A recent study published in the European Heart Journal found that physical activity can lower the risk of cardiac conduction disease a serious condition that can lead to various health complications such as syncope, heart failure, and even death.

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Currently, the only available treatment for this condition is pacemaker implantation, but there are no established strategies for its prevention. So, Emilie and team conducted a study using data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, which is a population-based cohort study of adults over 65 years of age. The study utilized annual 12-lead electrocardiograms obtained over a 10-year period to examine the relationships between various baseline characteristics, including lifestyle habits, and conduction disease.

The key highlights of this study were:
Out of the 5050 participants, there were a total of 257 cases of first-degree atrioventricular block, 99 cases of left anterior fascicular block, 9 cases of left posterior fascicular block, 193 cases of right bundle branch block, 76 cases of left bundle branch block, and 102 cases of intraventricular block at baseline.

After controlling for various factors, the study found that older age, male sex, larger body mass index, hypertension, and coronary heart disease were associated with a higher prevalence of conduction disease, while white race and more physical activity were associated with a lower prevalence.
Over a median follow-up of 7 years, 1036 participants developed incident conduction disease. The study found that older age, male sex, larger body mass index, and diabetes were each associated with incident conduction disease.
In terms of lifestyle habits, more physical activity was found to be associated with a reduced risk of developing conduction disease. The study found that while some difficult-to-control comorbidities were associated with conduction disease, physical activity, a readily modifiable lifestyle factor, was found to be associated with a lower risk of developing conduction disease.
Source:
Frimodt-Møller, E. K., Soliman, E. Z., Kizer, J. R., Vittinghoff, E., Psaty, B. M., Biering-Sørensen, T., Gottdiener, J. S., & Marcus, G. M. (2023). Lifestyle habits associated with cardiac conduction disease. In European Heart Journal. Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehac799