12 Weeks to a Safer Heart
By Dr. Kelly McGrath
Cardiac Rehabilitation is one of the least known services for patients with heart disease yet it has some of the biggest impacts on heathy outcomes for that group. Unfortunately, it also is a service that is not as available or is under-utilized by those, like us, living in rural America. This places those who live rurally with heart disease at a disadvantage relative to those living in urban areas. Fortunately, at Clearwater Valley Health in Orofino and St. Mary’s Health in Cottonwood, we have a Cardiac Rehabilitation program available to improve the lives and health outcomes for people in our area so that they do not have to suffer worse heart outcomes simply by their rural zip code.
Cardiac Rehabilitation is a specific structured program that allows those with heart disease to work on improving their physical function while doing so in a safe, supervised program. Those who have had a heart attack, cardiovascular disease requiring surgery or stent placement, heart valve surgery, heart transplantation or suffer from congestive heart failure likely qualify for the program. The program is run by our physicians and the sessions supervised by a Certified Exercise Physiologist, Nick Pomponio. Ideally, it consists of 36 sessions of about a ½ hour over a 12 week period of time.
Although the Cardiac Rehabilitation program is about 3 months in duration, the benefits can be lifelong. In fact, Cardiac Rehabilitation reduces risk of death from all causes (not just heart), cuts risk of hospitalization almost in half and reduces the risk of a new heart attack by about 28%. Those who participate also have been found to report overall improved quality of life. Most of us know that aspirin and cholesterol lowering medications known as “statins” can save lives for those with heart disease. We may not know though that Cardiac Rehabilitation is about 3 to 5 times more effective than those medications to improve outcomes!
One of the biggest barriers to patients benefiting from Cardiac Rehabilitation is simply a lack of awareness of the service and its benefits for those with heart disease fortunate enough to live in an area where it is available. Gender seems to also play a role as, like many other heart treatments, it is particularly underutilized by women.
If you have heart disease, have had heart surgery or deal with congestive heart failure, please do everything possible to improve your outcomes and improve the quality of your life. That will entail working with your healthcare provider to put together the best plan for you. In that process, it is reasonable to ask if you are a candidate for Cardiac Rehabilitation. If so, your provider can refer you to the programs at Clearwater Valley Health and St Mary’s Health to give you the best chance at a healthy quality of life.