Exercise May Benefit Those with Heart Failure
According to a recent article in Forbes.com a government-funded trial concluded exercise may benefit those with heart failure. The trial included 2,331 people with heart failure from United States, Canada and France. A portion of those were to regularly exercise aerobically, such as walking on a treadmill 25-30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
The goal of the study stated in the article was to determine if “regular exercise would reduce the incidence of death and hospitalization caused by heart failure, the progressive loss of the heart’s ability to pump blood.” Thirty months after initiating the study professor of Medicine at Duke University, Dr. Christopher M. O’Connor stated “our primary or first analysis did show a very modest reduction in the primary endpoints, but it did not achieve the nominal level of statistical significance.”
After the researchers analyzed the initial results they decided to take another look and make a few adjustments confirming that exercise did in fact lower the incidence of hospitalization and cardiovascular death.
“My belief, based on these results and when you look at the totality of information, is that an exercise prescription should be offered to patients with heart failure who meet our entry criteria,” O’Connor said.
Tags: Exercise Heart, Fitness Benefits