Heart Disease, Heart Rate and Type 2 Diabetes

Heart rate when a person is at rest has long been known to be a predictor of heart attacks. In 2005 Professor Xavier Jouven of George Pompidou Hospital in Paris found that the risk of heart attack was four times greater than average in men whose hearts beat faster than 75 times per minute at rest. In 2009 almost identical results were found for over 129,000 women whose medical records were analyzed by Dr. Judith Hsia, a professor at George Washington University School of Medicine. Women with pulse rates of 76 or greater when at rest, had a much higher risk of heart attacks than those with pulse rates of 62 beats per minutes or less.

Type 2 diabetes is also associated with an increased risk of heart disease. According to the American Diabetes Association, adults with diabetes have 2 to 4 times the risk of death from heart disease than people without diabetes. Elevated blood sugar levels damage the blood vessels and alters the blood lipid levels. High triglyceride levels are really common in type 2 diabetics, as are low levels of the protective HDL. As well, hypertension affects almost 60 per cent of individuals with type 2. People who have diabetes are two to four times more likely to develop heart disease or have a stroke than non-diabetics, and three quarters of all diabetics ultimately die from heart disease.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN, USA and the Department of Epidemiology of the Shanghai Cancer Institute in China, looked at resting pulse rates and diabetes. Over 47,000 Chinese women were included in the study. Women with heart rates of 68 beats per minute or less were much less likely to acquire type 2 diabetes in the next 5 years, than were those with heart rates of over 80 beats per minute. Those with intermediate pulse rates had intermediate chances of acquiring type 2. Body mass index (BMI), hip to waist ratio, and blood pressure were also predictors of heart disease. The odds of getting type 2 were highest in women with the highest heart rates combined with highest body mass index, highest waist to hip ratio, or highest blood pressures.

To lower your heart rate, the best thing is aerobic exercise. By this, it is meant activities that make your heartbeat and breathing get faster during exercise. Walking briskly, swimming, and bicycle riding are all good aerobic exercises. Discuss with your doctor the right activities, and level of activity… even type 2 diabetics with very severe heart disease can benefit from some form of regular exercise, modified for their special needs.

Extreme Cardio For Fat Loss in 1 Exercise!

If you are wanting a superior cardio workout to help you to burn the fat then you have got to engage in body weight squats. Now you are probably wondering how this body weight exercise can be structured in such a way as to challenge your cardiovascular system. The fact is that there are several ways to structure body weight squats in order to be an effective cardio fat burning workout.

Body Weight Squats For Fat Loss!

You see body weight squats can be a highly effective and extreme cardio workout depending on what type of squat you are performing. In other words, body squat exercises can be done by executing single leg drills, squat jumps, and even rolling squat exercises. These are all highly effective and very dynamic ways to utilize the body weight squat exercise to be a successful cardiovascular drill.

However, one squat drill that I am very partial to in particular is performing the squats with the ladder structure. This can be done easily and without the need for any bulky gym equipment. For instance, get your hands on some small round objects or markers such as game piece checkers, water bottle caps, or coins. It doesn’t really matter, but just make sure that these small pieces or markers are small enough so that you can hold 10 of them in your hands. From here line up the markers in a straight line with about 8 to 10 inches between them.

To begin this drill simply walk up to the first marker and straddle it by standing with your feet at shoulder width apart in length. From here you are going to perform a proper squat and reach down to pick up the first marker. Now as soon as you pick up the first marker walk up to the second marker and perform a proper squat to reach down and place the first marker back on the ground next to the second marker. Next, squat down again and pick the first marker back up and then squat to pick up the second marker. From here you are going to walk to the third marker to squat one at a time to place the two markers down only to squat one at a time again to pick them back up along with picking the third one up. You see a pattern forming here, right? Keep executing this squats in a continuous manner until you have reached the final marker. After you are finished you will see why this body weight squat drill is such an effective cardio weight loss exercise!

If you haven’t already started to implement body weight squats into your extreme cardio workout program then you are missing out. Take the time to learn more cool tactics like this one by accessing more of my articles on the subject for free. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart!