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Exercise and Arterial Stiffness
(Wednesday December 30 2009)
 | The list of specific age-related changes slowed by exercise continues to grow: "Just three months of physical activity reaps heart health benefits for [adults between the ages of 65 to 83] with type 2 diabetes by improving the elasticity in their arteries - reducing risk of heart disease and stroke ... An improvement was seen in the elasticity of the arteries of the group that performed the activity compared to those who didn't exercise. ... There was an impressive drop in arterial stiffness after just three months of exercise. In that time we saw a 15 to 20 per cent reduction. ... There seems to be a knee-jerk reluctance to getting these older adults to exercise yet we used a vigorous level of activity and didn't have any trouble keeping participants in our study. They enjoyed the activity. People always underestimate what older adults can do. ... Our first step was to prove that it was at all possible for older adults to have reduced narrowing in their arteries due to exercise. Now we want to find out just how rigorous the levels of activity need to be to demonstrate the same results." |
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