Related Resources • Cardiomyopathy links • Heart failure links

By DrRich

The American Heart Association released a new official statement last week on the topic of exercise in patients with heart failure.  The AHA's Committee on Exercise, Rehabilitation, and Heart Failure recommends exercise as being safe and beneficial for patients with heart failure, whether their cardiac condition is mild or severe.

The recommendations were accompanied by an extensive review of the medical literature on exercise and heart failure.  The preponderance of evidence, the committee concludes, now shows that regular exercise improves the functional capacity and quality of life in patients with heart failure, and has beneficial effects on their physiology - including improved muscle function and blood flow.

The committee recommends 20 to 30 minutes of exercise 3 to 5 times per week for these patients, and suggests that the exercise be performed under supervised conditions, at least at first.

This recommendation represents the culmination of a gradual reversal in doctors' thinking on the advisability of physical activity in the presence of heart failure.  Ten or 20 years ago, most doctors felt that heart failure was a condition that demanded constant rest - perhaps even bed rest - and that exercise was dangerous.  However, study after study subsequently showed that patients with heart failure who became inactive were more likely to experience both a reduction in functional capacity and a higher likelihood of early death.  Last week's report from the AHA amounts to a formal assertion that the old thinking was wrong, and that getting enough exercise is just as important (or perhaps more important) for patients with heart failure as it is for people in general.