Reverse Heart Disease in 24 days (13)

Hi there,

It is time to move.... (no, not from your house!). I am talking about exercise, moving your limbs, your whole body!. A great body of research has revealed that appropriate exercise reduces the risk of heart attack by up to a stunning 50 percent!. Notice I said appropriate. There is no one size fits all approach to exercise. Fortunately, as more evidence is collated by exercise researchers, it is becoming easier for exercise trainers and specialists to plan individualised, tailored exercise approaches for people, as more tools and techniques backed by credible science and practical experience become available. This was shown dramatically in the BBC programme Horizon earlier this year.

In the programme it was shown that people basically fall into two main catergories - responders to high intensity interval training (HIIT) and non responders to such exercise training, and this was predicted by genetic testing. However, before you blame your genes and not do any exercise, a huge body of evidence has also accumulated that doing any level of exercise is better than doing none at all. The data in the programme was mostly for this one exercise training technique, where basically participants pushed themselves to the absolute maximum exertion for a total of 3 minutes (in 20 second bursts) per week had nearly all the health benefits (not the ascetic I hasten to add) and more so than completing 4 hours steady state cardiovascular training per week. The benefits were- glucose release from the muscle stores, and increasing insulin sensitivity by an average of 24%. Vo2 Max (the bench mark of cardiovascular performance) was also increased in around 15% of participants.

What about non responders, you ask? Well, they may not benefit much from HIIT, but as I pointed out earlier, an overwhelming body of evidence does point to some level of benefit for just about everyone when tailored, individualised exercise is undertaken. Seek the advice of your physician, a trained exercise professional and make sure you engage in exercise that you enjoy - that way you will stick to it. Never push yourself above your limit for a prolonged period, that is courting trouble....


To your abundant excellent health,

Dr Ike
Holistic Health Mentor and Functional Health Expert.

Sources:

Prevention: http://www.prevention.com/health/health/health-concerns/reverse-heart-disease-in-24-days/article

Horizon - The Truth About Exercise (BBC, 2012)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyQSzx0ofto