Any improper diet, including a sports one, can negatively affect the body, including the heart. We will tell you how not to harm the heart if you’re doing sports. Usually, people who are overweight or those who live a sedentary lifestyle, are at risk of cardiovascular diseases. But some athletes who want to get results too quickly can harm their bodies as well.
Diet
The first thing you should remember: any diet is a harmonious balance of nutrients. If you want to lose weight you don’t need to completely give up on carbohydrates and fats. If you want to gain weight, you shouldn’t forget about fiber, a large amount of water and vegetable oils.
The first thing dietary restrictions should begin with is reducing the consumption of trans fats. They increase the level of low-density lipoproteins, which transport “bad” cholesterol to the bloodstream, leading to an increased risk of atherosclerosis. The second good reason to refuse products with trans fats: the consumption of such fats significantly increases the risk of developing diabetes.
The other extreme trend is a high protein diet with high-fat content. If your body traditionally uses fats for fuel and fatty foods are absorbed by you better than carbohydrates – no problem. Otherwise, too much fat in the diet (more than 50% of the daily calories), even if beneficial, leads to a decrease in nitric oxide production, which in turn, leads to problems with blood pressure.
Improper diets often lead to terrible results. People who eat fats, get depressed and get sick. People who constantly follow improper diets more often than other people suffer from cardiovascular diseases two times more often and 5 times more often with diabetes. A proper nutritional plan can and should be followed for life.
Physical Activity
It would seem that physical activity can’t harm the heart, but, on the contrary, only turn it into a powerful blood pump. This is true, but with some reservations. According to research by specialists from the American College of Sports Medicine, to maintain a healthy heart, a person needs to spend 150 minutes a week for exercises of moderate intensity or 75 minutes a week for high-intensity training.
Those who play sports professionally are automatically at risk: if you train more than one hour three times a week, you need to set aside a separate day, dedicating it fully to cardiovascular exercise.
The Mayo Clinic Proceedings magazine has conducted a study whose authors claim that the abuse of intense workouts has a detrimental effect on the heart. That is why doing CrossFit daily or doing weightlifting exercises constantly on a high pulse is more likely to be harmful than useful. Alter power loadings with cardio. The main thing is not to be afraid to engage in new sports throughout the year or in the offseason if you are a performing athlete.
High-intensity physical activity is always stressful for the body. Too much stress depletes the reserve capacity of the cardiovascular system, disrupts the metabolism in the cells of the heart and blood vessels. This is fraught with arrhythmia and pain in the heart.
Do excessive loads provoke a heart attack? Yes. The main mechanism is the discrepancy between the oxygen demand of the heart and the delivery of oxygen to it. The constriction of the heart vessels and the impaired metabolism in them at the moment of loading triggers oxygen starvation of the heart muscle, and with it – myocardial infarction.
Visiting a Cardiologist Is Necessary
Do not be afraid of doctors. Take tests, cardiograms, check blood for hemoglobin and hormones – nothing is more important than prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Fortunately, most of them can be prevented in time, and a well-designed course of physical exercises will allow you to live a full life even with congenital pathologies such as mitral valve prolapse.
Set your blood pressure standard (the once-common “astronaut pressure” 120 to 80 can be an absolute norm for some or a sign of early hypertension for others), after which measure its performance every day, not forgetting to monitor the pulse. Take one or two weeks of such test measurements once every three to four months to get a better look at your body and understand how the state of your cardiovascular system has changed over a specified period of time.
Watch what is lying on your plate, how do you feel after physical activity and what your tonometer and heart rate monitor can tell about your condition. Preventing illness is always easier than treating it.
