A large-scale study has found that being physically fit could significantly lower your chances of developing common heart problems like atrial fibrillation and strokes.
Atrial fibrillation is the most frequent heart rhythm issue, impacting over 40 million people around the world.
The disorder can make you five times more likely to have a stroke. With such alarming numbers, it’s vital to look at ways to prevent it.
The research was presented at the ESC Congress 2023 and involved 15,450 individuals who were put through a treadmill test.
They were tracked for over 11 years to see who developed atrial fibrillation, stroke, heart attacks, or died.
How the Study Worked
People taking part in the study were aged around 55, and most were men. They had to walk on a treadmill that got faster and steeper every three minutes.
This walking test measured how fit they were based on how much energy they used.
The researchers followed these individuals for an average of 137 months, or roughly 11 years. During that time, 515 of them developed atrial fibrillation.
What’s really interesting is that the fitter you were in the treadmill test, the less likely you were to develop this heart problem.
Specifically, for every small increase in fitness, there was an 8% lower risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a 12% lower risk of having a stroke, and a 14% lower risk of facing serious heart-related problems or death.
Participants were sorted into three fitness categories based on their treadmill performance: low, medium, and high fitness.
The study found that those in the medium and high fitness categories had almost the same, very low risk of developing atrial fibrillation over a five-year period—98.4%. Even the low-fitness group had a 97.1% chance of avoiding this heart issue.
What This Means for You
According to Dr. Shih-Hsien Sung, the study’s author from the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taipei, Taiwan, the takeaway is clear: “The findings indicate that keeping fit may help prevent atrial fibrillation and stroke.”
So, if you want to keep your heart healthy and reduce the risk of strokes and other problems, getting regular exercise to improve your physical fitness appears to be a good strategy.
The best part? You don’t have to be an athlete; even moving from a low to medium fitness level can make a significant difference in your health outcomes.
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For more information about health, please see recent studies that exercise in middle age reversed worrisome heart failure, and results showing this drug combo can cut the risk of stroke and heart attack by half.
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