How Exercise Helps Those With Heart Disease

Often when it comes to health studies, we like to look at what can be done to avoid heart disease. But a new study looks at what can be done for people who are already suffering from heart disease and the answer remains as we suspected; They should be exercising.

Norwegian researchers looked at over 3,000 people who had some sort of significant heart disease stemming from a heart attack or other issues. They were followed for 15 years, and by the end nearly half of them had died.

But what they found out was that who exercised fared far better than their more sedentary study mates, according to this article:

Compared to people who were inactive, participants who consistently got the minimum recommended amount of exercise for adults were 36 per cent less likely to die during the study. If these very active people scaled back their workouts over time, they were still 26 per cent less likely to die than sedentary individuals.

People who consistently exercised, though less than the average, were still 19 per cent less likely to die than sedentary participants. And if these less active individuals stopped exercising during the study they were still 18 per cent less likely to die than people who never exercised at all.

The undeniable message here is this: it is never too late or too little to add exercise to your life. Doing more at any point in your life is going to make you healthier no matter your health. And it does not have to be max intensity exercise. Even gentle exercise provides huge benefits vs sitting on the couch eating Doritos.

-Shane M.