Why Cardiac Rehabilitation?
It can add life to your years and years to your life!
Cardiac rehabilitation is a customized outpatient program of medically supervised exercise and education. It is designed to improve your heart health and help you recover from a heart attack, other forms of heart disease, or heart surgery.
A well-designed cardiac rehabilitation program will support you in your journey to reduce your cardiovascular risk and live a long and healthier life! Key features of cardiac rehabilitation are exercise training, emotional support, and education about lifestyle changes to reduce your heart disease risk. Ask your doctor about referring you to cardiac rehabilitation; it can be life changing!
The Benefits of Cardiac Rehabilitation
Cardiac rehabilitation has many scientifically proven benefits. It will make a difference in your life and will reduce your cardiovascular risk.
- All-cause mortality by 27%
- Cardiac mortality by 31%
- Hospital readmission by 28-56%
- Quality of life
- Functional capacity
- Strength and endurance
- Confidence
- Early return to work
- Self-management skills and confidence
- Lifestyle changes
How Cardiac Rehabilitation helps?
Participants report the day-to-day benefits of feeling improved health and wellbeing, strength, stamina, confidence, empowerment, less pain, discomfort, and initiating lifestyle changes.
Decreased Pain
Management of Condition
Supporting Lifestyle Changes
Increased Confidence
Increased Independence
Increased Strength
Prevention of Future Heart Complications
Decreased Need For Medications to Treat Heart/Chest Pain
Improvement in Overall Health & Wellbeing
What Conditions May Benefit From Cardiac Rehabilitation?
If you want to improve your heart health, you can benefit from a cardiac rehabilitation program.
- You have risk factors: hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, sedentary life, overweight, stress, and if you want to prevent a cardiac issue
- You had a recent cardiac procedure: stent, bypass surgery/valve surgery, angioplasty, pacemaker or heart transplant
- You have been diagnosed with a heart condition: angina, arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, heart attack, cardiomyopathy
- You have risk factors: hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, sedentary life, overweight, stress, and if you want to prevent a cardiac issue
- You had a recent cardiac procedure: stent, bypass surgery/valve surgery, angioplasty, pacemaker or heart transplant
- You have been diagnosed with a heart condition: angina, arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, heart attack, cardiomyopathy
The Cardiac Rehabilitation Team
Cardiac rehabilitation programs can be conducted while a person is a hospital inpatient or on an outpatient basis. Many skilled professionals are part of the cardiac rehabilitation team, including any or all of the following:
- Cardiologist
- Registered dietitian / Nutritionist
- Exercise Physiologist / Fitness Instructors
- Psychologist
- Stress Management Specialist
- Internist
- Registered Nurses
- Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist
Today is the day after my eighty-eighth birthday. I am celebrating, among other things, the fact that I am fit and healthy. How did this happen? Well, I think there are two reasons. First, my body has become a kind of showcase for the latest medical devices. Second, for the past twenty-five years I have belonged to a cardiac rehabilitation program.