Don’t wait until you’re diagnosed with heart problems before prioritising your cardiovascular fitness. While it’s easy to assume that heart problems are limited to people who are overweight or unhealthy, more than 40 per cent of adults with no known heart issues already have some degree of atherosclerosis –a build-up of fatty deposits in blood vessels that supply blood to the heart – according to a new study in the journal Circulation.
The report features data from 25,182 participants with no prior history of heart issues who underwent scans to check their heart health. The researchers found that not only do more of us have heart problems than is often assumed, but men begin to suffer these problems ten years earlier than women. Keep pumping out those cardio sessions, and crank up your daily step count, to ensure your heart isn’t suffering in silence.