Exercise and heart disease

Everyone of us needs to be active and energetic and without doing exercise it’s difficult to achieve healthy levels of activity in today’s modern world. We have substituted our legs and hands  with wheels,  motor  and gadgets. So now it’s a must for all of us to do some intentional exercise to maintain good health.

Cardiac patients have peculiar needs of exercise. Patients who have suffered from CAD or coronary artery disease or heart attack need to do exercise on a regular basis. Basically they must understand that there can be two types of exercises for them. One is weight training or strength exercises in which you work against weights and gravity. Another type is cardio exercises or aerobics in which focus is on repetitive movement increasing heart rate and improving stamina and agility. Both exercises are good and both types are required to be done in proper balance. 

Patients suffering from serious heart diseases like some congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease, uncontrolled hypertension or heart failure need expert opinion before starting any vigorous exercises.

So in summary for prevention , cure and management of heart diseases along with drugs, medicine, diet and lifestyle measures exercise is also a very important and very crucial part of management. But unfortunately role of exercise in heart diseases is often neglected by patients and doctors.