An addition to the list is a highly anxious personality. The person who is compulsive and hard pressing risks heart diseases. The risk increases with the severity of anxiousness.
Thus, one can broadly classify the risk factors into two – factors beyond the control of the person and factors within the control of the person. Age, sex and heredity are factors beyond the control of any person. There are factors that can be controlled cigarette smoking, high blood pressure and anxious lifestyle. Expert cardiologist uses the term "the triple threat" to describe high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and high cholesterol levels.
If you smoke, have high blood pressure and take a fat-rich diet, your risk of getting heart diseases is five times larger.
The Healthy Heart
Just as there are factors that are detrimental to the health of heart, there also are factors that are favorable for the healthy well being of heart. It is not just about quitting smoking, taking regular exercises or giving up high-fat content food. It is about exercising your heart.
Exercising your heart may be a new concept to you. Regular heart exercise or cardio interval training can ensure your heart stay healthy. Heart really is a set of muscles working together as an organ. Regular exercises to these muscles can increase the strength of the muscles.
The relationship between physical exercises and cardio vascular diseases has been a subject of several studies. A research studied the health status of 31,000 bus drivers and conductors of different companies. The results found drivers, who are more sedentary at the driving seat had more instances of heart diseases than the conductors who would walk the aisles and climbed stairs within the bus.
Dogs were the study material to study the why and how of this phenomenon. The coronary arteries of dogs were surgically narrowed so that they resemble that of humans' with arteriosclerosis. The dogs that were exercised regularly showed better blood flow to heart than the dogs that were kept sedentary.
Exercises seem to develop a system of better connection between impaired and normal blood vessels, which ensured higher blood supply to the heart.
Human heart also has similar system of healing damaged tissue of heart by means of collateral circulation. It is a means of supplying blood by opening new channels of blood vessels. This arterial tress usually develops much before an actual instance of heart failure. It has some capabilities to supplement the functions of damaged blood vessels.
With several factors before humankind, the fundamental question is 'how to take advantage of this knowledge to prevent heart failure?'
Studies show that moderate, yet regular exercise program (several times a week) is more helpful in developing the auxiliary capillaries than any vigorous exercise program practiced at higher frequency.
Thus, the point is clear – regular, light exercise regimen can reduce the risk of heart diseases. It is learnt that people who lead a sedentary lifestyle has 49% higher risk of a heart failure than persons who stick to a regular exercise regimen.
Cardio interval training assumes high importance at this point. By opting for a regular exercise regimen, you not only get a healthy body, but also reduce chances of a heart failure.
The system as proposed here depends on a series of 'repeated segments'. The exercise can be divided into intense activity phases and moderate motion.
Among the several benefits that cardio interval training brings you include:
1. Safer Heart (threat of heart attack lessened) and enhanced heart functioning
2. Improved lung capacity
3. Better Metabolism, reduce body weight
4. Helps you understand and control stress.
It is easy to get the multifaceted benefits of cardio interval training – only thing is to invest some time in a regular exercise program.
