Poor Fitness in Midlife May Raise Heart Failure Risk

Poor Fitness in Midlife May Raise Heart Failure Risk

Poor Fitness in Midlife May Raise Heart Failure Risk

Heart Health and Human Growth Hormone

In that cardiorespiratory fitness is inversely associated with heart failure risk, Stephanie K. Brinker, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Texas, USA), and colleagues explored the mechanism through which fitness lowers heart failure risk.  The team assessed fitness in 1,678 men and 1,247 women enrolled in the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study.  Participants received an echocardiogram from 1999 to 2011 and were categorized into age-specific quartiles of fitness, with quartile 1 representing low fitness.

Poor Fitness in Midlife May Raise Heart Failure Risk

The researchers found that higher levels of mid-life fitness (metabolic equivalents) correlated with larger indexed left atrial volume and indexed left ventricular end-diastolic diameter. There was also a correlation for higher level of fitness with a smaller relative wall thickness and E/e’ ratio. Writing that: “low fitness is associated with a higher prevalence of concentric remodeling and diastolic dysfunction,” the study authors submit that: “exercise may lower heart failure risk through its effect on favorable cardiac remodeling and improved diastolic function.”

If they start in time, middle-aged people could reduce or reverse their risk of heart failure from years of sedentary living with a 2-year program including high- and moderate-intensity aerobic exercise.
middle aged woman cycling
For sedentary middle-aged people, heart failure risk can be reduced or reversed with a 2-year exercise program.
This was the conclusion of a recent study, led by researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas and published in the journal Circulation, that revealed that exercise can reverse damage to aging hearts.

However, the cardiologists who carried out the research emphasize that the exercise must be done at least four to five times per week.

The team had shown in an earlier study that two to three times per week is not enough to protect against heart failure.

“Based on a series of studies performed by our team over the past 5 years,” explains senior study author Benjamin D. Levine, who is a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern, “this ‘dose’ of exercise has become my prescription for life.”

He urges people to exercise as “part of their personal hygiene,” similar to showering and brushing teeth.