EXERCISE and CARDIO-FITNESS
or

 If You Don't Use It You can Lose It

ABOUT CARDIOFITNESS:

Gaining Cardiofitness and Health from Exercise

The CFR Measure of Cardiofitness

Measuring your Cardiofitness in CFR

RESEARCH  on CARDIO- FITNESS & MAJOR DISEASE:

Exercise, Cardiofitness & Heart Disease

Exercise, Cardiofitness  and Cancer

Exercise, Cardiofitness and  Death from all Causes

Exercise and Cardiofitness - a Summary

Research that Verifies the Pulse Point Method

THE RESEARCH PAPERS

The CFR - A Useful Measure of Fitness. A research paper

Cardiofitness and CV disease and death, a research Paper
 

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Proper exercise emerges from the Life Ahead Model as the most important thing most people can do to protect and extend their Well-Days of future life.  Yet the compelling research on this has been inadequately and confusingly communicated to the public.  The information on exercise and fitness on cardiovascular diseases and cancer this site is felt to be the most extensive yet compiled.  Researchers, doctors, fitness experts, and other health professionals as well as all other health-interested persons should review the actual research data and the analysis of this research included here.

The key that protects health and life is herein called Cardiofitness - an abbreviation of the Cardiorespiratory or Cardiovascular Fitness cited by the scientists.  Cardiofitness derives mostly from exercise, but like other health factors is partly endowed from genetics. Cardio fitness becomes important for five  reasons.  First, an adequate level of it can provide exceptional protection against Heart Disease and Stroke.  Second, it provides important protection against most key causes of Cancer.  Third, Cardio fitness appears to retain its full health benefit as age progresses.  The health value of some other factors as cholesterol, diet and not smoking diminish somewhat at older ages;  Fourth, cardiofitness improvement and its accompanying benefit for heart disease and stroke probably can be achieved in three to six months. Improvements in these health risks from diet and some other health factors may require 7 to 10 or more years of duration for achievement of most benefit.  And fifth, a hard analysis of the past five decades of published research confirms that Cardiofitness level may identify an independent health risk factor that can be more important to long range survival than other major factors including blood pressure, cholesterol, and cigarette smoking. A very low level of Cardiofitness can identify a very high and measurable level of risk for both heart disease and cancer that is not now identified.

A key health problem of today is that no well recognized measure of Cardiofitness now exists.  An index now called the CFR originally proposed in 1982 and previously called the HPI or HEF and now called the CFR does provide a highly useful measure of Cardiofitness that can be measured easily by a variety of tests and that is directly related to risks of both heart disease and cancer at highest significance.  The articles provided in a first section section 'About Cardiofitness' noted at left tell how (1) What the CFR measure of Cardiofitness means;  (1) How individuals can improve Cardiofitness levels of the CFR from various kinds and amounts of exercise; And (3) how most people can estimate and many can actually measure of their own Cardiofitness.  These articles and another describe the Pulse Point method for planning and monitoring the exercise that is required to usefully improve Cardiofitness.

The options under 'Research on Cardiofitness and Major Disease'  provide an extensive review of the actual research published on Physical activity, Exercise and Cardiofitness during the past half-century that has not not been provided elsewhere.  These reviews include how the exercise that produces Cardiofitness protects against heart disease, stroke and cancer, and can significantly extend the years of healthy life. 

Two new Research Papers are published on this site for review and comment that describe more formally the CFR measure of Cardio fitness, and how Cardiofitness protects against cardiovascular disease.  Comments on these would be appreciated.