Manage Symptoms, Improve Quality of Life When Living with Heart Disease
4th in a Series of Living with Chronic Conditions
Exercise helps those individuals with long-lasting, chronic conditions manage
symptoms, improving their quality of life.
Long-lasting, chronic conditions include cancer, heart disease, diabetes,
depression, and back/joint pain.
Many experts now believe that exercise can be a very effective way of preventing
chronic diseases and reducing symptoms. Regular exercise not only can help prevent
the onset and development of cardiovascular disease but also is a critical therapeutic
tool to improve outcomes for those with heart disease.
As a bonus, exercise also works to improve one’s mood, appetite, and sleep!
As we age, exercise becomes more and more important. Regular physical exercise
helps maintain:
- balance, reducing falls and fractures
- independent lifestyle
- stamina, muscle strength
- mood, well-being.
- healthy bones, muscles, and joints.
A sedentary lifestyle increases the risk for conditions that can lead to negative health
issues, even causing early mortality.
Waistline – to decrease waistline girth, increase exercise. Enlarged waist circumference
is linked to extra risk of:
- cardiovascular disease
- developing insulin resistance
- high blood sugar.
How does exercise strengthen the cardiovascular system?
Regular exercise helps the heart; it can lower the risk of heart disease getting worse
and it lowers the risk of dying of heart disease. The heart is a muscle and responds to
exercise by becoming stronger. Enhance cardiovascular health with regular exercise to:
- improve circulation (pumping blood throughout the body)
- make the heart stronger
- help prevent disease: high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, early mortality, etc.
Exercise training should include: Aerobic; Strength/Resistance; Flexibility.
When exercising, particularly for aerobic exercises like walking, swimming, or cycling,
the heart must pump more blood through the body, increasing cardiac output and blood
pressure.
Over time, as individuals adapt to the healthy stress that exercise places on the heart
and body, the heart becomes stronger and it takes fewer beats to push blood through
the body, leading to a lower heart rate.
Exercise also alters the lipids in your blood, increasing HDL cholesterol (the “good”
cholesterol), while reducing triglyceride levels, both of which reduce the risk of heart
disease.
Exercise also improves arterial function, reducing blood pressure and thickening the
ventricular chamber walls of the heart.
Multiple research studies have shown the benefits of exercise in preventing and
reversing heart disease:
- Individuals who are the most physically active have heart disease rates 50% lower than those who are sedentary.
- Heart attack patients who followed a formal exercise program experienced a reduced death rate of 20-25%.
If you’re not active now, gradually work up to an aerobic session of about 20 to 30
minutes, at least three or four times a week. The more exercise you can do, the better.
Anything that raises your heart rate counts. Pick a variety of activities that you like. Don’t
do the same thing over and over.
Exercise Regularly. It is important to exercise on a regular basis. The type of exercise
that is best for you depends on age, injuries (past and present) and health conditions.
Each exercise session should include a warm-up, conditioning phase, and a cool down.
Older adults should participate in at least (see table below):
| Type of Exercise | How Often (per week) | Duration (per session) |
| moderate aerobic OR vigorous aerobic | 5 days OR 3 days | 30 minutes OR 20 minutes |
| Resistance training (muscle strengthening) | 2 days to 3 days | 20 to 30 minutes |
| Flexibility and Balance | 2 days (or daily) | 10 minutes |
More is better: Exercising more than the minimum recommendation results in extra
health benefits and increased fitness. Increase workouts gradually.
As always, check with your doctor before beginning any new exercise routine.
Participate in exercises designed to be safe and challenging for older adults.
Workout Tips:
- Pace yourself.
- Don’t do too much too soon.
- Give your body time to rest between workouts.
- Stay hydrated. Drink water even before you feel thirsty
- Stop and rest if you feel weak, dizzy or lightheaded
To stay motivated for exercise, follow the link below: https://nancylfitness.com/2022/10/07/motivation-to-exercise/
Nancy L. Fitness 