Author: Dr. Alyssa Boyer, DC, DNCert
Circulation is a very prevalent topic of conversation that circulates in the medical world especially when it comes to heart health. People are always looking to increase circulation throughout their body and improve their heart health. What’s one way someone can do so naturally? Exercise. As we know, there’s a direct correlation between how often someone exercises and the health of the heart. Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in people worldwide. This is an astronomical statistic that could be changed significantly by certain lifestyle changes, including exercise.
We all know that regular exercise increases muscle strength and can decrease overall body fat, what does it do for the heart exactly? Regular exercise helps the heart do a more efficient job of pumping blood throughout the body. By doing so, this naturally can decrease blood pressure or prevent blood pressure from rising as we continue to age. A healthy heart is able to shunt out more blood with each beat, which in turn, allows it to work more effectively. This leads to better blood flow as well. If the heart is able to achieve a better flow, then the heart has the ability to create more physical connections between the smaller vessels that surround the heart and the blood has more than one pathway to travel where it needs to.
As one begins to implement a new routine into their life, that creates stress on the body and therefore, the cardiovascular system as well. This is the good kind of stress someone would want to put their body under. As the body becomes accustomed to the new routine, it has the ability to pull the oxygen needed from the blood during a workout. That means that people who exercise more regularly tend to have hearts that perform well under stress and use less energy during cardiovascular exercise. This also means that as more oxygenated blood reaches the muscular system, the muscles are able to work harder which improves athletic performance.
This doesn’t mean someone has to become a marathon runner only in order to have a healthy cardiovascular system. I mean, marathon runners do have great cardiovascular health, but running isn’t exactly my first choice when it comes to cardio. So how much exercise is enough and what should you be doing? It’s a lot more simple than it sounds. One of my favorite things that I tell all my patients is, “movement is medicine” and “motion is lotion.” You can perform low impact exercises and still do wonders for your cardiovascular health. Simply walking 30 minutes a day has been shown to lower high blood pressure by 5 to 8 mm Hg. All of these cardiovascular benefits also aid in lowering cholesterol, which means that regular exercise can lower the amount of LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) circulating in the blood and raise HDL levels (the “good” cholesterol).
So what type of exercise should someone do? Let’s talk about aerobic exercise. This is movement such as walking, swimming, bicycling, and/or running. Basically, this is a fancy word for cardio. This is a type of sustained exercise that increases your heart rate and keeps it elevated. Again, this doesn’t mean you have to start training for a marathon (you can if you want), but any moderate-intensity exercise should at least make you break a sweat and be slightly short of breath. Zumba is a great example of this type of exercise, as well as walking a round of golf with your friends to increase your heart rate.
The national institute of health did a study in 2018 that studied 60 middle-aged men and women who had previously not exercised on a regular basis. They measured their hearts for 2 years of regular exercise and found that they were able to reverse most of the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle just by committing to regular exercise.
So, get moving!
