What could be healthier for the health of your heart than a heart-thumping workout, one that challenges your muscles and your stamina? Studies clearly show that exercise is beneficial for human health as a whole. It’s also a natural prescription for better cardiovascular health, a term that encompasses the health of your heart and blood vessels. But how does exercise boost cardiovascular health?
A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine reveals that exercise lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis (a term for buildup of plaque in the walls of arteries) and stroke (blockage of blood flow through an artery that feeds the brain due to a plaque dislodging and forming a clot). They also looked at the mechanisms that explain these heart and blood vessel-boosting benefits. Ready to dig deeper?
The Impact of Exercise on Blood Lipids
Blood lipids are fats that circulate in your bloodstream on lipoproteins, little “taxis” that carry blood fats around your body. Two that affect cardiovascular risk are LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and HDL (high-density lipoprotein). Studies show that people with high LDL cholesterol or low HDL cholesterol are more likely to develop atherosclerotic heart disease or suffer from a stroke.
The good news? Exercise increases HDL, the beneficial type of lipid carrier that is linked with protection against cardiovascular disease. Plus, it lowers LDL, which is a double assault against cardiovascular disease. But there’s another type of blood lipid that places your heart and blood vessels at risk when it’s too high. It’s blood triglycerides. Studies show exercise reduces triglycerides circulating in your blood. So, exercise poses a triple boost to heart health due to its impact on blood lipids.
Insulin Sensitivity: A Key Player in Cardiovascular Health
Looking beyond lipids, another marker that bodes well for heart health is good insulin sensitivity, a measure of how well your cells take up glucose in response to insulin. People who have poor insulin sensitivity, also known as insulin resistance, are also at higher risk of heart attacks and strokes. But why?
Insulin resistance creates havoc by boosting oxidative stress and inflammation that damages blood vessels, including ones that carry blood to your heart. It also increases how much plaque attaches to the inner walls of your arteries. This leads to atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup, which boosts the risk of heart attack and stroke. Fortunately, exercise, both aerobic exercise and strength training, helps tame insulin resistance and boost insulin sensitivity. When you work out, especially at a higher intensity, your cells suck up glucose more efficiently too and you reap the rewards of better glucose control.
The Role of Nitric Oxide in Exercise-Induced Vasodilation
There’s another way exercise supports the health of your heart and blood vessels and it’s one fewer people are aware of. The inner walls of your arteries produce a gas called nitric oxide and it’s beneficial for your heart. When you have healthy nitric oxide production, it expands your blood vessels and lowers your blood pressure. It also reduces the odds of blood clots forming in your arteries.
Unfortunately, nitric oxide production drops with age. One reason blood pressure rises with age is nitric oxide production declines. But exercise can help you compensate for the drop in nitric oxide production. When you do a workout, particularly an aerobic one, your arterial walls produce more nitric oxide. A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that exercise ramps up the production of an enzyme called nitric oxide synthase that stimulates nitric oxide production.
Cardiac Adaptations: The Heart’s Response to Exercise
Exercise boosts the size of your skeletal muscles, but also your ventricles. In response to a workout, the lower chambers of your heart develop thicker walls too. When the walls thicken, your ventricles can contract with more force. This makes your heart more efficient at delivering blood and oxygen to your muscles and tissues. So, exercise makes your heart a more efficient pump, which lowers your risk of developing heart disease, including heart failure.
Other Ways Exercise Keeps Your Cardiovascular System Healthy
Beyond these mechanisms, physical activity reduces inflammation, another driving force behind cardiovascular disease. It can also help you maintain a healthy body weight. Knowing that obesity is a risk factor for heart attacks and strokes, weight control matters.
The Bottom Line: Exercise is Key to a Healthier Heart
So, now you know some of the ways exercise boosts the health of your heart and blood vessels. All you have to do is add it to your routine. You get so many benefits when you launch into a workout, including physiological changes that lower your risk of cardiovascular disease. What’s beneficial for your heart and blood vessels is also good for your brain. So, why not get moving? Your heart will thank you.
References:
- Nystoriak MA, Bhatnagar A. Cardiovascular Effects and Benefits of Exercise. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine. 2018;5(135). doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2018.00135.
- Powers, Scott K, Erica Goldstein, Matthew Schrager, and Li Li Ji. 2022. “Exercise Training and Skeletal Muscle Antioxidant Enzymes: An Update.” Antioxidants 12 (1): 39–39. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox12010039.
- Arefirad T, Seif E, Sepidarkish M, Mohammadian Khonsari N, Mousavifar SA, Yazdani S, Rahimi F, Einollahi F, Heshmati J, Qorbani M. Effect of exercise training on nitric oxide and nitrate/nitrite (NOx) production: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Physiol. 2022 Oct 4;13:953912. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.953912. PMID: 36267589; PMCID: PMC9576949.
- Tsukiyama Y, Ito T, Nagaoka K, Eguchi E, Ogino K. Effects of exercise training on nitric oxide, blood pressure and antioxidant enzymes. J Clin Biochem Nutr. 2017 May;60(3):180-186. doi: 10.3164/jcbn.16-108. Epub 2017 Apr 7. PMID: 28603344; PMCID: PMC5463976.
- Fernandes T, Baraúna VG, Negrão CE, Phillips MI, Oliveira EM. Aerobic exercise training promotes physiological cardiac remodeling involving a set of microRNAs. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2015 Aug 15;309(4):H543-52. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00899.2014. Epub 2015 Jun 12. PMID: 26071549; PMCID: PMC4537939.
- Fernandes T, Baraúna VG, Negrão CE, Phillips MI, Oliveira EM. Aerobic exercise training promotes physiological cardiac remodeling involving a set of microRNAs. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2015 Aug 15;309(4):H543-52. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00899.2014. Epub 2015 Jun 12. PMID: 26071549; PMCID: PMC4537939.
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