Double the heart-healthy benefits of exercise without working harder

Are you living with heart disease? Maybe, you don’t have it yet but have a family history of the disease that keeps you awake at night worrying that the silent killer could be creeping up on you.

If so, I’m right there with you.

My family history of heart problems runs wide and deep and has always been an area of concern for me.

The good news is that there are things you can do to lower your risk, like getting regular aerobic exercise – you know, walking, swimming, cycling and the like.

But, even better, did you know you can combine yoga with your favorite aerobics exercise to get twice the heart healthy benefits?

An Indian health secret

A group of researchers set out to discover whether adding yoga, a common practice for improving health in India, in addition to aerobic exercise would offer more benefit to patients with heart disease than aerobic exercise alone.

They studied 750 patients with heart disease, splitting them into three groups. The first group participated in aerobic exercise, the second in yoga and the third did both forms of exercise.

Here’s what they found…

The aerobic exercise-only and yoga-only groups both showed similar reductions in blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight and waist circumference.

But, guess what?

The group that did both yoga and aerobics showed a two times greater reduction compared to the other groups!

In other words, simply adding yoga to aerobic exercise resulted in twice the reduction in blood pressure, body mass index (BMI) and cholesterol levels than either yoga or aerobic exercise alone.

Getting heart healthy

Clearly, if you want to keep your heart as healthy as possible, creating a regular routine involving both yoga and your chosen form of aerobic exercise can offer undeniable benefits.

If you are already doing an aerobic type exercise, a great way to add yoga in could be to use it during the “cool down” portion of your workout. You could check out a few yoga poses and stretches that you feel comfortable doing, and plan to give them a go at the end of your workout.

The exercise will naturally help you improve other aspects of your overall health and heart health too, but you can boost those effects by…

• Taking off a few pounds – It’s no secret that carrying around extra weight puts a strain on your heart. And, lucky you – you’re new yoga and aerobics routine can help with that!
• Promoting healthy blood vessels – Exercise keeps blood moving through your arteries. But also getting enough omega-3s from fish oil may just be one of the healthiest things you can do for your blood vessels. Eat plenty of fatty fish, like mackerel or salmon, or take a high-quality omega-3 supplement.
• Improving circulation – You may not know this but when you get cut, your body forms a mesh-like composition of proteins called fibrin to stop the bleeding. Once the danger of bleeding is past, your body then produces a different compound called plasmin to dissolve the clot.

The problem is… after age 40, you just don’t produce enough plasmin anymore – causing your blood to thicken and your circulation to slow. But, there is a way around that. It’s called nattokinase – an enzyme found in a Japanese food called natto made from fermented soybeans.

It’s nearly identical to plasmin and helps dissolve fibrin quickly — promoting healthy blood flow. But, if like me, you can’t stomach the idea of eating fermented soybeans, look for nattokinase in supplement form.