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When you think of hormone-producing organs, muscles hardly come to mind. And yet, measured by mass, they are the ones that release the most neurotransmitters in the body. There are more than 600 known myokines. They have a positive effect on various bodily functions and on the heart. The best part is that you can increase the release of these messengers through exercise. They are thought to have many positive effects on the cardiovascular system, although the exact mechanisms are often not fully understood.
Muscles work for our health, even when we are asleep. This happens through the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), the calming part of the nervous system. As heart rate and blood pressure drop in people who exercise regularly, sleep becomes more restful – and the body performs better during exercise. So when an athlete exerts himself, the body can get up to speed quickly.
150 minutes of workout per week
In part due to the release of myokines, physicians have adjusted their exercise recommendations in recent years. The current WHO guideline for physical activity recommends 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week. Moderate is when you can feel your pulse, and vigorous is when you start to sweat. A new addition is the recommendation to strengthen all major muscle groups through strength training. This is also positive from a cardiological point of view. In the past, only aerobic exercise was recommended for prevention and rehabilitation of heart disease. Today, moderate resistance and interval training are also recommended. This increases muscle mass and releases more health-promoting messengers.
Exercise also increases the removal of metabolic products from the blood that are harmful to the heart. The cells stimulated by exercise remove more fats and glucose from the blood. This lowers cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Many of these benefits are thought to be due to the breakdown of visceral fat. In overweight people, visceral fat surrounds the organs in the abdominal cavity and causes persistent low-grade inflammation. Excess visceral fat is the first to be broken down during exercise, even before other fat deposits.
More muscle mass, more weight
Reducing visceral fat is critical to reducing the risk of heart disease. However, the commonly used body mass index (BMI) is often inadequate for measuring progress through physical activity. People who start exercising build muscle mass, which is heavier than fat. In some cases, weight may even increase as a result of exercise. However, this weight gain is positive.
A good indicator of visceral fat is waist circumference. It is easy to measure and less dependent on height and weight than BMI. A tape measure is placed around the thickest part of the abdomen: for men, the critical zone starts at 94 centimeters, and above 103 centimeters you are considered too fat. For women, the critical zone starts at 80 centimeters and weight loss is recommended at 88 centimeters.
However, it’s important that people who are less active do not start too abruptly with too high an intensity. You should start slowly and gradually increase the intensity – ideally in consultation with your doctor if you have a pre-existing condition. But even if you are older or ill, it is better to exercise than to do nothing.
How and where exercise is beneficial
Heart
Exercise trains the heart muscle – those who exercise regularly are able to pump more blood per heartbeat. A trained heart delivers oxygen-rich blood to the body in fewer beats than an untrained one. This is why the resting heart rate is lower in people who exercise. This so-called athlete’s heart can be enlarged, but this does not mean a risk of heart disease. This is not the case with high blood pressure and heart failure: the heart has to work harder to supply the body, which can lead to pathological enlargement. Exercise helps prevent these dangerous conditions.
Veins
Unlike the arteries, which have a muscular layer, the vessels that carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart do not. The leg veins benefit in particular from the activation of skeletal muscles, for example in the calves. When these muscles are contracted, they compress the veins, similar to the effect of compression stockings. Thanks to this muscle pump, the blood reaches the heart more quickly. The heart is relieved: It has to pump less often because there is less blood pooling in the legs.
Nervous system
People often feel more relaxed after exercising – mentally as well. Exercise activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the part of the nervous system that has a calming effect. This happens, for example, when the release of activating neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine decreases after exercise. This affects the heartbeat, which slows down. Blood pressure also drops at rest. In addition, neurotransmitters are thought to be released that have a direct positive effect on the psyche. Studies show that psychotherapy combined with exercise is more successful in treating depression than exercise alone.
Visceral fat
A distinction is made between the fat under the skin and the fat surrounding the organs in the abdominal cavity. The latter, visceral fat, is considered to be particularly harmful because it constantly releases messenger substances that are thought to be responsible for, among other things, blocking blood vessels. High levels of visceral fat increase the risk of heart attack. Exercise reduces this fat and its harmful effects better than a diet.
Arteries
The palpable pulse is caused by the pressure wave that the heartbeat creates in the arteries. This stretches the vessel walls, which contain a layer of muscle. This happens more in athletes because the heart pumps more blood at once during exercise. This stretching keeps the vessels in shape. The muscles in the artery walls are trained to narrow or widen the vessels as needed. This makes it harder for harmful deposits to build up. Chemical messengers released by the muscles are also thought to play a role.
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