Make your heart younger with exercise according to the NY Times.

Make your heart younger with exercise according to the NY Times.

In the chiropractic world, we always see mobility and movement as some of the essential elements of life, while a lack of movement is incompatible with life as we know it.  When someone becomes old and ill, often the lack of mobility leads to swollen limbs and infections, and a deconditioning of the heart.

More research is now showing that if we exercise and stay active as we age, our heart will not only be healthier but can also become a more effective pump and even act as if it is younger.

A new study in an article published by the NY Times suggests that if we exercise when we are young, and maintain a certain level of exercise as we age, our hearts will stay healthier.  On the other hand, if we become more active later in life, it is not too late to improve your heart health through exercise.

Exercise Makes the Aging Heart More Youthful

For lifelong heart health, start exercising early in life and keep exercising often. But even if you have neglected to exercise and are now middle-aged, it is not too late.

For lifelong heart health, start exercising early in life and keep exercising often — ideally, at least four times a week, according to a remarkable series of recent studies involving hundreds of people and their hearts.

But even if you have neglected to exercise in recent years and are now middle-aged, it is not too late. The same research shows that you still can substantially remodel your heart and make it more youthful by starting to work out in midlife, provided you exercise often enough.

By the time many of us are in our mid to late 50s, portions of our heart muscle have begun to atrophy and weaken, and our major cardiac arteries — the blood vessels that move blood from our hearts and to the rest of the body — have stiffened.

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