Walk this way: A new approach to cardiac rehab

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It may be time for a new approach to helping people regain their health after suffering a heart attack. A study published today found that a different approach to rehab involving a serious amount of walking dramatically improved the health of cardiac patients.

The study compared a high-calorie-burning walking regimen to the standard cardiac rehab, which typically consists of walking, biking or rowing for 25 to 40 minutes at a brisk pace three times a week. The walking program involved walking 45 to 60 minutes a day at a moderate pace, five to six days a week. Researchers assigned 74 overweight cardiac rehab patients to one of the two programs for five months. They found the walking group had double the weight loss and a greater loss of fat mass. The walking group also had better insulin sensitivity, total cholesterol, blood pressure and a greater reduction in waist circumference. Those patients burned about 3,000 to 3,500 calories a week compared with about 700 to 800 per week among people in the standard therapy group.

‘Cardiac rehab has essentially remained the same since the 1970s because it has a mortality benefit,’ Dr. Philip A. Ades, the lead author of the study and a professor of medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine said in a news release. ‘But it doesn’t burn many calories and things have changed. Eighty percent of our rehabilitation patients are now overweight and many of them are becoming diabetic. It’s a different time in terms of what we need to do in cardiac rehab.’

The people in the walking group walked at a lower intensity and were comfortable doing it on their own. Most cardiac rehab is done under medical supervision, Ades noted. The participants’ weight loss, an average of 18 pounds, helped keep them motivated to walk, he said. The study is published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Assn.

-- Shari Roan