DR. Marrufo

· 24 Jan 2022

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These are the benefits of physical activity for your heart!

We hear it again and again: sport is the best ally of your health. But why? What are the consequences for our body of regular physical exercise? And specifically, for cardiovascular health, what are the effects?

As I explain in this article, with the practice of sport, ventilation increases progressively, “first because of a greater depth of breathing and then because of an increase in respiratory rate. This allows us to extract more oxygen from the air for the muscles that are working and to eliminate the excess CO2 that is being produced as a result of combustion and maintaining the pH of the blood”.

On the other hand, the total amount of circulating blood increases when the spleen contracts, pouring part of its contents into the bloodstream. And as for the arteries of the various organs, they contract or relax to increase the amount of muscle blood and oxygen without impairing cerebral and coronary flow. This results in the dilation of the arteries of the muscles that carry out the work and the arteries of the muscles that are at rest, those of the muscles that are at rest, “those of the digestive system, kidneys and skin” are contracted. The end result is a decrease in resistance in the arterial circulation.

The venous return also increases, due to the circulation of the blood itself, by the compression of the muscles that pass through it and by the suction of the heart” And what exactly happens at the heart level? The result of physical exercise is that it increases the volume of blood circulating in the body in one minute, which can go from about 5 liters at rest to 30 liters at maximum effort. And that is accompanied by an increase in the need for oxygen of the heart muscle itself, and therefore the flow of blood through the coronary arteries.

All of the above translates into direct benefits to cardiovascular health, physical exercise improves the control of all cardiovascular risk factors: high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, atherogenic dyslipidemia and other components of metabolic disease, in addition to helping to balance the diet and, in smokers, to control urges for smoking.

In addition, by decreasing “myocardial oxygen requirement, thrombogenicity, endothelial dysfunction, inflammation and oxidative stress, all related in one way or another to the progression of coronary heart disease”, decreasing atherosclerosis and also improving the propensity for arrhythmias
. Do you do any exercises?
DR. HOREHOUND.