Heart Rate Archives - Amazing Health Advances

New Study Confirms Rope Skipping as an Effective Cardio Workout

The AHA! Team — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 06:25:31 +0000

Dr. Priyom Bose, Ph.D. via News-Medical – Researchers find both high-intensity and moderate rope skipping improve VO₂max in young adults. A recent European Journal of Clinical Nutrition study investigates whether high-intensity interval exercise HIIE and moderate-intensity continuous exercise (MICE) using rope skipping improve cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and body composition. The importance of physical activity for good health Physical inactivity increases the risk of numerous non-communicable diseases (NCDs), some of which include type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, certain cancers, and all-cause mortality. Current physical activity guidelines recommend that adults engage in 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity every week to achieve health benefits. Low adherence to these guidelines increases the risk of NCDs among the global population. CRF is defined as the ability of the circulatory, respiratory, and muscular systems to supply oxygen during sustained physical activity. Low CRF reflects an inactive lifestyle, which increases the risk of mortality and chronic conditions in both general and clinical populations. Both continuous and interval-based moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity improves CRF. Rope skipping is an ideal home-based, moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic exercise that can be accessible to a wide range of socioeconomic groups due to its low cost and minimal required space. Despite these advantages, researchers have reported poor adherence to moderate-intensity interval rope skipping. Thus, there is a need to develop strategies to improve adherence to and maximize the health benefits of rope skipping. Recent studies highlight HIIE as an effective exercise strategy with significant benefits for CRF and weight management. This strategy involves repetitive rounds of high-intensity and submaximal exercise achieving greater than or equal to 80% of the maximum heart rate (HRmax) alternated with short recovery periods. Typically, HIIE sessions last less than 30 minutes. Importantly, most studies reporting the benefits of HIIE have been conducted under controlled laboratory conditions, which may not reflect the real-world scenario. About the study The current randomized control trial was conducted at the Faculty of Education, Chulalongkorn University in Thailand between April 4, 2022, and June 30, 2022. Young adults between 18 and 34 years of age who failed to meet the physical activity guidelines for at least three months were included in the trial. Individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 25 kg/m² were selected, whereas those with a history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and smoking were excluded from the analysis. Study participants were randomly assigned to either the control, HIIE, or MICE group. All study participants received training to ensure they could perform rope skipping at the required intensity. At baseline, height and body mass measurements were obtained through a stadiometer and bioelectrical impedance analysis scale, respectively. Resting blood pressure, CRF, and body composition were also measured. HIIE group participants performed seven sets of two-minute rope-skipping at 80% HRmax, with one minute of active recovery at 50% HRmax, for a total of three sessions every week over one to two weeks. In the next three to eight weeks, study participants completed nine sets of two-minute rope-skipping at similar intensity and recovery intervals with a frequency of three sessions each week. During the first and second week of the study period, the MICE group performed 20 minutes of rope skipping at 70% HRmax during each session for five days every week. For the next three to eight weeks, MICE participants increased the duration of their exercise to 30-minute sessions at the same intensity and weekly frequency. Those in the control group were not subjected to any specific interventions. After completing the exercise, CRF and body composition measurements were obtained. Rope skipping improves CRF A total of 59 study participants completed all required testing. At baseline, no significant differences were observed between the test groups. In the HIIE group, an average heart rate of 156 and 120.1 beats/minute was recorded during the work and rest intervals, respectively. Comparatively, the average heart rate in the MICE was about 136 beats/minute. After the eight-week intervention, both the MICE and HIIE groups exhibited similar CRF, with a maximal oxygen consumption (V̇O2max) of approximately 10.5%. The post-hoc analysis revealed significantly higher V̇O2max in both MICE and HIIE groups as compared to the control group. No significant differences in body composition and BMI were observed in the control and exercise groups after the intervention. Likewise, no significant differences in enjoyment were observed within or between exercise groups after the intervention period. Conclusions Rope skipping in both the MICE or HIIE format effectively enhanced CRF and provided comparable levels of enjoyment in healthy young adults. These findings indicate that rope skipping could be adopted as an alternative for HIIE due to its low cost, as well as its minimal equipment and space requirements. Journal reference: Phongchin, W., Tinsabhat, S., Trongjitpituk, R., et al. (2025) Effects of high-intensity interval rope-skipping on cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition, and enjoyment in young adults. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition; 1-6. doi:10.1038/s41430-025-01575-4 To read the original article click here.

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New Light-Based Technique Could Transform Heart Tissue Repair

The AHA! Team — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 06:41:38 +0000

Mass General Brigham via News-Medical – Researchers from Mass General Brigham and collaborating institutions have developed a non-invasive approach to manipulate cardiac tissue activity by using light to stimulate an innovative ink incorporated into bioprinted tissue. Researchers from Mass General Brigham and collaborating institutions have developed a non-invasive approach to manipulate cardiac tissue activity by using light to stimulate an innovative ink incorporated into bioprinted tissue. Their goal is to develop a technique that can be used to repair the heart. Their findings in preclinical models, published in Science Advances, show the transformative potential of non-invasive therapeutic methods to control electrically active tissues. “We showed for the first time that with this optoelectronically active ink, we can print scaffolds that allow remote control of engineered heart tissues. This approach paves the way for non-invasive light stimulation, tissue regeneration, and host integration capabilities in cardiac therapy and beyond.” – Y. Shrike Zhang, PhD, co-corresponding author of the Division of Engineering in Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Three-dimensional bioprinted tissues composed of cells and other body-compatible materials are a powerful emerging tool to repair damaged heart tissue. But most bioprinted tissues cannot generate the necessary electrical activity for cellular function. They must instead rely on invasive wire and electrode placement to control heart activity, which can damage body tissues. Zhang and his colleagues addressed this limitation by infusing the bioprinted tissue with the “optoelectronically active” ink that can be remotely stimulated by light to generate electrical activity in these tissues. The authors also showed that these new, dynamic engineered tissues can synchronize with and accelerate the heart rate when stimulated by light in preclinical models. “Now that we have established the proof-of-concept for this technology, we are shifting our efforts towards understanding how it might promote long-term tissue regeneration and integrating it seamlessly within the heart’s biology,” said Zhang. Source: Mass General Brigham Journal reference: Ershad, F., et al. (2025) Bioprinted optoelectronically active cardiac tissues. Science Advances. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adt7210. To read the original article click here.

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Worrying About Your Heart Increases Risk for Mental Health Disorders

AHA Publisher — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 07:00:47 +0000

University of Houston via Newswise – For coffee drinkers, a common scenario might involve drinking an extra cup only to end up with a racing heart and a subtle reminder to themselves to cut down the caffeine. But for those who have a different thinking pattern, one that includes heart-focused anxiety, the racing heart might conclude with the fear of a heart attack and a trip to the emergency room. It turns out young Latinx adults who experience heart-focused anxiety could be at greater risk for mental health disorders. “We have empirical evidence that individual differences in heart-focused anxiety are related to more severe co-occurring anxiety and depressive symptomatology among a particularly at-risk segment of the Latinx population,” reports Michael Zvolensky, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor of psychology at the University of Houston, in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. The population segment to which Zvolensky refers is Latinx young adults with previous trauma who were born in the United States. Their trauma might include racism related and transgenerational stress. This is only the second study on heart-related anxiety in the Latinx community, both conducted by Zvolensky. “In our first study, we assessed middle aged adults, presumably more concerned about their health. This study is unique, however, because even among a group generally too young to experience mounting health concerns, we are seeing a similar pattern, which tells us it’s probably relevant to the whole Latinx population,” said Zvolensky. According to previous research, the Latinx population can somaticize mental health problems, meaning they don’t view them as mental health issues, but rather turn them into physical symptoms and report them as such. As examples, anxiety might be reported as a headache or a problem with breathing. “This population also struggles with a lot of chronic physical health co-morbidities including heart disease and obesity, so this research is a good fit for a population who tends to blame mental health issues on physical ailments, which generates greater mental health risk,” said Zvolensky, who is also director of the Anxiety and Health Research Laboratory/Substance Use Treatment Clinic at UH. To make matters worse, treatment for mental health conditions among Latinx populations is often limited or nonexistent. “Latinx persons underutilize mental health services compared to non-Latinx whites and are more likely to use primary care for the delivery of mental health services which are often inadequate for successfully addressing mental health problems,” said Zvolensky, who created and assessed reports from 169 college aged, Latinx college students who had been exposed to trauma. “Results indicated that heart-focused anxiety was a statistically significant predictor for general depression and overall anxiety,” said Zvolensky. Clinically, the results of the study could ultimately guide the development of specialized intervention strategies. “We can screen for heart-focused anxiety and that’s much more efficient and precise than screening for a whole range of mental health problems,” said Zvolensky. “If you reduce heart-focused anxiety, you do that person a great service because you’re likely decreasing their risk for a whole range of mental health problems. And that’s called precision medicine.” To read the original article click here.

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Science-Backed Benefits of Forest Walking That Will Surprise You

AHA Publisher — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 07:00:04 +0000

Karen Sanders via NaturalHealth365 – There is strong scientific evidence coming out of Japan about the anticancer effects of shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. In fact, according to Dr. Qing Li – one of the world’s foremost experts on shinrin-yoku, forest walking may prevent chronic illnesses like cancer, reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and stress hormones. Chronic stress slowly kills. Environmental toxins like car fumes and industrial wastes, processed foods, and EMF pollution increase our cortisol levels and the risk for disease. Bottom line, most people in modern society are stressed out and need to relax – much more. A Growing Body of Evidence Supports the Idea of Getting Out in Nature May Just Be What You Need There’s simply no debate – forest bathing provides a natural environment of grass, trees, and fresh air – which can literally bring you back to life. Thankfully, there is mounting scientific data to prove that being in contact with nature is good for us physically, emotionally, and mentally. Naturally, it is widely thought that leaving the noise and stress of everyday life and spending more time in nature is good for us. Researchers have now been putting this understanding to the test. Unfortunately, only until recently, the practice of walking in the woods was never really investigated using laboratory equipment. Medical Studies Prove Forest Walking Offers Multiple Health Benefits The studies which began in Japan sought to find the physiological impact of forest bathing. Dr. Li, an associate professor at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo and current president of the Japanese Society of Forest Medicine, has conducted experiments to test forest bathing on human health. The studies found favorable effects on mood, stress level, and immune function. The scientists in Japan back up the work done by Boris Tokin, a Russian researcher, who discovered trees and other plants actually release chemicals called phytoncides. This chemical protects plants from harmful pathogens and can offer significant health benefits to humans. How Does Forest Walking Reduce Cancer Risk? The profile of the Mood States test showed that forest bathing trips significantly increased vigor in test subjects – while decreasing anxiety, depression, and anger. This factor alone was shown to decrease the risk of stress-related diseases like heart disease and cancer. The studies on immune system function showed an increase in the activity of natural killer (NK) cells – a component of the immune system in charge of preventing cancer. Wouldn’t it be nice if every (conventionally-trained) oncologist talked to their patients about this? Here Is One of the Best Studies to Date In one particular study, subjects experienced a 3-day/2-night trip to three different Japanese forests. Prior to the forest visit, the same subjects participated in a city tourist visit – consisting of a 3-day/2-night trip to Nagoya city, which had very few trees. The class of hotel and the lifestyle of the subjects during the stays in the hotels were the same for the city and forest trips. The walking courses of both trips were 2.5 km. Interestingly, the city tourist visit did not increase participants’ natural killer cell activity or the expression of selected intracellular perforin (more about this in a moment). These findings showed that forest bathing trips did increase natural killer cell activity, the number of NK cells, and the levels of perforin. You may be wondering – what is perforin? It’s actually a protein, known for breaking into cells that have been taken over by a virus or turned into a cancerous cell and allowing toxic enzymes in. This process destroys the cell from within. But, without this protein, the immune system can’t destroy rogue cells. Breathing in This Unique Chemical Compound May Be Responsible for Anticancer Effect Dr. Li attributes the increase in NK activity partly to breathing in air containing phytoncide – an essential oil from the wood – like α-pinene and limonene, which are antimicrobial volatile organic compounds emitted from trees to protect them from rotting and insects. By the way, phytoncides are natural preservatives and fungicides, classified as antimicrobial volatile organic compounds, and can also be used as essential oils in aromatherapy. These phytoncides induce NK cell activity, which kills tumor cells by releasing anticancer proteins. In fact, it’s been shown that ‘forest bathers’ have increased this activity by 50%. So, it makes sense, living in heavily forested areas is associated with a decreased risk of early mortality and cancer. For example, researchers compiled data from several major cities in Japan and found that populations that lived in areas with more trees had a decreased rate of several different types of cancer. Forest Walking Offers Immediate POSITIVE Results Walking in a forest or park strengthens your white blood cells, lowers your heart rate, reduces blood pressure and decreases the stress hormone – cortisol. By breathing in the aroma of the plants – we are saturating our body with chemicals known for their ability to prevent infections, viruses, and cancer. So, remember, the next time you’re in the forest – hug a tree and take a deep breath, because it may just save your life. Sources for this article: NIH.gov ScienceDaily.com hphpcentral.com smh.com.au To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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The Best Food for Slowing Your Resting Heart Rate

The AHA! Team — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 07:00:00 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – Exercise is only one way to drop our heart rate, though. The way to our heart may also be through our stomach. What if instead of three months of exercise, we did three months of beans, like a cup a day of beans, chickpeas, or lentils? Monitoring resting heart rate has strong advantages. Taking your pulse is cheap, takes little time, is understandable to people, and is something everyone can do at home to measure their progress to become an active participant in their own health management. “The accumulated weight of evidence linking elevated [resting] heart rate to cardiovascular and all-cause mortality”â€”that is, to a shortened lifespanâ€””even in apparently healthy individuals, makes a strong case for it to be considered in the assessment of cardiovascular risk.” Every ten-beat-per-minute increase is associated with a 10 to 20 percent increase in the risk of premature death. “There seems to be a continuous increase in risk with increasing heart rate,” at least for values above a beat a second. So, we can simply look at our watch or the timer on our smartphone, and, if our heart is beating faster than the seconds going by, especially when we’re sitting quietly, then we have to do something about it. This is particularly important when we start getting up to around 80 or 90 beats per minute. As I discuss in my video Slow Your Beating Heart: Beans vs. Exercise, men with no apparent evidence of heart disease who have a pulse of 90 may have five times higher risk of sudden cardiac death compared to those in the safety zone. To put it bluntly, their first symptom is their last. Indeed, resting heart rates around 90 beats per minute increase heart disease risk at a level similar to smoking. If you ask most doctors, though, 90 is considered normal: The accepted limits of heart rate have long been set at 60 to 100 beats per minute. Where did that range come from? It was adopted as a matter of convenience simply based on the scale of the squares on EKG paper. It was an historical accident like the QWERTY keyboard that just became the norm. A heart rate of 60 to 100 doesn’t even represent the bell curve. A group of cardiologists measured the heart rate of 500 people and concluded that 45 to 95 beats per minute was a better definition of normal, rounding to 50 to 90, which a survey of leading cardiologists concurred with. Now, we know that normal doesn’t necessarily mean optimal, but doctors shouldn’t be telling people with heart rates in the 50s that their heart rate is too low. In fact, these people may be right where they should be. Certainly, a “heart rate higher than 80 beats per minute should ring an alarm bell,” but what can we do about it? Exercise is one obvious possibility. Ironically, we make our heart go faster so, the rest of the time, it beats slower. “The public health benefits of physical exercise, especially for [heart] protection, are widely accepted.â€¦Among the many biological mechanisms proposed to account for this risk-reducing effect is autonomic nervous system regulation of the heart”â€”that is, our brain’s ability to slow down the resting beat of our heart. If you put people through a 12-week aerobic conditioning program of cycling, StairMaster, and running on a treadmill, their resting heart rate can drop from around 69 to about 66â€”about a three-beat-per-minute drop. Of course, they have to keep it up. Stop exercising and resting heart rate goes right back up. Exercise is only one way to drop our heart rate, though. The way to our heart may also be through our stomach. What if instead of three months of exercise, we did three months of beans, like a cup a day of beans, chickpeas, or lentils? The first randomized controlled trial of beans for the treatment of diabetes showed they did indeed successfully improve blood sugar control, dropping subjects’ average A1C level from 7.4 to 6.9. This study was “also the first to assess the effect of bean consumption on heart rate and indeed one of the few to determine the effect [on heart rate] of any dietary intervention.” This is particularly important in diabetics, since having a higher resting heart rate not only increases their risk of death as it does for everybody, but it also appears to predict greater risk of diabetic complications, such as damage to the nerves and eyes. So, how did beans do in the study? They produced a 3.4 beat drop in heart rateâ€”just as much as the 250 hours on a treadmill. We’re not sure why beans are as powerful as exercise in bringing down one’s resting heart rate. “In addition to the potential direct beneficial effects of vegetable protein and fiber”â€”all the good stuff in legumesâ€””there is also the potential displacement value of vegetable protein foods in reducing animal protein foods, which are higher in saturated fat and cholesterol.” Regardless, we should consider eating pulses for our pulse. This article has been modified. To read the original article click here. For more articles by Dr. Greger click here.

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