A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association shows that your spouse influences your health. If your spouse has hypertension you are more likely to as well.
But does that mean our significant other influences our health or does it mean we choose partners that share our habits, for better or worse?
Habits are contagious
Eating well, exercising, and good sleep habits are easier to practice if your partner is also involved.
The risk factors for heart disease are high blood pressure, high low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, inactivity, poor diet and obesity. Most of these can be managed or treated with lifestyle changes.
Heart disease remains the leading killer of women and men with 1 in 3 deaths attributed to heart disease every year.
But there is something you can do, another study recently published in the European Heart Journal has good news. In one of the longest and largest exercise studies the results showed that doing both types of exercise, aerobic and strength training, made a significant difference in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
The Details
In this study, more than 400 people between the ages of 35 and 70 participated in a year-long trial. All of them were overweight and had high blood pressure at the start of the year. They were divided into 4 groups, one that did not exercise, one with only aerobic exercise, only resistance training and one group that did aerobic and resistance training. They wore heart rate monitors and had one hour of supervised exercise three times a week for one year. The exercise plans were all individualized for each of the participants. All participants met with a dietitian every three months.
The researchers measured each participant’s systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting glucose and body fat percentage which are all cardiovascular disease risk factors.
It is no surprise that the group that did both aerobic and resistance training had the greatest reduction in their risk scores while improving aerobic capacity (VO2 Max) and improving strength. The other exercise groups all showed improvement while the no-exercise group showed no improvements, even though they were wearing pedometers to measure daily steps.
More good news
All the participants in the exercise groups significantly decreased body fat. The study authors state,
“every -1% body fat reduction is associated with -3%, -4%, and -8% lower risks of developing [cardiovascular disease] risk factors of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and metabolic syndrome.”
All of the results were consistent regardless of age or gender. Proving once again that it is never too late to start a good habit.
Increased risk factors
While exercise is a great way to reduce your risk of heart disease, having a COVID-19 infection increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and clots for more than a year after infection. Regardless of the severity of the infection, your age or fitness level.
If you have had COVID the return to exercise protocol is to rest more and only exercise when you do not have symptoms for 10-21 days post-infection. Returning to exercise too soon increases the likelihood of prolonging your recovery. The Heart and Stroke Foundation considers COVID to be a vascular disease, it affects the lining of your blood vessels, and your endothelial cells and can affect your heart.
So the answer to “Is cardiovascular disease contagious?” is yes, but it doesn’t have to be.
Change your mind, change your health,
Shayla
Eat better, live better and feel better.
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