Heart Disease and Exercise

The term exercise has become a dirty word. Often times the people that need exercise the most, don’t.
Those who think they do not have time will unfortunately find time to take care of their illness that develops. The most important parts of your body like your heart, lungs, muscles, joints, immune system, veins and arteries require movement in order to function. If these important systems need movement to function, we can apply directly to many of the conditions that commonly affect us today. We will address the common diseases and create action steps for each topic progressively over future newsletters.

#1 Heart Disease

Most people have been taught to believe that if you’re thinner or weigh less it means you’re healthier. But, the truth is, if you just starve yourself, follow some weird diet, take pills, or do bariatric surgery, you may lose weight, but you’ll just die lighter. The goal of any exercise program is to develop strength and improve systemic function in your body. Many Doctors believe if you are a certain height, you should be in a certain range of weight. Does that work at all? Those values do not take into account any personal variations that we all have.

We now have learned that 95% of our health destiny in most conditions is related to our lifestyle and not our genetics. Our genetics cause us to look a certain way, but does not cause us to sit on the couch. This is amazing news! Routine, regular exercise has the following results:

Improve heart function, lower blood pressure, reduce body fat, elevate bone density, decrease LDL (bad) and increase HDL (good) cholesterol, enhance and balance hormone production, control blood sugar and eliminates type 2 diabetes.

These are powerful right!? Exercise is the number one factor that can reduce heart disease and dying prematurely. The key is doing it properly and safely to ensure a lifetime of exercise. Should one ever stop exercising? Only if they want to accelerate heart failure.

Is heart disease a lack of blood pressure medication? There must not be enough statin in me? I have diabetes, so I accept taking tablets and insulin the rest of my life? I am not saying stop your medications. I am saying that your overall lifestyle and daily choices can be a huge determining factor. Exercise, diet, stress, and how our bodies respond to everything in life is the secret. Diet does not mean dieting. Diets do not work, you know that. Diet is daily healthy choices of food items that produce a healthy heart, promote balanced hormones, normalize blood sugar and develop a strong active immune system.

This is the “information” age; we have best-sellers, websites, 28,000 different exercise and diet programs out there. Information is knowledge, but knowledge doesn’t get you healthy. Read a diet book, you lose weight right? No. It’s what you apply, it’s the action. Plug in to your system and commit 100% to a healthy heart and to the program you have. It works! Do not miss, get “too busy”, “I’m too tired”, any excuse. Once an excuse prevails, it will continue.

Dr. Cory Couillard is an international healthcare speaker and columnist for numerous newspapers, magazines, websites and publications throughout the world. He works in collaboration with the World Health Organization's goals of disease prevention and global healthcare education. Views do not necessarily reflect endorsement.

Email: drcorycouillard@gmail.com
Facebook: Dr Cory Couillard
Twitter: DrCoryCouillard

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