Reverse An Aging Heart

Last week we discussed how deconditioning is disguised as aging with a natural loss of muscle mass and strength through the years.
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But aging (deconditioning) impacts our heart and cardiovascular system too. And those symptoms can be less obvious, but even more severe.
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There are microscopic and visual changes that occur to the heart, blood vessels and cells of the body that affect our cardiovascular system negatively year by year. These effects are exacerbated by a sedentary life but fortunately can be reversed (at least to a degree) with cardiovascular training and a healthy diet.
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​Age and Cardiac Changes:
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Most people are aware that they cannot always do what they used to do. They feel winded with tasks that used to be easy or they cannot keep the pace that they once did during a run or outdoor hike. While there are other aspects that factor in like muscle mass and strength, much of this decrease is due to physical changes in the cardiovascular system.

Arteries:​
Naturally, aging results in a stiffening and thickening of the arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood from your heart and deliver it to the tissues in the body. When you are young and healthy, the arteries are flexible and elastic. They expand and recoil easily with each heartbeat. As they thicken and stiffen, the blood flows through them at a higher pressure resulting in other issues systemically.
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​Max Heart Rate:
​As you age, your maximum heart rate is generally lower. Your max heart rate is the number of beats per minute that your heart can beat if you are working at max exertion. For example if you were competing in a race or running for your life, your heart rate will beat faster based on the exertion level. Eventually it peaks and cannot physically pump any faster no matter how hard you run.

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One simple formula for estimating your maximal heart rate is 220 - age. Somebody who is 60 years old would theoretically have a maximal heart rate that is 20 beats per minute less than somebody who is 40. This loss in maximal heart rate plays a role in determining the total amount of blood that your body can pump on demand and can be a limiter of max cardiac performance and VO2 max.
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Heart Chamber Size and Stiffness:
​Your heart has 4 chambers. The 2 on the right are responsible for getting deoxygenated blood to the lungs where it becomes oxygen-rich blood. That oxygen-rich blood flows to the left side of the heart. The left ventricle is the chamber responsible for squeezing this oxygen rich blood to the rest of the body.

Like your blood vessels, when you are young and healthy this chamber is flexible. It can expand easily like a balloon as it fills with blood and contracts aggressively to push blood out to the rest of the body. But over time as it becomes deconditioned you lose flexibility within the chamber.

You can think of this like a rubber band. Fresh out of the package it is pliable and easily stretched. After years of sitting in a drawer it is stiff. When you try to stretch it during use, it barely budges. A deconditioned left ventricle struggles to expand when filling with blood. If the filling capacity is limited, then the amount of blood pumped out with each beat will also be limited. This forces the heart to either pump faster to accomplish the same amount of output (higher resting heart rate) or the overall capacity of exercise is limited (lower VO2 max).
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Along with losing flexibility, the chamber itself loses space. That’s due to the actual heart muscle growing as it works against more pressure throughout the day. This cardiac hypertrophy is a net negative because the thicker the muscle tissue, the less room within the chamber to hold blood. Here you can compare a young healthy heart, to that of an aged or deconditioned heart. The thick walls of the left ventricle and decreased flexibility of the older heart limits the amount of blood the heart can deliver to the body efficiently.
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​Exercise Can Remodel The Heart​
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​Since none of us are getting any younger, most of that isn’t pleasant to read. It’s not good news to know your arteries and heart will stiffen and lose function. If left untreated, eventually the heart struggles to pump out the blood that is coming back. This is called heart failure and is expected to impact nearly 1 in 10 people between ages 65 and 70 in the coming years. This doesn’t account for the increased risks of heart attack, stroke and kidney disease tied directly to poor cardiac health.
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The good thing is your heart has the ability to physically remodel over time with the right stimuli.
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Research consistently supports various forms of cardiovascular exercise help the heart remodel. Certain combinations of continuous low level training + interval training appear to do it best.
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You can improve the size of the heart chambers, the ability to recoil, the pumping capacity and efficiency and the rate at which it beats. The recommended weekly aerobic activity is 150 minutes per week. There are benefits to doing more than that but the reality is for some people, it’s just about getting started. Get off of zero and give your body the opportunity to start remodeling itself.
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Next Friday, we’ll be providing several examples of cardiovascular workout routines for paid subscribers.
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Until then,

Brett Boettcher
Brother2BrotherU
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"How much does it cost to swim with sharks? ... An arm and a leg"
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