The Physically Fit Aren’t Exempt From Heart Disease

But being physically fit does provide an illusion that the risk of developing heart disease is lowered. Which is a pretty bad illusion to live under.

Many of us do have the impression that regular exercise does help in reducing our risk of developing heart disease. But yet we do see cases where seemingly fit people do end up collapsing and dying of heart attacks when they’re out on yet another strenuous workout.

Which begs the question of why that actually happens.

Unfortunately, while exercise does help our immune systems to regulate the inflammatory response in a positive manner, we’d find that it isn’t the sole controller.

It does take a delicate balancing act to bring about a harmony between exercise, sleep quality, stress management and diet. Especially when inflammation is a complex immune response that relies on multiple different signalling biochemicals:

Because what that means is that increasing the level of physical activity cannot completely compensate for elevated stress or poor sleep quality, for that matter. It gives one the illusion that they are able to cover over the wrinkles, but that doesn’t really happen completely.

So the problem is that one’s inflammation response may be aided by their commitment to exercise… and then destroyed by their choices to drink/smoke/eat unhealthy.

But they can remain under the illusion that they’re healthy.

Even worse, though, intense long exercises can increase the concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the blood.

So if I weren’t careful about all these facets of my lifestyle, a hard long workout may actually be more damaging to me.

Why?

Because many of us will build up atherosclerotic plaques as we age.

And I have discussed how our immune system’s macrophage cells are able to provide enzymes that can digest away the collagen caps that cover off an atherosclerotic plaque — more so in pro-inflammatory environments (plus they themselves will amplify the inflammatory response):