How swimming can prevent heart disease

If you are concerned about your heart then regular swimming can help to guard against heart disease. To explain how, lets first look at heart disease.

The term usually used to describe heart disease is cardiovascular disease (CVD). It doesn’t refer to a single condition or illness. It is a more general term, representing all kinds of conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels.

Physical activity

Maintaining a physically active lifestyle can decrease the risk of all kinds of CVD. This includes stroke, coronary heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Being physically active can decrease the chances of a stroke by 31%. Just doing an hour of moderate physical activity each day can decrease the risk of CVD by 20%.

High blood pressure and cholesterol

High blood pressure is another huge problem among people who do not exercise regularly. Adults who don’t do any physical exercise are three times more likely to suffer from high blood pressure.

Cholesterol is another word that is often used in relation to heart disease. It is an essential fatty substance found in the blood that helps the body to function normally.

Having a high level of cholesterol can lead to all sorts of other serious health conditions. This includes narrowing the arteries, heart attacks, strokes and mini-strokes.

How swimming can prevent heart disease

So, now we know the issue behind CVD, this is how swimming can prevent heart disease.

  1. Swimming for half an hour a minimum of three times a week can significantly lower blood pressure levels.
  2. It helps you maintain control over your cholesterol levels. The fat burning properties of swimming for 30 minutes increases your chances of reducing dangerous cholesterol like Very Low Density and Low Density Lipoproteins. These can cause high cholesterol levels in the blood.
  3. Swimming boosts your metabolism. 30 minutes in the pool is worth 45 minutes of land based exercise. It also raises good cholesterol levels too!

For more about heart disease, its causes and preventions head over to the NHS website here.

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