Research has shown that music conductor’s have some of the healthiest hearts.
Is it due to the arm waving around the heart, strengthening the heart muscle? Or perhaps, as I am more likely to believe due to the music, reducing inflammation, producing a calming, healing effect on the body.
Jeremy N. Morris, a British epidemiologist whose comparison of heart-attack rates among double-decker bus drivers and conductors in London in the late 1940s and early ’50s laid the scientific groundwork for the modern aerobics movement, died Oct. 28 in Hampstead, London. He was 99 ½.
His research showed how beneficial walking is, and those working in the postal service delivering the mail on foot or by bike, had a much lower incidence of heart attacks than than the clerks behind the desk.
Moderation is key –
“For now, on the basis of animal and human data, CV benefits of vigorous aerobic ET appear to accrue in a dose-dependent fashion up to about 1 hour daily, beyond which further exertion produces diminishing returns and may even cause adverse CV effects in some individuals.”
In one study, British researchers examined 12 runners and rowers with an average age of 57, who each had completed a total of 43 years of consistent training and 178 marathons, 65 ultramarathons, and 4 Ironman triathlons. Half of the athletes showed signs of fibrosis, or scarring of heart tissue, compared to none of age-matched “non-exercising” controls.
If exercise has become addictive or unhealthy read Ben Greenfield’s article below.
So many people partake in strenuous exercise without the adequate support and nutrition to protect them through times where the body is undergoing physical stress.
We know that long term endurance exercise causes heart scarring with at least 5 studies confirming that 50% of those finishing the marathon are shown to have elevated levels of cardiac enzymes, the same chemicals released during a heart attack.
If you do partake in marathons, Ironman contests, triathlons and the like, take care of your heart.
Always ensure good stores of magnesium, absolutely essential for proper functioning of the heart and to help reduce inflammation.
