BETHESDA, Md., Apr 8, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Regular exercise is safe for
heart failure patients and may slightly lower their risk of death or
hospitalization, U.S. researchers found.
Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
at the National Institutes of Health, said the researchers also found that heart
failure patients who add regular, moderate physical activity to standard medical
therapy report a higher quality of life compared with similar patients who
receive medical therapy only.
The researchers tracked 2,331 patients 82 centers in the United States, Canada
and France with moderate-to-severe systolic heart failure -- average age 59 --
for up to four years. About one-half of the participants were randomly assigned
to receive usual care alone, which included medical and device therapy as
prescribed by their physicians and educational materials on disease management.
They were also asked to engage in 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on
most days of the week.
Compared with the usual care group, the exercise training group had slightly
fewer deaths or hospitalizations from any cause.
In addition, there was no significant difference in serious adverse events
between the two groups, such as an abnormal heart rhythm, hip fracture, or
hospitalization related to exercise, suggesting that exercise training was well
tolerated and safe.
The study is published the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International