Exercise is good for your heart health. The body is always adapting, and the vascular system is no exception. Many of the cells that line your blood vessels require replacement throughout your life. When the balance of cell death and renewal is not maintained, blood vessels show damage and become more stiff.
Unlike the pipes in your home, stiff “pipes” in the body are a bad sign. Instead, you want blood vessels that are more elastic. Their stretchy walls can better accommodate a pulsatile blood flow. This lowers the load on your heart as pumps blood into your arteries.
Arteries are the blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart. They harden with a sedentary lifestyle or with advanced age. When this happens, we call it arteriosclerosis (from the Greek skleros meaning hard). And if stiffer arteries show a lot of plaque deposits, we call it atherosclerosis (from the Greek athero for gruel or paste to describe this plaque).
It’s true that we are more likely to have a cardiovascular accident at older ages, but the signs of stiffness start young! Cardiovascular disease reflects a lifetime of habits, not just an adulthood.
The first signs of these stiffened blood vessels starts in very young individuals. You may be surprised to learn that atherosclerosis was first considered a “pediatric problem” in the 1950s and 1960s when evidence of blood vessel stiffening was documented in infants. We now know that by seven years of age, virtually all children show some very small lesions within blood vessels called fatty streaks. Low levels of physical activity accelerates this damage, causing these fatty streaks to convert into fibrous plaque as we enter our third and fourth decade of life. The amount of damage/stiffening is therefore a risk factor for a cardiovascular medical emergency, as these plaques obstruct blood flow and can rupture over time.
What aerobic exercise promotes is compliant, distensible arteries that reduce the load on the heart. In those with low fitness, the vessels are stiffer. Just as we saw more fatty streaks in sedentary kids, studies also show that stiffer arteries are more common in nine-year-olds who have low fitness. The good news is that you can reverse damage and start to repair your blood vessels, one workout at a time.
How long does it take for your blood vessels to measurably respond? Signs of enhanced blood vessel relaxation appear after your workout, so changes start fast. Artery stiffness can be reversed within weeks to months. For example, a research study found that three months of brisk walking was sufficient to reduce artery stiffness in middle-aged men. And in young men, a six-week study found that regular exercise (3x/week) was sufficient for measurable benefits to artery function. Lastly, several studies confirm that children can reduce artery stiffness by adopting the habit of regular exercise for several months. Aerobic or “cardio” exercise appears to be more reliable at inducing these positive cardiovascular changes than resistance training.
When your tissues are thirsty for oxygen, they send out different signals to make the body adapt. Exercise that increases your breathing rate is a great way to increase these signals. The signals that mean “more oxygen is needed” activates stem cells to repair damaged blood vessels. For instance, a single exercise session could raise the number of circulating stem cells nearly four-fold by the end of the workout!
These changes can happen at any age, though the fitness “ceiling” is higher among younger adults. Exercise is like a health-maintenance signal. If you develop a regular habit of working out, blood vessels will have many repair opportunities and will stave-off stiffness.
If you were looking for a sign that yes, you should follow through with your healthy workout intentions, this is it! You can make progress on your path to a healthier vascular system today. Along with the research that backs the top healthy lifestyle habits, Treo provides members with on-demand fitness classes. Filter hundreds of classes based on the time, equipment, and level of challenge. Let’s connect (info@treowellness.com) to find out how Treo can help you reverse blood vessel stiffening, one workout at a time!
As Treo’s Global Wellness Researcher, Karlie uses recent research findings to support healthier daily habits. Karlie earned her doctorate in Neuroscience and Behavior and bachelors in Health and Exercise Science.
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