Stress management enhances cardiac rehab
Health care workers not only have to urge their coronary artery disease (CAD) patients to stop smoking and reduce their cholesterol and blood pressure the traditional risk factors but to consider the significant role stress plays in their rehabilitation. A recent study run by James A. Blumenthal, PhD, from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, and colleagues showed that heart disease patients can dramatically reduce their risk of subsequent heart problems by learning how to manage stress.1
The investigators examined the effects of stress management and exercise training on 100 CAD patients who showed signs of exercise-induced ischemia. Groups were assigned to either a program of stress management training, supervised aerobic exercise, or usual medical care. The researchers found that stress management reduced the risk of subsequent cardiac events, including heart attacks and cardiac surgery, by 77% when compared with patients provided with medical care only. Patients in the exercise group showed a lower event rate to a lesser extent. Stress management also reduced mental stress-induced ischemia, while aerobic exercise reduced exercise-induced ischemia.
Reference
1. Blumenthal JA, Jiang W, Babyak MA, et al. Stress management and exercise training in cardiac patients with myocardial ischemia: Effects on prognosis and evaluation of mechanisms. Arch Intern Med 1997; 157:2,213-2,223.
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