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It isn't as grisly as it sounds: You can give yourself on-the-spot cardiac bypass surgery with nothing more high-tech than a pair of running shoes, according to cardiologists at Harvard Medical School.
The arteries that pump blood and oxygen into your heart can become clogged by a buildup of cholesterol and fatty substances, which can slow or stop blood and result in chest pain or a heart attack. But just like cardiac bypass surgery attempts to reroute blood around clogged vessels to create new pathways to your ticker, exercise stimulates collateral vessels in the heart to grow more muscular and interconnected, dramatically increasing blood flow.
Growing new collateral blood vessels, according to the January 2008 issue of Harvard Heart Letter, can ease chest pain, limit heart-attack damage, and improve your odds of survival in the case of a heart attack. A little bit of exercise isn't enough to do the trick, however. You'll need to push your heart to beat faster for up to 20 to 30 minutes at a time, several times a week. Keep this up and you may never have to go under the cardiac surgeon's knife. Doctor's orders.
Difficulty level: Easy to moderate
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