Tag Archive for: heart health

How Exercise Affects Menopause: Heart and Brain

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In the last post, I talked about the effects of menopause on the muscles and bones; in short, the changes in the muscles reduce physical abilities, and exercise can help that. But there’s another factor when it comes to physical performance: the heart and cardiovascular system. Once a women passes 30, her aerobic capacity declines every decade. That means oxygen doesn’t reach the muscles and brain as often. Her physical reserves wane.

Exercise can have a positive impact on the heart . . .

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Do You Make Enough Coenzyme Q10?

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There’s one major difference between coQ10 and other vitamins, minerals, and nutrients such as omega-3s: we can produce coQ10 ourselves. The problem is that we may not produce all the coQ10 we need, especially as we get older.

CoQ10 is used in the production of energy from both carbohydrates and fat in the mitochondria of the cells. You remember mitochondria from science class; they’re often called the powerhouse of the cells. And coQ10 is the substance that’s used to produce that power. It’s critical in the steps where oxygen is used to produce ATP, the . . .

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Your Heart and Tone

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If you live to 80, your heart will beat an average of three billion times. That’s right: billion with a b. Faster when you exercise, slower when you’re at rest, it does its job 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What’s even more amazing is how your heart rate is controlled by the nervous system. I’ve always found it fascinating and here’s why.

The pacemaker of the heart we talked about on Thursday gets signals from nerves that tell it . . .

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Your Heart and Autorhythmicity

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Your heart can beat over 200 times per minute during maximal exercise—give or take, depending on your age. Yet every beat is a succinct event made up of many steps with every one of those beats controlled by the electrical system of your heart. While that’s incredible in and of itself, the real story is one of the most amazing features of your heart called autorhythmicity.

Your heart has a special area in one chamber that stimulates it to beat; it’s called the sino-atrial node or the pacemaker. Think of that as . . .

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Your Heart and Syncytium

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We’re finishing American Heart Month with some things you probably didn’t know about your heart. Your heart is unique in many ways and this week, you’re going to learn a few of them.

The heart muscle is similar to skeletal muscle in the way it contracts, but that’s where the similarity ends. While skeletal muscles are laid out in parallel fashion and independent of one another, the heart muscle splits and connects to other fibers. In that way, every heart muscle cell connects to every other heart muscle cell. That allows signals to be transferred very . . .

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You’ve Got the Ball

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Two emails. Two men. Two deaths. In each case, the men likely didn’t know what they didn’t know. If they had known they had coronary artery disease or hypertension, they probably would have done something about it. Or maybe like many people, they wouldn’t have—“that couldn’t happen to me” syndrome or simply ignoring the facts. As I said on Thursday, this is American Heart Month. I’m going to give you three things you should do to reduce your risk of sudden death, the most extreme symptom of heart disease.

 

Graded Exercise Test . . .

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The Silent Killer

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On Tuesday, I told you about an article sent to me by a long-time reader. Today’s message is about an email sent to me the same day as the other, but it’s quite different.

In the second email, a woman let me know that her husband had passed away in his sleep several months ago. He was not overweight and seemed healthy. When the medical university nearby did an autopsy, they found he had an enlarged heart, most likely due to high blood pressure. That’s one of the reasons hypertension is called the silent killer.

I . . .

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Observations from the Road: Fitness vs. a Healthy Heart

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As I finish my observations from my last trip, I’m on another trip to Austin to do another seminar. I’m sure I’ll have other things to talk about because I’m always looking and listening.

During my run a week ago in Denver, I repeatedly passed two women who were out for an early morning walk. They carried on a conversation the entire time. I think that’s great; having a walking or running buddy or group can get you moving on those days when you don’t want to, and sometimes the gossip is what gets . . .

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Keeping Track of Life’s Simple 7

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To complete American Heart Month, here’s an easy way to track your heart health called Life’s Simple 7 (LS7), developed by the American Heart Association. LS7 has been around since 2010 but it escaped my attention until recently. For those of you who like to track your progress to see how you’re doing, this is a great tool; you may remember I mentioned it last month, but I think you need the details to really understand how LS7 can work for you.

There are seven different categories of variables to track, hence the name Life’s Simple . . .

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Why Optimism Isn’t Enough

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In the messages this week, we’ve looked at a study that examined an optimistic mental state along with health metrics related to cardiovascular health. I left you with a question on Thursday:

Do you simply need to maintain a positive mental attitude to have great heart health?

I told you I think there’s more to it. Let’s begin by talking about something called The Stockdale Paradox.
The Stockdale Paradox
You might remember Vice-Admiral Jim Stockdale as a third-party candidate for Vice President in 1992. Before that, he was a Navy pilot who was shot down . . .

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