You are used to wearing shoes, wearing tracksuits and doing the classic jogging session, swimming in the pool or training in the gym. If the answer is positive, you will still be good for your heart and arteries. Physical activity is a real preventive therapy to protect against heart attacks and strokes.
But to this well-established reality, there is now a hint that comes from research in chronobiology. Even the time of day in which you let yourself go to the effort, calibrated on everyone’s possibilities, would be important in a preventive key. Regardless of the total amount of daily physical activity, exercise early in the day would be associated with a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes with a particularly high protective tendency in women. To say it is a research coordinated by Galli Albalak of the University Medical Center of Leiden, on the Netherlands, which appeared on European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Over-85, ten minutes of walking a day against stroke and heart attack
by Federico Mereta
Controls up to eight years
The research, it should be underlined, speaks of an association and not of a correlation between the time of physical activity and the risk of cardiovascular events. Therefore it does not identify a cause-effect mechanism, but merely records data.
Data on over 86,000 adults, all without any cardiovascular disease at the time of study inclusion, available in the UK Biobank were considered. The people were aged between 42 and 78 and almost 60% were women.
All wore devices that track physical activity for seven days in a row. In the follow-up period, which varied from 6 to 8 years, the first hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease and deaths from coronary ischemia or stroke were observed. During follow-up there were 2,911 participants who developed coronary heart disease and 796 who had a stroke. When comparing peak activity times over a 24-hour period, risks appeared to be lower for those who were most active between 8 and 11 am.
Heart door
Cardiovascular prevention, here are the rules for movement on the side of the heart and arteries
by Federico Mereta
Chronobiology would weigh more in women
The scholars also divided all the participants into four groups, based on the time of maximum physical effort: at 8, around 10, around 12 or around 7 pm. The noon group served as a reference. Those who were more active in the early morning or late morning had 11% and 16% lower risk of incident coronary heart disease, respectively, than the reference group.
In addition, those who were more active in the late morning had a 17% reduction in stroke risk compared to the reference group. In women, the circadian rhythm variables appeared even more pronounced: those who were active in the early morning or around 10 had a 22% and 24% lower risk of coronary heart disease, respectively, compared to the reference group. Additionally, women who were more active in the late morning had a 35 percent reduction in stroke risk compared with the reference group.
According to Albalak, while no conclusions can be drawn, “the findings add to the evidence on the health benefits of being physically active, suggesting that morning activity, and particularly late morning activity, may be the most beneficial.”
It is important not to give in to a sedentary lifestyle
On the scientific front, the effectiveness of regular physical activity in cardiovascular prevention is once again confirmed, with efforts tailored to each person. But it seems more difficult to try to clarify why moving in the morning would be better.
“We are only in the world of hypotheses and therefore let’s try to make one that helps to understand these results: it can be hypothesized that exercising in the morning leads to an effect that is maintained in the following hours, with beneficial effects on the body – try to explain Michelangelo Giampietro, professor at the School of Sport – Sport and Health in Rome. In the hours following the effort, in addition to a drop in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, there may be releases of substances with an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant action which remain available for some time. This could help protect against the stress of everyday life”. As mentioned, however, these are only hypotheses. The important thing is to prevent, with physical activity. For the health of the heart, brain and arteries.
Smog affects the heart, pollution damages blood vessels and arteries
by Federico Mereta
