With the right dose of exercise, you can turn back the hands of time on your heart, according to doctors at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
In collaboration with Texas Health Resources Dallas, Doctor Benjamin Levine and his team found exercise four to five times a week, over the course of two years, reversed the stiffening of the heart.
Heart stiffness comes with age and leads to heart failure.
"Exercise training when done at the right dose and implemented at the right time in life can actually reverse the effects of decades of sedentary aging and restore the youthful, elastic structure of the heart and blood vessels," says Dr. Levine.
The key though, he says, is to start exercising before the age of 65, when heart damage can't be reversed and anything fewer than four to five days of exercise a week just won't do.
"Two or three days a week over a lifetime had very little benefit. We couldn't detect a benefit at all in fact. At least in terms of the heart structure," says Dr. Levine.
A vibrant heart that has good elasticity is able to pump better, and that means a healthier more functional life.
The study compared moderate aerobic exercise, the kind that gets you breathing heavier without becoming out of breath to those who did weight training or yoga. The study shows that the group that participated in weight training or yoga did not improve their heart function.
"We're not just talking running a race, we're talking about walking your dog, playing with your grandchildren, going out dancing, these are all things that require oxygen," says Dr. Levine.
The study followed people ages 45 to 64 and found that some who had incorporated regular exercise had the heart of a thirty-year-old.
