
Photo credit: Jenny Acheson
If the inner tube that’s usually in the pool during those lazy, hazy days of summer is now firmly around your middle, here’s some news that’ll help deflate it and strengthen your heart in the process.
Daily exercise reduces your risk for heart failure by a whopping 46%, according to a big new study published in the journal Circulation. From 1997 to 2010, Swedish researchers tracked the exercise habits and heart failure rates of nearly 40,000 adults (all of whom were healthy at the outset). The more active folks were, the lower their risk of heart failure. And while any amount of exercise was better than none, those with the lowest heart failure risk did either 60 minutes of moderate activity (e.g., walking) or 30 minutes of vigorous activity (e.g., running) every day.