Physical activity in people with heart disease

The article is consulted professionally by Master, Dr Cao Thanh Tam – Cardiologist – Cardiologist – Share99 Central Park International Health Hub.

Physical activities always bring great benefits to human health and longevity, helping to prevent many diseases and improve quality of life. In particular, for people with heart disease, regular exercise is good for the cardiovascular system and can significantly reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease.

Physical activity is any activity that you can perform to improve or maintain your fitness and overall health. Physical activities include:

• Daily activities: Such as walking, cycling to work or school, doing business, gardening or doing any active or manual work that you can do as part of your work.
• Active entertainment: Includes activities such as dancing, playing with children, walking or cycling for entertainment.
• Sports: includes physical exercises at home, at the gym or an exercise class, swimming activities and competitive sports such as football, rugby or tennis,…

As a result of recent studies, participants who practiced physical exercise at an average of 150 minutes per week reduced their risk of heart disease by 14%, and those who practiced 300 minutes a week decreased by 20% compared to those who did not. And scientists also point out that performing any type of physical activity is very useful in enhancing cardiovascular health and reducing the risk of heart diseases. In particular, the higher the age, the more it is necessary to focus on regular and regular exercise to improve the state of health.

Practicing physical activities is very healthy, so you should try to practice at least 150 minutes a week. Besides, all forms of physical activity such as chow, walking, running or swimming are beneficial for the cardiovascular system. In addition to supporting and improving cardiovascular health, practicing physical exercise regularly also brings many other great health benefits, including preventing high blood pressure, losing weight, reducing stress,…

Many studies have also shown that an increase in physical activity and cardicardia also significantly reduces the risk of death from coronary heart disease. When we practice physical exercise regularly, the heart beats more slowly when we have to exercise hard. Moreover, a person who diligently trains will have stronger, supple and less tired muscles than those who do not.

In addition, exercise also helps you limit the accumulation of body fat – one of the main causes that increase the risk of cardiovasculardisease , and coronary arteries also expand more easily, helping the heart work more effectively.

A lot of people have imposed a thought that people with heart disease have to take absolute rest in bed and avoid much movement. However, the fact that patients with heart disease regularly exercise will have a more comfortable mentality and significantly improve the quality of life. They are less likely to experience symptoms, less to go to the hospital and more likely to return to work. It is clear that reasonable physical activity has contributed a lot of benefits to the process of rehabilitation of cardiovascular function of the patient.

Some other benefits of practicing physical exercise regularly for people with heart disease, include:

• Increased oxygen-deprived endurance
• Reduces the oxygen demand of the heart muscle
• Opening of inactive vessels in the heart muscle
• Make arteries softer, more elastic and supple
• Help the veins bring blood back to the heart more quickly and regularly
• Push more blood to the brain, kidneys, lungs, liver and muscles,…

People with cardiovascular problems may experience health risks if they exercise improperly or adopt a training regime that is not suitable for their cardiovascular condition.

When people with heart disease practice static sports, which are mainly related to supporting activities, muscle contraction, not moving much veins or maintaining a pose (such as weightlifting) can cause blood pressure to rise suddenly, endangering lives, especially those with high blood pressure, congenital heart disease or coronary artery disease.

In addition, people with heart disease if they practice heavily from the beginning of the workout or excessive heart tolerance can lead to heart overload and burden the heart. This can lead to myocardial infarction for people with coronary artery disease or worsen heart failure in people with heart failure.

One of the factors that can also affect cardiovascular health is the weather when exercising. Physical activity when the weather is high humidity makes the body quickly tired. Movement in too cold or overheated weather also adversely affects the circulation system, causing chest pain, shortness of breath, fluctuating blood pressure, instability and is a preemonior to develop into angina or myocardial infarction.

It is clear that when doing any physical exercise we also need to work harder more or less, so some cardiovascular events are at risk such as arrhythmias and angina. However, these risks are extremely low, approximately only approximately once if you practice 400,000-800,000 hours, equivalent to in 400-800 thousand people exercising (if on average one person trains 1 hour), only 1 person is at risk of these risks.

The above rate shows how safe it is to practice physical exercise even if you have cardiovascular disease. Moreover, the risk of cardiovascular complications is even lower in people who regularly exercise. If it is general for everyone, up to 90% of cardiovascular events occur during rest, not during movement.

As such, the practice of physical exercise for people with heart disease can be considered safe. However, you should still pay attention to abnormal manifestations different from every day, which may arise during or after the workout. These abnormal manifestations include feelings of chest pain; heavy or instant, squeezed in the chest; pain that spreads to the neck, chin, shoulders or down the arms; dizziness, shortness of breath, dizziness, abnormal feelings of distress or nervousness. If you see any problems, you should go to cardiologist for examination and advice on appropriate training.

For those suffering from cardiovascular problems, it is necessary to see a doctor for specific instructions on the training regime with the right intensity for the condition. People with heart disease should choose sports that do not require much physical fitness, such as walking, slow running, gentle exercise or swimming. Note that, before starting the workout, you need to start thoroughly for a minimum of 15 minutes so that the recirculating system, respiratory system, muscles, bones, joints can adapt to the motor rhythm. Patients should also avoid over-exercising as they can be counterproctorous and dangerous to the heart.

Those who may be weak when exercising should take the form of a few minutes of exercise and then take a break with the training time or even double the training time, continuing to repeat it over a total of about 30 minutes for a workout. You should remember that exercising is not necessarily a lot of exercise, very good practice, but you simply need to practice regularly, regularly in a system and in accordance with your health condition.

Here are some physical activities suitable for people with heart disease, including:

• Walking: to best improve your cardiovascular health, you should walk a little fast, walk so that the pulse quickly increases, then you will gently walk slowly. If you see a little sweat and a little folding breath is a good sign. Every day you should spend about 30-60 minutes walking.
• Running: this is a very good way of training for people with heart disease. You should start running slowly then accelerate gradually but should not be overwhelmed. If you are tired, slow down before stopping completely. Every week you should only run about 3-4 times.
• Swimming: you should swim freely, gently, do not swim too fast or dive for long because holding your breath is very dangerous for the heart.
• Table tennis, badminton: you should play softly, fit, do not try to play lasting more than an hour.
• Air conditioning, yoga: helps psychological comfort, always optimistic and very good for the cardiovascular system.

Currently, cardiovascular disease prevention is a way to help protect the active health that anyone can do through regular health check-up. With the desire to help customers protect cardiovascular health in general and detect early signs of myocardial infarction and stroke, Share99 International Health Hub has been providing Cardiovascular Screening Package – Basic Cardiovascular Examination. The examination package helps to detect cardiovascular problems early through tests and modern imaging methods. The examination package is for all ages, genders and is especially necessary for people with cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Master – Dr Cao Thanh Tam has many years of experience in diagnosing and treating cardiovascular diseases; Perform cardiac ultrasound through the chest wall in the field of internal medicine and cardiovascular intervention; Perform other non-invasive functional probes in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. He has been a cardiologist at Share99 Central Park International Health Hub since November 2015.

Related articles: Patient.info, Vietnam Society of Cardiologist