As a fitness buff, you know how important it is to maintain excellent cardiac health, as heart health is a determining factor in overall fitness and weight maintenance. Indeed, those who pursue fitness without doing cardio will find that if they take a break from their usual workout and nutrition routine, you’ll quickly put on weight. Cardio is responsible for boosting your metabolism and keeping it at a peak level, which is why it should be part of every fitness routine.
Unfortunately, poor hormone balance can compromise your cardiac health and because you can’t see or measure your hormones yourself, it’s hard to know if something is out of order. Often, however, you may sense that something is amiss with your body – you feel unusually tired or weak when performing activities that aren’t normally a problem, or you may have normal hormonal changes associated with aging.
By consulting with your doctor and paying attention to changes in your body, however, these can typically be corrected with medication, protecting your heart and allowing you to continue with your normal activities. If you do end up needing medication, you might want to visit https://clarityxdna.com/clarityx-heart-health-test/ first. This will help you to find the best medication for you, reducing the chances of side effects that might impede your ability to carry on with your day-to-day life.
Testosterone: Pros And Cons
Many athletes think that testosterone and related hormones that convert into testosterone are good for your heart because they enhance muscle size, a metric that many mistakenly read as an indicator of overall health. While naturally occurring testosterone is important, and having too little can cause heart disease or arrhythmias, too much testosterone may actually be counterproductive, increasing the risk of blood clots and strokes.
It’s important to consider these opposing results when deciding whether or not to supplement with artificial hormones. In some older men, in particular, a little more testosterone can improve both cardiac health and fitness performance, but in other cases adding extra testosterone is more harmful than most realize. Big muscles are tempting, but there are frequently better and safer hormonal options for your overall health.
Women should be aware of similar issues around estrogen and heart health. Too little estrogen can be linked to heart disease, women have long been advised to skip supplements after menopause because of higher rates of blood clots and stroke in women taking some forms of estrogen supplementation.
Irisin: The Exercise Hormone
Irisin is a naturally occurring hormone that’s released into the bloodstream during exercise. Like testosterone, irisin can increase your metabolic rate, resulting in weight loss, but more interestingly, irisin can actually increase the length of telomeres – the ends of chromosomes. Many diseases, including heart disease, are linked to shorter telomeres, a normal result of aging. Increased telomere length resulting from irisin release during exercise may be one of the causes of longer lifespans in those who exercise regularly.
Hormones require delicate balancing, which is why your doctor should be involved in any decisions to supplement naturally produced hormones. Don’t be afraid, however, to ask for tests or consultations if you feel a drop off in energy or are struggling with your workouts – it may indicate a bigger problem.