Celina Jaitly's 'Second Heart' Claim: What Calf Health Has to Do With Circulation and Heart Risk

Celina Jaitly, 43, recently posted a message about a muscle group she says most people neglect: the calves. Her phrasing was blunt. The second heart, she wrote, does not live in your chest but in your lower legs.

Jaitly framed the post around her own history. She said she had cared for both her parents through long illnesses and later lost them, and that this pushed her to dig into the causes of disease and the possibility of timely recovery. The calf finding, she wrote, was one of the most fascinating medically backed ideas she had come across.

She tied it to something familiar from home. When elders asked a child to press their legs because the pain would not go away, she said, it was not always just tired feet. Every step, she explained, makes these muscles push blood back up toward the heart against gravity, so even a walk, a dance or a midnight trip to the fridge is a kind of life-saving cardio.

Then came her caution. Calf pain, she noted, can sometimes be a symptom of peripheral artery disease, or PAD, in which arteries in the legs become clogged. PAD is strongly linked to cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke. She said legs, and calves especially, are the muscles most skipped by people who do not exercise regularly, and that training them is about how the heart fares on a doctor's chart, not how one looks in shorts. Her advice: carve out at least 20 minutes of movement a day, and if you sit at a desk for long hours, get up every two hours and do calf raises and toe raises, which she said can be done anywhere.

The Indian Express put the claim to Dr Amit Saraf, director of internal medicine at Jupiter Hospital in Thane. He confirmed the basic idea. When you walk or use the calf muscles, he said, they squeeze the deep veins of the legs and push blood toward the heart, which keeps blood from pooling in the lower limbs and improves circulation overall. That is why they are called the second heart.

On pain, Saraf agreed that leg or calf discomfort is not always simple tiredness. Ongoing pain or cramping while walking may signal PAD, where the arteries feeding the legs are narrowed, and PAD is closely tied to higher risk of heart attack and stroke. His advice was to get checked if leg pain does not go away, since early detection can prevent serious problems.

Strong calves, he said, improve circulation, reduce leg swelling, lower the risk of blood clots and build endurance for daily tasks. They also help posture and balance, and over time ease strain on the heart. For people with desk jobs he suggested a short movement break every one to two hours: calf raises, toe raises, or simply standing and walking for a few minutes. Consistency, he said, matters more than how hard one trains.

Almost everyone can benefit, Saraf said, young or old. He named people with sedentary jobs, frequent travelers, diabetics and those with early vascular disease as especially likely to gain. Anyone with existing heart disease, uncontrolled diabetes or severe leg pain should check with a doctor before starting. For most others, he called calf workouts safe, simple and effective.

The article carries the standard disclaimer that it draws on public-domain information and the experts consulted, and that readers should consult a health practitioner before beginning any routine.