ACSM Studying – Coronary Artery Disease & Exercise

Note to self, when you’re studying don’t do it on your bed, or else you’ll end up taking a 2 hour “nap.”

I had no idea that my body was that tired! Hopefully I won’t be up for the rest of the night. Well, I guess I could use this for more studying time.

______________

American College of Sports Medicine, ACSM, does A LOT of risk stratification, so I have to re-learn (or review) details of the cardiovascular system, pulmonary system (among a million other things).

Through the ACSM textbooks, I’m learning how the preexisting conditions of these systems can be affected by exercise and what I, as an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer (I love writing that), should look out for in order to avoid injuring my client.

Luckily I have a strong background in science or else all of this would be so overwhelming.

One interesting fact that I found mind blowing:

People who have Diabetes Mellitus are 2-4 times more likely to develop Coronary Artery Disease (CAD).

Don’t know what CAD is? I’ll explain here. CAD has 2 categories:

1.) ARTERIOSCLEROSIS:

also known as hardening of the arteries or loss of elasticity in the arteries. Tiny as our arteries (arterioles, capillaries, etc.) are, they do have multiple layers of walls (including muscle) that help to pump blood throughout our system; keeping our body nourished and balanced.

Our arteries serves as a highway for oxygen & nutrients, such as glucose, to be exchanged with our tissues. It also allows for the removal of metabolic byproducts, such as carbon dioxide & lactate. Carbon Dioxide is produced when we breathe and lactate is made when we exercise without oxygen present. If you’re interested, I will be covering the lactate threshold in the near future.

One interesting fact that I learned in my Human Physiology class a few semesters ago is that no one is free from developing arteriosclerosis. Even if you take care of yourself the best way you possibly can day in and day out for the rest of your life, you can’t avoid arteriosclerosis completely. The reason is that we all develop it in our lifetime is that as we age there is a general gradual loss of artery wall elasticity.

The real determining factor behind it’s fatality is to which degree is the arteriosclerosis developed. With that said, it is still very important to keep exercising and eating a healthy and balanced diet.

2.) ATHEROSCLEROSIS:

is a form of the first category, but also an multiple legions within the artery walls. When the walls are damaged, our body’s first instinct is to create a blockage, so that the damaged tissue does not spread to the surrounding arteries. The problem is that this obstruction ends up impeding blood flow and that could be fatal.

The next question you may be asking is “how can we take care of ourselves enough so that we can avoid developing CAD.” The answer to that is through proper diet and exercise.

With exercise the mortality rate of persons with CAD drops.

It does this by lowering the likelihood of a heart attack and it can also help improve the artery wall conditions by decreasing platelet aggregation (what creates blockage at damaged sites).

Sources:

knowledge gained from physiology & anatomy classes

ACSM Certification Review study materials

Dinner:

Last Monday’s Pasta meal along with a salad topped with nutritional yeast, fresh organic carrots, and ranch.

Dessert:

1 Flax Muffin from Flax 4 Life. I tell ya, just like the box says, these are really delicious! I love the wild blueberry flavor and all of the flax in them. And they have a whopping 4620 mg of Omega 3 per muffin. Wowza! The best part, is that they’re only 150 calories per muffin, which makes them the perfect snack.

I paired the Flax muffin with a cup of DECAF Earl Grey Tea (3/4 soy milk & 1/4 water).

Do you know anyone with CAD that has overcame it? How did they do so and are they still keeping up with it?

Advertisement