components of cardiac rehab – Cardiac Wellness Institute

Heart failure, as you may know, is a condition where the heart fails to pump blood efficiently leading to shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness, swelling in the limbs, rapid or irregular heartbeat, persistent cough, loss of appetite and nausea. You may read our earlier article to better understand the causes and types of heart failure:

Getting to grips with heart failure

We now know that cardiac rehabilitation or cardiac rehab is the best therapy for heart failure, especially when combined with the right medications and surgical or interventional procedures as needed.

What is Cardiac Rehabilitation?

Cardiac rehabilitation is a program designed to help people with heart problems recover, improve their overall health and reduce the risk of future heart problems. It is a team effort involving healthcare professionals such as cardiologists/ physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians and psychologists.

What are the phases of Cardiac Rehabilitation?

Phase 1: Inpatient Phase (in the hospital)

Patients with heart ailments such as heart failure might be referred to cardiac rehabilitation right from their hospital stay. The rehab team will assess and evaluate your physical as well as psychosocial abilities and initiate education, early mobilisation, medications and lifestyle modifications.

Phase 2: Outpatient Phase (post discharge)

Once the patient is discharged from the hospital, the rehabilitation will continue at an outpatient care facility. It involves supervised exercise training, education on risk factor management, nutritional guidance, psychological counselling and lifestyle changes.

Phase 3: Training Phase

It focuses on long term cardiovascular health maintenance and involves transition from supervised to a less supervised exercise training.

Phase 4: Maintenance Phase

This phase continues throughout your entire life once you complete the previous 3 phases. Patients are encouraged to make regular exercise a part of their daily routine and adopt healthy lifestyle choices.

How is Cardiac Rehabilitation beneficial in heart failure patients?

Makes the cardiovascular system stronger
Improves exercise capacity
Enhances quality of life
Reduces hospital readmissions
Improves long term adherence to healthy behaviours
Helps control the risk factors which lead to heart failure (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, etc.)
Elevates mood and positive attitude towards life

What are the safety measures to be followed during exercise?

Consult with your physician before starting or modifying an exercise routine
Start gradually and progress slowly
Prior to exercise, perform a warm-up routine and end the session with a cool-down period
Keep track of your heart rate and symptoms such as chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, leg cramps and excessive fatigue
Stay hydrated, consuming fluids as advised by your physician
Take prescribed medicines as directed
Exercise in a safe and controlled environment

Hence, enrolling in a cardiac rehab program is a positive step towards taking control of your heart health and enjoying a better quality of life. Remember that you are not alone in this journey, and there is a dedicated team ready to support you in every possible way.

Knowledge-sharing: the essence of effective Cardiac Rehabilitation

Education or knowledge-sharing is the most important aspect of Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation Programs. For someone who has had a heart attack or myocardial infarction, having a reliable and knowledgeable professional to talk to and get answers to some pertinent questions makes a big difference. This is what health education is all about. The British Association of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation very aptly describes the 6 core components in this artwork:

Health behaviour change, which is the first and fundamental step in improving the cardiac and overall wellbeing, depends hugely on proper education. Let us take the common example of hypertension. We all know that high blood pressure is not good for our body and most of us are also aware that reducing salt intake can help reduce our blood pressure. However, only when an experienced dietician understands the food pattern of an individual and educates him/her about obvious and hidden salt in our daily diet, the simple ways by which salt can be cut-down in the household and what are the alternative ingredients that can be used to enhance taste in low-salt cooking, that person is actually able to make that particular health behaviour change of reducing salt in their diet and sustaining that change.

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The healthcare team at Cardiac Wellness Institute is not only involved in educating patients and their families about the risk factor management, heart-healthy nutrition and exercise principles but is also actively engaged in training healthcare professionals from other parts of India so that more such comprehensive and high-quality cardiac rehab services become available to the people who need it, close to wherever they live.