When It Comes to Protecting Your Heart, Fitness plays a Leading Role.

By Colette Bouchez
WebMD Feature

If you're convinced that working out is only for the young and buff, there's something you should know. Mounting research shows that exercise does more than give you a better shape. It's a key way of protecting your heart.

Fitness is absolutely the most powerful predictor of deaths from heart disease and other causes, says Rita Redberg, MD, a cardiologist from the University of California at San Francisco, and the science advisor for the American Heart Association Choose to Move program.

Indeed, Redberg says folks who exercise routinely have up to a 50% lower risk of having a heart attack or chest pain, and they have a lower risk of other diseases as well.

"And, most importantly, people who exercise simply live longer than people who don't," says Redberg. This, she says, is particularly true for women.

Likewise, cardiologist Helene Glassberg, MD, tells WebMD that not being physically fit is the single most important risk factor for heart disease.

"Even if you smoke, your risks are lower if you exercise -- lower than a nonsmoker who does not exercise," says Glassberg, director of The Preventive Cardiology and Lipid Center at the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

In fact, a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that when it comes to protection from heart disease, being fit might be more important than being thin, particularly for women. In a joint project between the University of Florida and Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, research on some 900 women revealed that those who were at least moderately active were less likely to develop heart disease and related illnesses than women who were less active -- regardless of their weight.

And not working out -- at least to your full capacity -- may be extremely damaging. In a study just released by Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, research conducted on nearly 6,000 seemingly healthy women found that those who scored less than 85% of their target fitness rate on a treadmill stress test were twice as likely to develop serious heart disease and related death.

Researchers say this study offers the first clear picture of a woman's fitness-related health risks - and they are high.

How Exercise Helps Your Heart

There are number of obvious heart-healthy benefits to exercise. Usually you will lose weight, or maintain a lower weight. You'll also usually lower blood pressure and cholesterol. But experts say exercise directly affects the heart by keeping blood vessels strong and healthy. Exercise directly improves the blood vessels' ability to dilate and increase blood flow, says Glassberg. In addition, she says, regular workouts offer these heart-healthy benefits:

Anticlotting and anti inflammatory effects that lower your risk of a heart attack.

• Reducing heart rate and blood pressure, which reduces demand on the heart.
• If you already have heart disease, exercise can help normalize your heart rhythm as well as helping your body expand smaller vessels to help keep blood flowing around an area that is clogged.

"Exercise is the single best prescription you can give yourself -- there is no prescription I can write that will promise a 40% reduction in events of death -- but regular exercise can do that," says Glassberg.

Cardiologist Stephen Siegel, MD, agrees: "If you want to age successfully, if you want to be one of those vigorous older folks that you look at and say 'wow' -- then exercise is going to get you there because it impacts not only your heart health, but your total health," he says. Siegel is an associate clinical professor at New York University Medical Center in New York City.

SOURCES: Rita Redberg, MD, cardiologist, University of California at San Francisco, science advisor, American Heart Association Choose To Move program. Helene Glassberg, MD, FACC, director, Preventive Cardiology and Lipid Center, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia. Stephen Siegel, MD, cardiologist; and clinical assistant professor, NYU School of Medicine, New York City. Boyd Lyles, MD, medical director, Heart Health and Wellness Center, Dallas. Wessel, TR, Journal of the American Medical Association, 2004; vol 10: pg 292. Rush University Medical Center Study release, Aug. 3, 2005. Dunn, A, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, July 1998; vol 30. Murphy, Marie, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, September 2002; vol 34. Manson JE, New England Journal of Medicine; vol 341: pp 650-658, 1999. Vaitkevicius, P, Journal of the American Geriatric Society, December 2002; vol 50: Pg 2009.