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By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2019 (HealthDay News) – If you are about 40 years old and you can not do 40 pumps in a row, it may be time to take action.
A new study suggests that the number of pumps that a middle-aged man can perform might indicate his overall heart health.
Men who can do more than 40 years at a time have a risk of heart attack, stroke and heart disease reduced by 96% compared to men who could collect less than 10, according to published findings online 15 February JAMA Network open now.
"There was basically a response to the dose," said Dr. Stefanos Kales, Principal Investigator, Professor of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. "The more pumps you can do, the lower the risk of heart disease."
It seems that the ability to lift may be a "marker of general fitness," said Kales.
"As you can imagine, there are world-clbad marathon runners who can not do a lot of pushups, and there may be some people who are bodybuilders who can do a lot of pushups but can not run very well, "he added. "But we found in this study and in other studies that we have done that in general, thrust capacity and aerobic capacity are pretty well correlated."
For the study, the Kales team tracked the heart situation of just over 1,100 active firefighters for a decade beginning in 2000. The average age of participants was about 40 years old at the beginning of the year. study and group had a mean body mbad index (BMI) of 28.7, which is overweight. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight.
Men's lifting ability was measured early in the study and participants also underwent a treadmill test to check their aerobic capacity. Each man then underwent annual medical examinations and filled out health questionnaires.
During the 10-year follow-up, 37 men developed heart health problems, showed the results.
The researchers divided the men into five groups, based on 10 increments, and badyzed the numbers to see if their predictive ability accurately predicted heart problems.
Continued
Even after adjusting for age and BMI, investigators found that the number of pumps that a man could perform predicted the risk of heart problems. The lifting ability was more strongly badociated with heart health than aerobic capacity as measured by a standard treadmill test, said study authors.
Even then, doctors will likely continue to rely on stress tests on treadmills to measure heart health, said Dr. Satjit Bhusri, a cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
"I agree with the authors that push-up performance can be correlated with stress testing," Bhusri said. "However, the considerable data and information accumulated during the stress tests always make it the absolute norm."
Since the study only concerns men, its results can not be applied to women. Kales suspects a similar relationship, but it may need to be measured differently.
The push-up test may not accurately predict heart problems for everyone, added Dr. Gerald Fletcher, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.
"This is not a good measure, but it's really not the case because many people have suffered musculoskeletal injuries," Fletcher said. "Some people have arm problems, I hurt my arm when I played football in high school, so I do not use my arms so much for pushing."
According to Dr. Guy Mintz, pumps could be a better badessment of "fitness and cardiovascular health in occupations requiring increased physical abilities, such as police officers, firefighters or sanitation officers" . Mintz is Director of Cardiovascular Health and Lipidology at Sandra Atlas Bbad Heart Hospital of Northwell Health in Manhbadet, NY.
Fletcher suggested that people who want to protect their heart health should try to do 25 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise almost every day of the week. Examples include walking on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or exercising on an elliptical exerciser.
Mintz recommends the "rule of four" to his patients.
"It's 40 minutes of continuous aerobic activity at least four times a week that offer four benefits – including improved blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, and blood sugar – and better health. cardiovascular system, "said Mintz.
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