Regular exercise can prevent coronary heart disease

In recent years, health care expenditures have continued to grow around the world, and in 2005, the United States spent$390 billion on cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that walking 2.5 hours a day can reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke by 30%. For metabolic syndrome, the numbers are even more staggering: 91% of type 2 diabetes is associated with an unhealthy lifestyle. Regular exercise is particularly important in reducing cardiovascular events. This is because exercise improves cardiovascular risk factors and vascular endothelial function. Epidemiologic figures show that regular exercise improves the level of glycemic control and slows the progression from abnormal glucose tolerance to diabetes. In addition, regular exercise reduces hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, which in turn improves endothelial function. It is not too late to start exercising even after the onset of significant cardiovascular disease (e.g., acute myocardial infarction). Adherence to exercise significantly improves survival. Exercise intervention reduces mortality in patients with stable angina by one-third. Conventional wisdom suggests that exercise training should be used as adjunctive therapy for coronary artery disease after conventional interventions. This view is unquestionable in patients with acute coronary syndromes; however, the benefit of intervention remains questionable in patients with stable angina, which currently accounts for more than 50% of patients undergoing intervention. Recently, a clinical trial was conducted to compare the efficacy of exercise training with interventional therapy in patients with stable coronary artery disease. Surprisingly, patients in the exercise therapy group had a higher 12-month event-free survival rate compared with the intervention group. This result suggests that the intervention dealt with significantly stenotic lesions, while the atherosclerotic process in the rest of the vessel was still progressing gradually. In contrast, exercise therapy reduces plaque progression, improves endothelial function, increases collateral circulation formation, and reduces the risk of thrombosis throughout the vascular bed. It can be seen that the promotion of physical activity and health education should be placed at the top of the list of prevention of cardiovascular diseases, and more importantly, exercise intervention therapy should start with children, as they are prone to learn unhealthy lifestyles from the adults around them, and we should do our best to keep our children away from unhealthy lifestyles, so that they can have a healthy heart and a happy childhood and even their prime and old age! Life!