How exercise can reduce the risk of heart disease

This week we heard of the sad death of alternative comedian, Rik Mayall who suddenly died at the age of 56. According to his widow he had an 'acute cardiac event' after he had finished his morning run. However the post mortem was inconclusive and it may take weeks to discover what the cause of death was. No doubt in some corners of the press they will now say that doing exercise can kill you! Although performing exercise does have some risks, these risks are far out weighed by the benefits. Doing moderate exercise according to research will help you reduce the risk of heart disease and suffering a 'cardiac event.' Data collected confirmed that inactivity is considerably more dangerous than other major risk factors, such as smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Doing exercise can help reduce the risk factors by strengthening the heart and lungs, reducing body fat, blood pressure, increased insulin sensitivity of muscles, increasing the uptake of glycogen, therefore controlling blood sugar levels better and helping to reduce cholesterol levels. Therefore you stand more of a chance of suffering from an 'acute cardiac event' if you sit on your butt all day doing sweet FA, rather than doing a bit of moderate exercise. Government guidelines suggest that doing 5 x 30 minutes of moderate exercise a week, (feel slightly out of breath, slightly perspiring and slightly uncomfortable) will reap these benefits. Exercise has also shown to help those who already have heart disease and have suffered from a heart attack to live longer and live better quality lives. Evidence has shown that exercise can reduce morbidity and mortality in this group of patients by 19% compared with usual care. Working with those who have had past cardiac events I know from personal experience how exercise can help improve their every day lives and reduce the risk of further events. I know of one older lady from my older people class who suffers from angina (slight blockage to coronary artery that causes chest pains). She used to suffer from the symptoms a lot, having to use her GTN spray (this relieves the pain by opening up the arteries more, increasing blood flow). Since exercising she hasn't had to use the spray in years! So remember the evidence shows that the benefits of exercise far outweigh the risks of suffering an 'acute cardiac event.'