Exercise.
Along with walking, stretching is emerging as a useful support for heart health. A study conducted at the Uni if North Texas & a few Japanese unis, & published in 2009 in the journal Heart & circulatory Physiology, proposes a test that you can easily conduct- but perhaps not easily pass- on your own rug. Sit with your legs stretched out in front of you, feet flexed. Reach forward without bending knees. Can you touch your toes? If you can your cardiac arteries are likely more flexible than those of someone who can’t. Why would that matter? Because supple arteries allow blood to move more freely through the body than do stiff ones, which require the heart to work much harder, possibly leading to greater risk for heart attack or stroke.
The researchers studied 526 healthy adults between the ages of 20 & 83. The participants who did the touch your toes test &, using precise measuring devices, were sorted into groups of high & poor flexibility with their age & gender taken into account. No correlations between artery & body flexibility were found in people under 40, but there was a clear correlation between people with flexible arteries & a flexible body in participants older than 40.Stiff arteries correlated with inflexible bodies. Stiff arteries stress your heart.
Why do stiff muscles have anything to do with stiff heart vessels? Although it’s not totally clear, the guess is that, because heart vessel walls & tissues are made of the same kinds of tissues as muscles in the body, including your back & your legs, the health of one kind of tissue is likely to reflect or correlate with the health of the others. In a small 2008 study university of Texas at Austin, it was accidently discovered that people who stretch could increase the flexibility of their arteries by over 20% in just 13 weeks.
The take home message of these studies seems to be, if you can’t touch your toes, you might want to go to your Dr & determine your chances of heart disease. Here’s another take-home message, which lands the responsibility for heart health more squarely in our corners. If we can’t touch our toes, add stretching or YOGA to our daily or weekly routines. If we can increase flexibility, we may benefit our blood vessels.
Taken from Balance your Hormones, Balance your life DR Claudia Welch, MSOM
