Exercise is good for the Heart : Duh, Well At Least We Now Have Proof
Most of us, at least those with a little more sense that the others, have known for a while now that regular exercise is a surefire way to good health. But it’s been proved conclusively now by researchers at the Duke University Medical Center, those patients with heart diseases who are regular in their exercise routines are healthier and live lives of better quality than those who do not. The team at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) reported their findings at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2008; the HF-ACTION study is said to be the largest clinical trial that looks into the connection between good heart health and exercise, so far, with results from 2,331 patients from the USA, Canada and France being analyzed for a period of five years.
Exercise is beneficial when done in the right amounts and in the right way. There are different kinds of exercises for people of different age groups and different body types. Jocks and body-building enthusiasts spend most of their time at the gym, looking to get that perfect physique and build. For the rest of us though, an hour of moderate to energetic activity at least 5 times a week should suffice.
Heart patients are asked to start out slowly – they need to exercise their hearts through cardiovascular exercises, but they must be careful not to overdo it and tax their already frail organs. The team at Duke University set the goal for this test group at 40 minutes of exercising each day for a period of five days a week, or a total period of 200 minutes a week. Their reports state that almost all the participants reached 60 percent of this goal in a year’s time.
A questionnaire was used to evaluate the quality of life and health of the participants every three months, and after the first time period, the group that was put on the exercise regimen showed an improvement of 5 points while the other showed an improvement of only 3. More significantly, 54 percent of the exercise group showed a 5-point gain while only 28 percent of the normal care group reached this level of improvement.
Another well-known fact that has been established conclusively is that exercise is better when done moderately and continuously over a longer period of time – the researchers showed that the gains by the exercise group, though modest, were sustained over time. Great news for the more than 5 million Americans who live with heart disease – now they know that all they need to do to improve their lives is to walk for at least half an hour each day.