Heart-healthy benefits of exercise start in the brain

Does exercise benefit your heart?

What kind of question is that you might be thinking?

Doesn’t everyone know by now that we need enough physical activity to protect our heart from cardiovascular disease, and that sitting too much makes you a sitting duck for a heart attack?

But how does that work, exactly?

Most of us assume that our heart muscle gets stronger with exercise, just like any other muscle, and our blood pressure, weight and cholesterol get lower.

But there’s another step that happens before that.

It turns out that what happens in your brain kicks off the heart-protective effects of exercise…

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Exercise de-stresses your brain

A team of doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital set out to investigate the mechanisms behind both the psychological and cardiovascular benefits of physical activity.

To start with, Dr. Ahmed Tawakol of the Hospital’s Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center and his colleagues analyzed the medical records of 50,359 participants from the Massachusetts General Brigham Biobank. They’d all completed a survey asking about their levels and frequency of physical activity.

From this large group, 774 participants were selected to undergo brain imaging tests and measurements of stress-related brain activity.

Over a ten-year follow-up period, members of this group who met physical activity recommendations had a 23% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

These same people also tended to have lower stress-related brain activity. In particular, they showed functional gains in the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain known to restrain the brain’s stress centers.

This reduction in stress-related brain signaling partially accounted for physical activity’s cardiovascular benefit.

In other words, exercise dampened the stress centers in the brain, and this in turn removed some strain on the heart, thus offering a protective effect.

Depressed? Exercise is an extra advantage for your heart

Something else remarkable was noted: people with depression benefited even more from this exercise-brain-heart connection than those who were not depressed.

“Physical activity was roughly twice as effective in lowering cardiovascular disease risk among those with depression. Effects on the brain’s stress-related activity may explain this novel observation,” says Dr. Tawakol.

In simple terms, we already know that even a little physical activity can alleviate depression. Now we know why.

When exercise builds up the prefrontal cortex, stress is reduced, and depression alleviated.

This is great news considering the feedback loop with depression and heart disease.

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What this means for you

If we’re wise, we will treat all of this as more than just an interesting piece of scientific news.

We’ll take it as a reminder that exercise in some form is not optional, not if we want to continue functioning independently and enjoying life well into old age.

While this research proves the point, I hope this isn’t new information for you.

The prolonged sitting that many of us do (myself included) skyrockets our risk of dementia, diabetes, and blood clots in the leg that can be potentially life-threatening.

It doesn’t take a lot of time to prevent these effects. Personally, I’ve taken to getting out of my chair every 20 minutes and staying up for at least 20 minutes.

I do household chores, walk up and down the many stairs in my home, or, if it’s a nice day, take a short neighborhood walk. In most cases, I return to my desk with renewed focus.

If you sit a lot at work or consider yourself a “couch potato,” you’d be well advised to come up with a similar plan and stick to it. Being proactive now will give you a happier, healthier life later.

Sources:

Physical activity reduces stress-related brain activity to lower cardiovascular disease risk — Eureka Alert

Physical Activity Reduces Stress-Related Brain Activity to Lower Cardiovascular Disease Risk — Massachusetts General Hospital