What is cardiac rehabilitation?

Cardiac rehabilitation services are designed to help patients with heart disease recover faster and return to full and productive lives. Cardiac rehabilitation includes exercise, education, counseling, and learning ways to live a healthier life. Together with medical and surgical treatments, cardiac rehabilitation can help a person with heart disease feel better and live a healthier life.

What conditions may benefit from cardiac rehabilitation?

Conditions or cardiac procedures that may necessitate cardiac rehabilitation may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Myocardial infarction (heart attack)
• Coronary artery bypass surgery
• Balloon angioplasty and/or intracardiac stents
• Stable angina
• Chronic heart failure (CHF)
• Heart transplantation
• Others heart conditions

The cardiac rehabilitation team:

A physician referral is required for a person to participate in an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation program. Many skilled health professionals are part of the cardiac rehabilitation team, including any of the following:

• Doctors (cardiologist and your family doctor)
• Nurses
• Exercise specialists
• Dietitians
• Psychologists or other behavior therapists
• Pharmacists
• Social workers
• Physical and occupational therapists

Cardiac rehabilitation services:

The goal of cardiac rehabilitation is to help someone with heart disease return to the highest level of function and independence possible, while improving the quality of life - physically, emotionally, and socially. Services are designed to meet the needs of the individual patient and active involvement of the patient and family is vital to the success of the program.

The major parts of cardiac rehabilitation include the following:

Exercise training: You will learn how to exercise safely, strengthen your muscles, and improve your stamina while under medical supervision. The exercise plan will be based on your individual ability, needs, and interests.

Education: You will learn about your heart condition and what you can do to help manage it and reduce your risk of future heart problems.

Counseling and behavior change: You will learn specific skills to help you stop unhealthy behaviors such as smoking or to begin healthy behaviors such as eating a heart-healthy diet and being physically active. You will learn how to better manage stress and cope with the adjustments needed to live healthier and deal with your concerns about your heart condition.

Research has found that cardiac rehabilitation benefits patients who participate in the following ways:

• Improvement in exercise tolerance
• Improvement in heart-related symptoms
• Improvement in blood lipid levels
• Reduction in cigarette smoking
• Improvement in psychosocial well-being and reduction in stress
• Reduction in mortality