Heart: How does ageing affect you

The human body renews all the time. This has been my theme for over a decade.

But despite that, we do age. How does ageing affect the heart and can you do something?

Let us start with the basics.

Your heart pumps roughly five litres of blood all day. Sending blood everywhere is essential to deliver oxygen. The heart does whatever it takes to ensure that.

Which is where ageing comes into play.

As we get older, myocytes in our heart become weaker. Myocytes are the smallest unit in our muscles.

They help in the contraction of the muscles, creating the pumping action of our heart, for example.

Weakening of the heart muscles reduces the capacity of the heart to pump. You experience this as an increase in blood pressure and an increased heartbeat.

Next, our arteries stiffen with age. You are born with remarkable pliable arteries.

Pliability, in this case, implies that your arteries will open (widen) in case required. Widening of your arteries allows blood to flow without increasing blood pressure.

When your arteries harden, it increases your blood pressure.

All of this has an effect on the available amount of oxygen for your body to uptake.

This is measured by a term known as VO2Max, the maximum amount of oxygen you can make available at any given point in time. Yes, your VO2Max starts to fall with age.

So what can you do?

The best advice is to live a really active life. Activity, for most of us, conjures up images of a gym membership, lifting heavy weigths or climbing mountains.

In fact, slow steady walking or cycling for long durations, on a regular basis is far more valuable. Just keep moving.

Climb stairs, walk when you can, do your conference calls on a treadmill or cycle or even pacing up and down the hall.

Just keep moving. That is the magic secret to good heart health.

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain

Read more

Alzhiemer's: Can an ultrasound cure you?

Alzheimers is a condition where your memory, speech, and physical movement is impaired. Can ultrasound waves help restore some of the capacity? Before we understand that, let us first examine why we develop Alzheimers. There is more than one theory, but the popularly accepted version is that amyloid-β builds up

Morning or Evening: When should you exercise?

How Time of Day Affects Exercise Your body's natural rhythms play a big role in how effective your workouts are. Timing your exercise to align with these rhythms can make a noticeable difference. Daily Body Temperature Changes Your core body temperature fluctuates throughout the day, directly affecting your

Blue Veins: Why are you getting them?

Do you have blue veins popping all over your body? Hands and feet? Have you ever wondered why on earth are your veins blue? If you have, let us dig in and find out. For starters, let’s rule out royal lineage. Even royalty has red blood like you and

POTS: high heart rate without explanation

Are you someone who has low blood pressure and a high heart rate? Your heart races as soon as you stand or attempt to exercise? If you are, you could have POTS or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. What is POTS? POTS is a condition where your autonomic nervous system struggles