RALEIGH, N.C. - Exercise is safe for people who suffer heart failure, according to a large international study led by Duke University researchers.
The finding, reported Tuesday, is likely to change how doctors treat people who have blockages. For years, the prevailing wisdom was that heart failure patients risked dying if they exercised.
In the Duke-led study, which involved more than 2,300 patients at 82 health centers in the United States, Canada and France, found that heart failure patients who participated in cardiac rehabilitation were no more prone to dying or being hospitalized than patients who did not get the physician-directed exercise programs.
"First and foremost, it is safe," said Dr. Christopher O'Connor, a Duke cardiologist who presented the findings Tuesday morning at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association. "There was no increase risk of dying - overall or during exercise."
O'Connor said the findings could be used to prompt insurance companies, as well as Medicare, to cover cardiac rehabilitation for heart failure patients.
"We're not talking about a drug. We're talking about something that people can readily do, and it's been available since the beginning," he said.
The study, which followed patients for more than two years, was funded with a $37 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
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