It's Never Too Late To Start Exercising

Think it is too late to improve heart health once you reach the 40s? Time to think again!

- Sarah Marinos

If you have spent a large part of your life on the couch with the TV remote, or if much of your working day involves sitting at a desk, all is not lost! It is never too late to improve your health when it comes to your heart.

New research has found that even after years of sitting down, men and women in middle age can reverse their risk of heart failure and even add years to their life. The secret? Regular aerobic exercise on four or more days a week.

The risk of heart disease increases as we get older, particularly once we reach our 40s, when the risk of coronary heart disease becomes one in two for men and one in three for women.

One risk factor for heart disease is inactivity and Heart Foundation statistics say almost two-thirds of adults do “very little or no exercise at all”.

“Low fitness in middle age is a strong predictor of future risk of heart failure and is associated with increased cardiac stiffness, a potential precursor to heart failure,” says Dr Erin Howden, a researcher at the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute.

EXERCISE IS KEY

Latest research from the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute has found that there is a "sweet spot" in mid-life when regular exercise can reverse some of the damage to the heart caused by years of sitting down and being inactive. The study found mixing moderate physical activity with a weekly session of high-intensity interval training increased heart fitness. It also reduced damaging cardiac stiffness by 25 per cent.