GYM & TONIC

Strong back & pecs cut heart risk

- BY MARTIN BAGOT

STRONG back and chest muscles slash the risk of heart attacks, Scottish researchers have shown.

Artificial intelligence was used to study heart scans of 1722 people, who were mostly in their 50s and had chest pain.

For every 10-point increase in muscle density, participants were 31 per cent less likely to have a heart attack and 39 per cent less likely to die in the next 10 years.

Author Professor Michelle Williams has started going to the gym a week as she found the findings so compelling.