[Lifestyle] Can doing push-ups in your 40s lower your risk of heart disease?

[Mr.Hacker]

 

Can push-ups help reduce the risk of stroke and heart attacks in middle-aged people? Doctors say that since this form of exercise works on several muscle groups at once, it can be effective. Besides, push-ups don’t involve high-intensity equipment and can be done easily at home using your own body to build strength. But there’s a caveat. Clear a stress test on the treadmill and then monitor the heart rate during the push-ups before building a rhythm over time.

The efficacy of push-ups was actually borne out by a study conducted in 2019 by Harvard University which demonstrated how push-ups prevented diseases, cardiac arrest and stroke. In a study of male firefighters, published in the February 2019 issue of JAMA Network Open, researchers found that men who could complete at least 40 push-ups over 30 seconds had a significantly lower risk of heart attack, heart failure or other cardiovascular problems over the next 10 years compared with men who were able to complete less than 10.

WHY PUSH-UPS ARE GOOD FOR CARDIO-VASCULAR HEALTH?
The logic is rather simple. A push-up engages your body from top to bottom. It works several muscle groups at once — the arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs. Besides, they are easily modifiable; you can adjust the angle and speed according to your comfort level.

According to Dr Vishal Rastogi, Director, Interventional Cardiology at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, moderate exercises like push-ups are important for the heart as it is a muscle and needs to be worked daily. These can directly affect the heart by improving its tolerance threshold and reducing blood pressure. “Moderately intense exercises reduce the risk of developing sugar, maintain body weight, reduce stress hormones that can put an extra burden on the body and release endorphins which have a lot of healing powers. They improve the cholesterol profile, which means the bad cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) goes down and the good cholesterol or high-density lipoprotein (HDL) improves. These obviously eliminate the prospect of blockages developing in the heart. Imagine your heart to be a battery pack. Moderate exercise increases its life and output, trains your heart to handle stress and move blood from your heart to other organs more easily. Your body can extract more oxygen from your blood and keep you energetic throughout the day,” says he.