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Role of Exercise In Heart Failure Patients Statistics from the American Heart Association showed that about 670,000 Americans have been diagnosed as heart failure each year. Heart failure is a costly, disabling and potentially deadly condition. Heart failure, also known as congestive heart failure, is a condition in which the heart could not pump enough blood to keep up with the body’s needs. While heart failure is always a chronic and long-term condition, it could sometimes develop suddenly. Ageing definitely can cause heart failure and so are many other diseases like coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction (heart attack), congenital heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathy and some types of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias). Common treatments for heart failure include adopting healthy lifestyle (for example, reducing salt intake) and medications. Sometimes, doctors might implant tiny medical devices like pacemakers in heart failure patients. In some serious cases, patients might even have to undergo surgery. A new research, appeared in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 4, 2010, found that the exercise-based rehabilitation would improve the health-related quality of life of patients with heart failure. The health-related quality of life, according to the researchers, should focus on aspects of one’s life that could impact on one’s health.
There has been controversy about the role of exercise for heart failure patients. In the past, the usual practice for most doctors is to restrict their heart failure patients to armchairs or wheelchairs, as there is concern over the risk of exercise. Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School at the University of Exeter in England reviewed an earlier Cochrane Review published in May 2004 that showed exercise training did improve patients’ fitness. Nevertheless, insufficient evidence was available on the potential effect on patients’ mortality. The new study, however, showed that exercise-based rehabilitation not only improves patients’ well being but also does not increase the patients’ mortality rate. In addition, the exercise-based rehabilitation also reduces the number of hospital admissions for heart failure. There were 3,647 patients with heart failure took part in the 19 randomized controlled trials. All studies included low-risk aerobic exercises, which consisted mostly walking and cycling. In 5 of the trials, strength training was also included. Each exercise sessions lasted between 15 and 120 minutes, with 2 to 7 sessions a week, for periods of between 24 and 52 weeks. Most of these studies were carried out in supervised hospital or community centers so that should any problem arise, patients could approach the physical therapist and the medical team for assistance. Majority of the participants were white men. Meanwhile, it should also be noted that older individuals, some ethnic groups and women performed poorly in the studies. According to the research team, there is good evidence that, for instance, women feel more uncomfortable in group-based exercise than men. Since the study showed no harm on heart failure patients, the researchers urged health experts and professionals to review clinical guidelines for caring for heart failure patients by giving more weight to the role of exercise training. In the meantime, the research team also feels the need of examining the possibility of self-supervised home-based exercise programs for heart failure. Patients with heart failure have been known to have a high 5-year death rate. But with the help of effective drugs, pacemakers and similar devices, a poorly functioning heart could be improved. Now, if cardiac (exercise-based) rehabilitation could also play its part in helping the heart failure patients, as pointed out by some health experts, it should be regarded as the best medications for treating heart disease.
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