Exercise Helps Even the Weakest Hearts

March 3, 2003 -- Exercise may be the best medicine for even those with the weakest hearts, such as people with heart failure who are awaiting a heart transplant. A new report shows exercise is safe, beneficial, and a valuable quality-of-life booster for people whose hearts are no longer able to pump blood as well as they should.

"It seems counterintuitive, but walking, biking, swimming, dancing -- all kinds of aerobic exercise -- can help improve the patient's sense of well-being," says Ileana Pina, MD, who led the American Heart Association Committee on Exercise, Rehabilitation, and Prevention that compiled the report, in a news release.

Researchers say heart failure is a growing problem among the elderly, and about 5 million people in the U.S. were living with the condition in 2000. People with heart failure commonly suffer from fatigue and often have difficulty exercising because the heart's ability to supply blood to the other organs is compromised.

But the committee says numerous studies have proved that exercise can relieve those symptoms and help them do more in their daily life.

"Patients who exercise report they can do more before getting symptoms and that they can better perform activities of daily living, such as making the bed or getting a newspaper," says Pina.

However, researchers say that there's no one-size-fits-all exercise plan for heart failure patients. Instead, each person should work with their doctor to develop an exercise plan that's safe and that they are comfortable with.

"The patient should start slowly and build up gradually," says Pina. "We generally recommend 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise three to five times a week."

She says people with more severe symptoms may need a longer warm-up period of about 10 to 15 minutes.

But the most important thing, researchers say, is for people with heart failure to stay active and not just sit back and do nothing, which was the standard advice in the '50s, '60s, and '70s.

for people with heart failure, Pina writes, exercise can:

• Increase the tone of blood vessels in the body, which can improve symptoms
• Decrease the amounts of certain hormones that worsen the symptoms of heart failure
• Improve the muscles' ability to pull out oxygen from blood