Weight, Waistlines and Heart Disease

Having a baby changes can change your life irrevocably. The long quiet and peaceful days are now long gone and in its stead you have commotion, confusion and long, sleepless nights. Ask any new mother how she feels and she is likely to say she loves being a mum despite everything. However if there is one thing any mum wishes she could change it is the excess pounds that pile on during her pregnancy. Worse still, with all the juggling around of baby, job and house work, a mum can find that she is almost always short of time and typically the one to suffer the consequences of the neglect is the mum herself. Most mothers feel guilty about taking time off so they can go to the gym or join an exercise class.

The problem is, going about with all that excess weight is definitely not good for the heart. The more overweight you are, the higher the risk for cardiovascular disease. Being overweight also increases your blood cholesterol levels as well as your triglyceride levels.

Extensive studies have been done to determine the relationship between the waist and the heart. These studies have shown beyond an iota of doubt that people with larger waistlines are at increased risk of having heart-related problems.

Reducing your overall body weight with special emphasis on reducing your waist size can reduce your health risk considerably. One of the best ways to lose weight is by engaging in regular physical exercise. It is important to get into the habit of exercising regularly, as it not only helps you attain a fabulous looking body, but exercise has been proven to also keep your heart healthy. Statistics prove that people who exercise on a regular basis have 50 percent lesser risk of having chest pain or a heart attack. Individuals who exercise regularly have a longer lifespan, even if they are in a habit of smoking. May be they can live longer than a nonsmoker who does not exercise at all!

Regular exercise has many other benefits for the health of your heart. First and foremost, exercise helps you lose excess weight and also helps you maintain low weight. Exercise also helps in lowering cholesterol levels in the body and maintaining normal blood pressure. Your blood vessels in the heart stay healthy with regular exercise.

Regular exercise also helps reduce blood pressure and heart rate, which results in a reduced strain on the heart thus keeping the heart healthy for a longer time. If you are already suffering from any form of cardiovascular disease, with regular exercise you can maintain normal heart rhythm, which will also expand the smaller blood vessels, helping to regularize blood flow to various parts of the body.