How physical exercise protects the heart
The benefits of exercise range from prevention of cachexia -severe loss of weight and muscle mass - and control of arterial blood pressure to improved cardiac function, postponing a degenerative process that causes progressive heart cell death. About 70% of heart failure patients die from the condition within five years. A study by the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, published recently in the journal Autophagy , helps to elucidate part of the mechanism whereby aerobic exercise protects the sick heart. "Basically, we discovered that aerobic training facilitates the removal of dysfunctional mitochondria from heart cells," said Julio Cesar Batista Ferreira, a professor at the Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) and principal investigator for the project which was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Mitochondria are the organelles in charge of providing energy to cells. "The removal of dysfunctional mitochondria increases the supply o...