When it comes to workouts, more is better for your heart

Washington DC: A new research has revealed that doing higher level of physical activity lowers the risk of developing heart failure rather than just following the US physical activity guidelines recommendation.

The research led by American Heart Association explained that the current US physical activity guidelines recommendation of a minimum of at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a week was associated with only a modest reduction in heart failure risk, whereas increasing twice the minimum recommended dose helps to reduce the risk of heart failure.

The researchers explained that heart failure occurs when the heart is not able to supply adequate amounts of blood to the rest of the body and is characterized by shortness of breath and a reduced ability to exercise.

Jarett D Berry, senior author of the study, said that walking 30 minutes a day as recommended in the US physical activity guidelines, might not be enough for healthy heart, so one should do more physical activity to reduce the risk of heart failure.

The study noted that decreasing heart problems with increasing physical activity was consistent across all age, sex, race, and geographic location based subgroups studied.

The research is published in Circulation journal.