The Physically Fit Aren’t Exempt From Heart Disease

Or from a stroke even, for that matter.

Many of us do have the impression that regular exercise does help in reducing our risk of developing heart disease or strokes. 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, and that’s because many of us will build up atherosclerotic plaques as we age.

We have previously looked at 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):

So while being physically fit is a desirable quality that we all would wish to keep, let us not be trapped under the illusion that it is the sole criterion to reduce our risk of developing heart disease/heart attacks.

The ability to regulate the inflammatory response is key, and it transcends just physical activity. We can look at retired professional athletes — they, in their primes, are much fitter than any of us. I’d look like a slob compared to LeBron James, for instance.

But even LeBron James isn’t immune to the effects of oxidative stress/aging/inflammation — look at his development of white hair, or the evidence of reactive oxygen species triggering off oxidative stress/inflammatory responses as he gets older:

It doesn’t mean that he has become less fit. He’s still playing at an extremely competitive level on the professional basketball scene. Much better than I ever could play basketball myself. But it also means that he can be at risk of developing a dysfunctional immune system if he becomes less disciplined in his lifestyle after he retires from the NBA.

Nobody’s entirely immune from heart disease or strokes. They may know how to regulate their chances better with their lifestyle choices, but it does take a major balancing act to get one’s lifestyle at an optimal level.

So we do have to be careful right there. The fit athletes aren’t exempt from heart disease. Neither are the 50 year olds who keep themselves in great shape with disciplined exercise regimes. What an exercise regime can do is that it masks the inconsistencies in other aspects of our lifestyle — and that can be potentially dangerous for us any day!

After all, it does take an efficient efferocytosis process to actually start shrinking plaques:

Do feel free to refer to 10 Nutrients That Support A Healthy Heart to see how our diet can influence how our hearts can stay healthy or otherwise!

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