Studies show that cardio exercise
such as cycling
may be key in surviving a
heart attack
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Studies conducted by Purdue University have
shown that cyclists are more likely to
survive
STEMI Heart Attacks than
non-cyclists. Cycling strengthens
existing veins and utilizes additional
feeder veins; increasing the resilience of
your heart. If you have a Widowmaker heart
attack and you�re an active cyclist the
overall fitness of your heart and
circulatory system can give you better odds
of surviving it and decrease your recovery
time.
Additionally the Purdue study
showed that regular cycling has the
potential to reduce one�s risk of heart
disease by an astounding 50 percent if you
cycle just 20 miles a week compared to those
who don�t exercise at all. This is
significant because a study published in
Circulation estimates there are about
250,000 heart disease-related deaths felt to
be preventable with adequate exercise.
According to Cycling and Health's Nick
Cavill and Dr. Adrian Davis, cycling
utilizes the larger skeletal muscles in a
rhythmic pattern with varied periods of rest
and active work. The rest periods allow
recovery from the high-intensity active
periods. In combination with the
distribution of body weight, varied
breathing and high maximum oxygen uptake;
cycling has proven to be an effective
exercise for aerobic and physical fitness.
My own experience with CAD is
a perfect example - although cycling didn't
prevent me from developing CAD for it was in
the cards for me genetically, it did help me
"break my family curse" by conditioning my
heart and my circulatory system to handle
the immense stress that CAD places on your
cardiovascular system. I survived and
experienced a 100% recovery which is
extremely rare because of the conditioning I
developed from years of regular cycling.
There is no mistaking that my
cardiovascular conditioning was caused by
regularly pushing my heart into
uncomfortable territory. An AHA White
Paper authored by St�phanie Lehoux and
Bernard I. L�vy entitled
"Collateral Artery Growth - Making the Most
of What You Have" (AHA Journal
Circulation Research. 2006;99:567-569 -
Originally published September 14, 2006) -
states that development of collateral
arteries requires 2 adaptation processes
that exist in parallel: short term release
of vasoactive agonists or changes in
vascular tone provide a quick functional
adaptation to accommodate rapid changes in
metabolic demand, whereas growth or
regression of blood vessels (termed vascular
remodeling) represent long term structural
adaptation to new, lasting metabolic and
blood flow conditions.
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Simply put your body will react
to an increase in blood demand by expanding
the capacity of your
body's blood flow to
meet short term needs. If the the
demand is constant over time your
body
will react by growing new vascular pathways
to meet these lasting demands.
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The
implication in my specific case is that over
years of constantly stressing my heart
through daily intense cycling my body
reacted by adding additional vascular
pathways - NEW pathways - to feed blood to
my heart. This growth wasn't
restricted to just my heart. Any
muscle group affected by my exercise saw new
vascular growth.
The net
effect is that when my LAD developed a blood
clot due to stenosis and I experienced a
Widowmaker STEMI heart attack - the
new/additional vascular structures that had
developed through years of cycling kept
enough blood flowing to my heart that I
didn't experience any tissue death (as is
typically the case for STEMI survivors).
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WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU? |
First - it is never too late to
start exercising and improve your health
- even if you have CAD - you can greatly
improve you health and reduce your chances
for a life-threatening heart attack by
exercising moderately for 20 minutes a day.
*** NEVER start an exercise
regimen without the approval and/or
supervision of your physician or a qualified
health care consultant! Always follow
your doctor's orders. If you have been
diagnosed with CAD baring any inciting
incident such as a heart attack - you need
to follow your physician's instructions to
avoid potentially life-threatening
complications.
I realize that my cycling habit
isn't the norm. I'm extreme.
You never need to worry about what other
people are doing or how much or this or
that. It doesn't matter. Making
wise choices for your health and quality of
life isn't a contest. It's not a
competition.
Start
small. Start slow. Ease into
more intense exercise over time.
"Rome wasn't built in a day"
- an the path to good health through daily
exercise takes time. So be patient and
have realistic expectations.
Lastly be honest with yourself
about why you are doing this.
Many people have a hard time committing to
daily exercise on the premise that they are
working to prevent a disease they may or may
not ever develop. The truth is that
most people want to exercise to look and
feel better. And there is nothing
wrong with this as a goal. My
suggestion is that if you focus your efforts
on the health related benefits of exercise
and not the physical appearance aspects
you'll be much more likely to be satisfied
with the results of your hard work. |
