When diagnosed with Heart Failure, oftentimes your clinician may suggest trying cardiac rehab. Cardiac rehabilitation is a medically supervised program created to improve the health of your cardiovascular system. This program is typically offered to those recovering from certain heart-related conditions and procedures. It is designed to work on your exercise, nutrition, medication, and general lifestyle habits to strengthen your heart.

Just how helpful can cardiac rehab be? Studies have shown that people who participate in cardiac rehab have up to 30% fewer fatal heart events compared to people getting standard therapy alone.

Cardiac rehab typically spans about three months and focuses on three main areas to keep you healthy: exercise counseling, education for heart-healthy living, and stress counseling.

Exercise Counseling:

Exercising your heart is a great way to improve its condition. There are specific exercises that promote heart health, and doing those will help get your heart pumping and cardiovascular system working.

Heart-Healthy Living Counseling:

This includes bettering your nutrition habits by eating heart-healthy foods, managing risk factors, and managing other lifestyle choices that will make your heart function better tomorrow.

Stress Counseling:

Stress can take a toll on your heart. This portion of cardiac rehab focuses on keeping you at peace by working on tackling your everyday stressors.

The ultimate goal of cardiac rehab is to reduce the number of future heart problems and increase quality of life. But the most important part of the training is that it is a team effort. No one should have to face heart disease alone, the people you meet in the program and those instructing you, will help make taking charge of your lifestyle habits even easier.

If you think you’d be interested in cardiac rehab, ask your Health Advisor for help!