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Heart Health

How much exercise is optimal for heart health?

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Doing as little as 15 minutes a day can make a difference. Logging extra time helps—but only up to a point.

"Unfortunately, most people have blurred the distinction between exercising for health and well-being and exercising for fitness in an athletic, competitive sense," says Dr. Harvey Simon, associate professor of medicine at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. "The truth is that if you're exercising for health, it takes very little effort to see enormous benefits," he says.

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