The cardiovascular system is one of the most important systems in every human body, and it works without rest. Its main functions are to supply the body with oxygen and nutrients and to remove waste products from the metabolism.
How can the cardiovascular system be described?
It is sometimes said that the heart is the engine of the body and that it is the most important part of life support. However, it must be added that the heart is also c...
The cardiovascular system is one of the most important systems in every human body, and it works without rest. Its main functions are to supply the body with oxygen and nutrients and to remove waste products from the metabolism.
How can the cardiovascular system be described?
It is sometimes said that the heart is the engine of the body and that it is the most important part of life support. However, it must be added that the heart is also connected to the vascular network – arteries, veins, smaller blood vessels and even the smallest capillaries. Therefore, the performance of the heart depends to a large extent on the health of the blood vessels that are spread throughout the body, and medical professionals usually do not speak of the heart and blood vessels separately, but of the overall system that connects them. To give you a better idea, each person’s heart, which is the size of his or her fist, is connected to a network of blood vessels, the volume of which corresponds to the height and width of the individual. It is no coincidence that it is said that a bulky and overweight person’s heart and blood vessels have to carry a heavier-than-normal load in order to supply oxygen and nutrients to his body.
What determines cardiovascular health?
Every cell in our body is connected to the cardiovascular system. If the latter system is compromised, every organ is affected, including muscles, bones, skin and even nails and hair. What can we do to keep this system running smoothly?
Many people know that strengthening the heart depends on how we move and eat, how we take care to balance the cardiovascular deficiencies associated with older age, and what we do to strengthen blood vessels that are losing elasticity. For example, doctors always take into account each person’s cholesterol levels and blood pressure, which are among the most important indicators in caring for the cardiovascular system.
If we do not take more active exercise to strengthen our blood vessels, if the body is prone to bad cholesterol, and if we ignore this and still eat plenty and frequently of foods that raise cholesterol levels in the body, strengthening the heart by various means may not have the desired results. This is because excess bad cholesterol and the reduced elasticity of the blood vessels due to lack of exercise will lead to slower blood flow, and the blood vessels will tend to clog up and not pass enough blood.
Doctors cite chest or upper body pain, shortness of breath and light-headedness as some of the main signs of cardiovascular disease. If you don’t take care of your cardiovascular health, you will get more and more problems, and you may be diagnosed by your doctors with one of the cardiovascular diseases – cardiac arrhythmia, heart failure, atherosclerosis or other conditions. In more dangerous cases, you may suffer a heart attack or stroke.
What can I do to keep my cardiovascular system working properly?
What is cardiac strengthening? What behaviours would be beneficial for strengthening the blood vessels? What should we do to prevent further damage to our cardiovascular system, which has started to fail.
There are several simple ways to maintain cardiovascular health. Regular exercise, controlling high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, cutting tobacco use out of our habits, eating heart-healthy foods, maintaining an optimal body weight, and making sure we get enough rest and get enough sleep.
Strengthening the heart and maintaining vascular health requires effort. Unfortunately, nowadays many people around the world have sedentary lifestyles. Americans who move the least sit for an average of 11 hours every day, followed by Europeans with sedentary lifestyles. This is one of the reasons for the dangerous and frightening statistics on cardiovascular disease.
Which exercises are best suited for cardiovascular strengthening?
Two groups of exercises are commonly distinguished. One is interval training.
The basic principle of interval training is to combine intense exercise and muscle recovery by alternating between the two. This rhythm of different activities is maintained during each workout. The entire workout usually lasts about half an hour, with individual activities lasting from a few to tens of seconds. This type of training is recommended at least a couple of times a week, after consultation with a medical professional.
Aerobic exercise is another group of physical activities that can be seen as heart-strengthening. Such exercises increase the heart rate, oxygenate the blood, and activate blood circulation. The most popular activities in this group are walking, running, swimming and cycling.
For good results, it is important to consider not only the type of physical activity, but also the duration. Around 150 minutes of exercise per week is generally recommended – three times a week for 50 minutes or five times a week for half an hour. To reap the benefits, and to build up momentum and strength slowly, 300 minutes of dedicated exercise a week will help to achieve noticeable results – the heart will work harder, which will help it to get stronger, and the blood vessels will get stronger along with the heart.
What factors make you more likely to develop cardiovascular disease?
Many factors contribute to our susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, and not all of them are in our control, such as family history and the genetics that come with it, age or gender. However, by being careful about what we eat, we can control our cholesterol levels, weight and blood pressure. Wise food choices can reduce the risk of stroke, heart attack and peripheral vascular disease, all of which are essentially linked to the blockage or obstruction of certain groups of blood vessels.
One of the risk factors that reduce vascular permeability is cholesterol, which is found in all foods of animal origin such as meat, eggs and milk. Foods high in cholesterol are also high in saturated fat. Therefore, it is recommended to limit animal foods, replace animal fats with vegetable fats, and avoid trans-fats in order to maintain cardiovascular health. Meanwhile, a low-sodium diet can help regulate high blood pressure, which means we should reduce the amount of salt in our diet.
Both cholesterol and high blood pressure can be controlled by eating more fibre-rich foods such as fruit, vegetables, wholemeal bread, pasta or cereals. It should be noted that the principles of a diet suitable for the heart and circulation are most easily found in the Mediterranean diet. It is sometimes seen as the best means of preventing cardiovascular disease. The diet consists mainly of fruit, vegetables, cereals, fish, legumes and nuts.
Living in an urban environment or with a fast-paced life, it can be difficult to make frequent choices of unprocessed foods or to get plenty of fruit and vegetables all year round. In such cases, a range of supplements to strengthen the cardiovascular system may be useful to balance the diet.
