The Wall Street Journal published an article about how to reduce the risk of a heart attack entitled “The Guide to Beating a Heart Attack”. It’s well known that most of the risk of a heart attack is associated with factors that are within a person’s control, including cholesterol, blood pressure, physical activity, smoking and diet. The decisions you make with regards to what you eat and and do and medicine you take can trump your genetic disposition, which plays a part in about half of cardiac arrests.
10 Minutes of Exercise Reduces Heart Attack Risk by 50%
The eye opener of this article is its exercise recommendations. Most of us don’t exercise enough – or at all – because we can’t find the time to get in the recommended 30 minutes a day, which can reduce your risk of heart attack by 70%. The surprising news is that a study by the Mayo Clinic found that only 10 minutes a day of exercise will reduce the risk of a heart attack by 50%.
Everyone can find 10 minutes in even the busiest day for a short walk.
While researchers say that 30 minutes of exercise a day should be your goal, even a small amount of daily exercise, as simple as a 10 minute walk, can reduce the risk of a heart attack.
Read the entire article in the Wall Street Journal here.
(Photo: A Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from Asela Jayarathne‘s photo stream)
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As a computer programmer, I was particularly struck by the statement that “for people who sit most of the day, their risk of heart attack is about the same as smoking.” Today looks like a nice day to go out roller blading!