Modest sport for heart patients

Heart patients can benefit from too much sports heart attack and stroke

05/16/2014

Heart patients are usually advised by doctors to do sports to prevent a renewed heart attack or stroke. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (Dkfz) recently investigated how much exercise works well in the case of heart problems and when does sport harm the health. Their conclusion: Sports in moderation, two to four times a week, reduces the risk of recurrence of cardiovascular diseases most effectively. On the other hand, too much sport can even be harmful.

Cardiac patients should pay close attention to sports in moderation to prevent new heart problems
Numerous studies have already dealt with the topic of sports for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The experts agree: exercise is healthy. The extent to which sport is most conducive to the health of cardiac patients has recently been investigated by Drs. Ute Mons and Prof. Hermann Brenner from Dkfz.

According to the clinical societies, 30 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise five to seven days a week are recommended for cardiac patients in the USA. However, this information is based on the results of clinical studies performed in rehabilitation sports programs, which were subject to specific conditions. Thus, the patients were cared for in their physical activity, which was usually limited to a few months. The German researchers wanted to check whether the recommendations of their US colleagues also existed under everyday conditions. „We first wanted to see if there was indeed a linear relationship between the frequency of physical activity and the prognosis“, explains Mons. „In addition, it has so far mostly been ignored to what extent patients follow the prevention recommendations over the years.“

Over a period of ten years, they evaluated the data of more than a thousand cardiac patients undergoing rehabilitation for their study. The study participants had to answer questions about their physical activity and their state of health at intervals of several years. In addition, the scientists registered all new heart attacks and strokes.

Too much sport can provoke new heart attack
As it turned out, the rarest health complications occurred in cardiac patients, who reportedly completed moderate training two to four times a week. Of the study participants who had little or no activity, four deaths were more frequent due to cardiovascular disease. The risk of complications also increased among patients who exercised daily. For example, twice as many severe cardiovascular events were registered in this group.

Another result of the study concerns the perseverance of cardiac patients. It turned out that most participants did not maintain their level of movement over the years and with increasing age. The proportion of cardiac patients who were active on a daily basis, or at least five to six times a week, decreased steadily. In contrast, the proportion of study participants who hardly ever did sports increased.

„Our analysis may overestimate the risk of patients from the most physically inactive group“, Brenner admits. „Because who is sick and weak anyway, does not do sports. That physical activity in moderation, as far as it is possible, is healthy, is beyond question. However, our results also suggest that there is an upper limit beyond which more sport brings no health benefit. The clinical recommendations on the secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases should take this into account accordingly.“

Lowering high blood pressure with sports in moderation
High blood pressure is one of the people's ill German and is one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Moderate physical activity can help reduce blood pressure. Prof. Jürgen Scholze from the German Hypertension League (DHL) pointed to the news agency in the run-up to World Hypertension Day on 17 May „dpa“ that three to four hours faster walking per week can significantly contribute to the regulation of hypertension. But „weight loss is the biggest factor, "said Scholze, who found that new cases could be reduced by 50 percent if people with high blood pressure dropped four kilograms within two years and then kept the weight afterwards In addition, the diet should be dispensed with salty foods such as ready meals, because too much salt promotes high blood pressure to stroke.