How To Get Your Life Back After Heart Disease Strikes
Being an essential program that helps such people rebuild their lives, cardiac rehabilitation can also assist people who have congestive heart failure, or who have undergone coronary artery bypass surgery, coronary angioplasty, pacemaker insertion or heart valve surgery.
Cardiac rehabilitation usually takes place in a hospital and is suitable for most patients after their initial heart problems. It aims to help patients understand and better manage their heart disease. Doctors, specialist nurses, dieticians, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals are included in the rehabilitation team. Cardiac rehabilitation can provide guidance for people to change their lifestyles, which includes establishing good dietary and exercise habits. The goals are to improve cardiac risk factors such as smoking, cholesterol, high blood pressure, weight loss, diabetes control, and fitness levels. The ultimate aim is to enable heart patients to resume their normal lives and to prevent deterioration of their heart conditions.
During the program, heart patients are monitored regularly for changes in heart rate, blood pressure and ECG. The structured exercise regime employs treadmill, stationary cycle and resistance training using weights if appropriate for strengthening. Level of exercise is tailored to suit each individual person.
The first outpatient phase of cardiac rehabilitation usually comprises 3 sessions weekly of an hour per session. The length of this phase generally lasts for 6 to 12 weeks though it may vary from case to case. The main focus of this phase is to pitch the patient's exercise routine to achieve better fitness and strength. This phase is then followed by regular maintenance to preserve the level of fitness already achieved earlier and should continue indefinitely.
According to some studies, exercise and participation in cardiac rehabilitation can prevent further deterioration in people with heart disease. In the national heart disease and exercise program conducted in United States, the death rate of people with heart disease who exercised regularly was reduced by 37 percent compared to people who were sedentary. Another study conducted by Stanford University showed that people with coronary artery disease who adopted intensive change in lifestyle and appropriate medications had reduced narrowing of their heart arteries at the end of a 4-year period.
Related Tags: diabetes, heart attack, heart disease, cholesterol, heart failure, cardiac rehabilitation, high bloo
Feel free to use this article on your website or ezine as long as the following information about author/website is included.
Heart Disease Prevention - 8 Simple Ways You Can Do Immediately, Goto: http://www.howtopreventheartdisease.com
Recent articles in this category:
- Good News for Coffee Lovers- One-Cup Coffee Drinkers Less Likely To Get Heart Disease
Are you drinking too much coffee? We seem to need it to wake up in the morning, to stay alert when - Sleep Disorders and Cardiovasular Disease - A Close Link
"A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book." Irish ProverbHuman beings - Breathing for Health - Easy Does It!
Breathing is in the air. You can hardly open a magazine or browse a health site on the web without f - Lower Cholesterol Naturally And Safely
Have you been told by your doctor to lower cholesterol levels through your diet? Or are you one of - Defibrillators- Will You Be the Next One Saved by an AED?
AED stands for Automated External Defibrillator. An AED, or Automated External Defibrillator is a li - Avoiding High Cholesterol Foods For A Healthier New You
High cholesterol diets that stress cutting eggs and butter out of the diet have been found to have a - Healthy Heart Food - What Is The Best Diet For Your Heart And Which Foods Heal?
What is the best diet for a healthy heart? Which foods can you eat which will improve your chances o - Aspirin - Beneficial for Your Heart
As the arteries grow hard, the heart grows soft. -H. L. Mencken.A daily aspirin may prevent your art - Stress - Can It Really Cause Heart Disease?
Stress- we're all aware of the feeling- overburdened, overwhelmed, and at times ready to pull our ha - Is Depression After Heart Bypass Surgery Normal Or Is It Serious?
It's been found that depression after heart bypass surgery is not all that uncommon. In fact, it rea
Most viewed articles in this category:
- High Blood Pressure, What is It?
Apparently there is an alarming trend in the rate of High Blood Pressure or Hypertension depending o - Cholesterol: A Quick Guide to Good and Bad Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a fatty, waxy substance which is absolutely essential to the function of the body and - What Is Heart Failure?
We always hear people talking about heart failure. But how many of us really know about this disease - How Exercise Works In Lowering Your Blood Pressure?
There happens to be a very close connection of blood pressure with exercising. Exercise could effect - Weapons in the Battle Against Heart Disease
Heart disease and stroke are our nation's number one killers. As we become more sedentary and more o - Exercise Lowers Homocysteine
A recent study from multiple medical centers shows that a regular exercise program helps to lower - Calf Pain May Be Intermittent Claudication
If your legs don't hurt at rest and you develop pain in your calves after walking for a short time - How Needles Help A Stroke Patient To Recover
Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) is usually regarded as an alternative treatment. Patients will s - Why the Heart Fails
Heart fails when the heart is unable to pump blood effectively. So, why does this happen? Now, let u - Drug Coated Stents May Be Harmful To Patients!
Drug-coated stents, sold in the United States by Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific Corp have h