Warning Signs of a Heart Attack or Stroke in Walking

Over the years, I've lost walking friends due to heart attacks, some of them even while they were walking. While walking and other moderate intensity exercise can reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke, it is only a reduction, not an elimination of risk.

It is critically important for walkers of every age to know the warning signs of a heart attack or stroke and get immediate medical attention.

The biggest challenge is to overcome your embarrassment. Nobody wants to be labeled a hypochondriac. Men seem especially loathe to get check-ups and work-ups for heart disease.

At the very least, if you know the symptoms and how to perform CPR and use an AED, you may be able to get a friend or loved one to seek medical care before it is too late.

Stop walking and seek immediate care if you have any of these:

* Tightness in your chest and possibly extending into your left arm or neck.
* Palpitations
* Chest pain or pain in your arms or jaw, often on the left side
* Wheezing, coughing, or other difficulty in breathing.
* Severe shortness of breath
* Dizziness, faintness or feeling sick to your stomach
* Excessive perspiration
* Cramps, severe pain or muscle aches
* Severe, prolonged fatigue or exhaustion after exercise.
* Nausea.

Seconds count when you are having a heart attack.

* Immediately call 911 or the other emegency number for your area to bring an ambulance with a defibrillator. Swiftly getting a unit to you is the single most important factor in surviving the heart attack. Seconds count.

* AED (automatic external defibrillator): These are simple portable defibrillators with simple instructions on the unit which anyone may use. Programs are underway to stock them in all public places. Many malls and fast food restaurants, as well as police and fire units will have them. Current Red Cross CPR classes will cover how to use them. If your distress happens in or near a mall, have someone ask for the AED.

* Does it happen? Yes, in 1999 I was at two walking events where friends had heart attacks. These shocking events are a reminder to all of us to be trained in CPR and to know where the nearest phone is to call 911.

* Summon help from those around you. Better to risk embarrassment than to die.


Normal signs of exertion

* Increased heart rate, you may feel or hear your heart beat.
* Increased breathing rate, but should be able to carry on a conversation.
* Mild to moderate sweating.
* Muscle aches and tenderness that might last a day or two as you get started.


P.S. protect your heart. Eat Vitamin C and Vitamin D rich foods.



source

Dust Off That Treadmill - Walk For a Healthy Heart

So We all know walking is really, really a good exercise, right? It's good for our hearts, it's good for our other muscles (of which the heart is the most important one), and it just plain helps with overall fitness.

The problem is, we have lots of excuses when it comes to not taking our walk today. It's raining, it's snowing, whatever. Well, now, you have no more excuses. Why?

Break out that dusty old treadmill that's been sitting in the basement for the last 10 years. You probably have one, and if you don't, you can get one very inexpensively on eBay or even buy one new pretty cheaply, too. Lace up your walking shoes, plant that thing in front of the television or pop on your iPod, and get walking.

Here's the thing. Walking is the ONLY exercise you need to do at least to get started with your fitness program. It's a great way to get started if you're out of shape. As little as 20 minutes a day (10 to get started if you are really out of shape) is enough to burn significant calories, build muscle, and get your heart pumping, all of which you need for good health. And get this. The more you exercise and the more muscle you build, the more calories you burn. That means once you've gotten in some good walking time and have built up some muscle, you burn calories faster even when you're resting.


The benefits of walking on a treadmill

Here's what walking on a treadmill can do for you. It can give you better endurance, it can stave off heart failure (especially if you're at risk), it can improve your circulation, it can strengthen your heart and cardiovascular system overall, and it can lower your blood pressure.


Treadmills work when you're in good shape, too

The treadmill is a great piece of machinery overall, because it works for you whether you have been sedentary for a long time or whether you're in pretty good shape and want to step up your workout one more notch. Once you've gotten better shape, you can ramp things up by jogging instead of walking on your treadmill. Or, you can buy some inexpensive ankle and arm weights and increase resistance that way.

Some of the newer treadmill models have the ability for you to increase the incline (either mechanically or manually) on the treadmill itself so that you're walking uphill instead of on a level surface. This, increases resistance - therefore your workout. However, you shouldn't do any of these more advanced exercises until you know you are in reasonably good shape. If you've been sedentary, again, a good decent walking pace is about 3 miles an hour, and is going to make you break a sweat and give you the 20 minute workout you need. Remember to stay on it for that long without breaking pace.

Of course, a final piece of advice is that you need to check with your doctor before you start any exercise program, especially if you've been sedentary for a long time. That said, though, once you've been cleared, break out that treadmill and start walking. You won't be sorry, and you'll see results in just a couple of weeks.

Don't think that Fitness Treadmills are only about walking. You can get a healthy heart by exercising Treadmill Fitness. This could be the best thing you ever did for your heart!


P.S., supplement your exercise with Vitamin C.


source