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By the NYT
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Could pumps predict the future and state of a person's heart?
A new JAMA Network Open study suggests that this might be the case. It turns out that men who can withstand 40 tracs in a single exercise session are much less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular problem in later years than men who can do 10 or less. The results suggest that the push-up ability could be a simple, reliable and innovative method of evaluating heart health, while effectively enhancing the triceps and pectorals.
As we all know, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world.
Heart attacks and strokes also result in significant disability, lost work time, and otherwise circumscribed lives and abilities.
But to avoid or treat cardiovascular disease, it must be recognized that they have begun or are on the horizon.
DEAR AND COMPLICATED
However, many medical heart health tests, such as treadmill stress tests or heart scans, are expensive and complicated and can be difficult to interpret.
Many of these tests are typically designed to screen for heart disease after it appears, not to predict the likelihood of it developing.
At the same time, mathematical risk scores badessing information on weight, cholesterol profile, smoking history, and other health-related information are predictive, but general, impersonal, and abstract.
The doctors and the rest of us who rely on our hearts have had a poor ability to badess cardiovascular health and the risk of future problems in a simple, scientifically valid, personalized and visceral way.
This vacuum has recently prompted researchers at Harvard University, Indiana University and other institutions to examine the health and fitness of a group of more than 1,500 firefighters in Indiana.
Firefighters traveled to a single Indiana health clinic each year for a checkup including the standard weight, cholesterol, blood glucose and other health data for each firefighter.
They also performed a submaximal treadmill exercise test that allowed them to estimate their current endurance ability.
The researchers were originally very interested in this last measure. Many previous studies have linked good aerobic fitness with reduced risk of subsequent heart disease, and vice versa.
The researchers thought they might be able to quantify the ability of the treadmill test to predict future heart problems using the firefighter's health information database.
Thus, they gathered information on the results of each man's resistance tests. Few women worked as career firefighters in this group, so only men were included. They also noted cardiovascular problems reported or unresolved by the clinic's physicians within 10 years of each firefighter's first appointment.
The data on heart problems was fairly complete because firefighters needed permission from their doctors to return to work after even minor heart problems.
The researchers plan to compare stress test results with later cardiovascular problems to get an idea of the accuracy of treadmill tests.
Then, almost by chance, the researchers noticed that more than 1,100 firefighters had also pbaded thrust tests during their annual exams. This test was similar: a staff member of the clinic counted the number of tractions that each man could perform before his arms broke or when he reached 80 years old and was told that he could stop to show up and stop.
Because they had push-up data, the researchers incorporated it into their second set of data in their review of current fitness and subsequent heart problems, ranking men by the number of pumps they could perform: from zero to ten; 11 to 20; 21 to 30; 31 to 40; and over 40 years old.
And to their surprise, the push-up ability has proven to be a better predictor, statistically, of future heart problems than treadmill tests.
Men who could do at least 11 pumps were less likely to develop heart problems in the next decade than those who could finish less than 10, they discovered.
This risk reduction has impressively risen to the highest level of push-up capability. Men who could do more than 40 pumps or more were 96% less likely to have heart problems in the next 10 years than those who quit at age 10 or younger.
The results suggest that the push-up ability could be an easy marker to use cardiovascular disease risk, the researchers concluded, at least in men who resemble firefighters.
Of course, this study was observational. This may indicate that more pumps are badociated with fewer heart problems, but not that the strength of the arms directly improves the health of the heart, nor that being able to do more will lower the risk of heart problems over time. Nor can it tell us how the two could be related.
But "muscle strength is one of the elements of good physical fitness," says Dr. Stefanos Kales, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the new study.
Mastering the push-up probably also indicates an interest in a healthy diet, regular exercise and a normal weight, he says, which could help strengthen the hearts.
Better still, the push-up test is simple and only requires the ability to count. If this number were to end before 10 am, you may want to talk to your doctor or athletic trainer about how to improve your fitness and strength and perhaps better protect your heart, says Kales. .
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