Heart disease can be scary. It can lead to heart attacks, strokes, or even death. But there’s good news.
A new study found that doing heart exercises at home can help people live longer after a heart problem.
This is especially true for military veterans.
Heart problems are very common. They can happen because of an unhealthy lifestyle, like eating unhealthy food or not exercising.
Sometimes, they can happen even if you live a healthy life. When someone has a heart problem, they often need to go to the hospital.
After they leave the hospital, they should continue to take care of their heart. This is called “cardiac rehabilitation” or heart rehab for short.
The study found that veterans who did heart rehab at home were 36% less likely to die from heart problems within four years. This was compared to veterans who did not do heart rehab.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, a respected medical journal.
This is great news because it means that people can take care of their heart at home. They don’t always need to go to a hospital or a clinic.
Mary A. Whooley, M.D., led the study. She is a doctor at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. She also teaches medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
She said that changing your habits can be hard, but it is very important for heart health. She was surprised that not many people chose to do heart rehab.
The study looked at 1,120 veterans. They were all patients at the San Francisco VA Medical Center between August 2013 and December 2018. Only 44% of them chose to do heart rehab at home.
What is Heart Rehab?
Heart rehab is a set of exercises and lifestyle changes to keep your heart healthy. It can include quitting smoking, eating healthy food, exercising, learning to manage stress, and taking medicine if you need it.
These changes can help prevent future heart problems and improve your quality of life.
In the past, people often had to go to a clinic or hospital to do heart rehab. Now, there are programs that allow people to do heart rehab at home. These programs are just as good as the ones in hospitals.
The home heart rehab program in the study lasted 12 weeks. During this time, participants got up to nine phone calls from a coach. They learned about motivation and how to take care of their heart.
They also got a book and a personal health journal. The journal helped them track things like blood pressure, exercise, and diet. They got a blood pressure monitor, a scale, and an optional stationary bike for exercise.
The Benefit of Heart Rehab at Home
The people who did heart rehab at home were less likely to die than those who didn’t. After one year, 4% of the people who did not do heart rehab died.
But only 2% of the people who did heart rehab at home died. In the end, 12% of the people who did heart rehab died. But 20% of the people who didn’t do heart rehab died.
Doing heart rehab at home has many benefits. It can be done at any time and any place. It does not require a trip to the hospital or clinic.
This makes it easier for people to fit it into their daily life. As a result, they are more likely to stick with it and make lasting changes. These changes can help them live longer and healthier lives.
However, there are still some problems. Many health insurance companies in the U.S. do not pay for heart rehab at home.
They only pay for heart rehab in a hospital or clinic. This can make it hard for people to do heart rehab at home, even if they want to.
The American Heart Association is trying to change this. They are working on a law to make more heart rehab resources available.
This law is called the “Increasing Access to Quality Cardiac Rehabilitation Care Act.” It would help more people get access to heart rehab, whether at home or in a hospital.
What’s Next?
This study is a big step forward. But there is still a lot of work to do. The study did not compare heart rehab at home to heart rehab in a hospital.
It also did not include many women or people who speak languages other than English.
More studies are needed to see if heart rehab at home is as good or better than heart rehab in a hospital. We also need to learn more about the best ways to do heart rehab at home.
But for now, we know that doing heart exercises at home can help people live longer after a heart problem.
So, if you or someone you know has a heart problem, consider doing heart rehab at home. It might just save a life.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, and strokes.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
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