Heart Failure Patients Benefit from Physical Exercise

Undergoing a heart attack or a heart failure seizure is not an easy thing to do, as most patients suffering from these conditions could tell you. The chances for another such event occurring increase significantly, as do the hospitalization rates for these patients. Now, a new scientific study comes to show that physical exercises are actually a good thing for these people as well, and not just for those looking to stay fit. The results of the recent investigations show that heart patients who performed daily exercise routines were far less likely to be committed into hospitals again than others who did not, or to suffer complications for their conditions.

Experts from the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) announced on April 7th that more than 2,331 patients from 82 centers in the United States, Canada, and France, had been tracked for this study, some for up to four years after they started exercising. The average follow-up time was of 2.5 years, and the average age of the patients was of 59 years. The scientists also shared that, in official statistics, more than 5 million US citizens suffered from some type of heart conditions, which means that devising new methods of treatment for it was of paramount importance.

Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, the director of the NHLBI, explained that, “Many patients and health care providers have continued to be concerned about the safety of aerobic exercise for heart failure. With the results of this robust clinical trial, we can now reassure heart failure patients that, with appropriate medical supervision, regular aerobic exercise is not only safe but it can also improve their lives in really meaningful ways.” Up until this point, some physicians, probably at the behest of medical insurance companies, have advised patients against practicing physical exercises, out of fear that the strain may be too much for their already weak hearts.

According to the officially released results of the new research, heart patients who practiced physical exercises exhibited a 15 percent lower risk of dying on account of a cardiovascular problem, as well as an 11 percent decrease in the total number of hospitalizations and all-cause deaths. In addition, the experts behind the new paper pointed out, the benefits of physical exercises might have very well been underestimated, because even those in the control group practiced sports sometimes during the study.