Exercise and Heart Attacksmake your next steps count.Exercise and heart attacks - it's a fine line to walk. You can always count on disease or trauma to leave weak links in your body system. Myocardial infarctions (or heart attacks) are no exception. This is why prevention is the name of the game! But, you're here now... so let's move towards a better, healthier life. Your heart attack (myocardial infarction or MI)may leave you with weak links... your cardiorespiratory response and the way your blood circulation reacts to exercise may be altered during exercise. We have seen that many people how have a previous MI will have a decreased aerobic capacity. This is primarily due to the diminished ability of the heart to push blood out to the body. With this decrease in cardiac output, comes a decrease in oxygen transport to the body system. Many MI's happen in the left ventricle...this being the heart chamber that pushes blood to the body system. Damage, death or dysfunction to this chamber can cause a number of exercise responses. Regardless of where the heart is damaged, cardiac output seems to be affected. Cardiac output can be affected by:
Despite the sometimes grim outlook on exercise and heart attack history, there is good rationale for exercise training with history of MI. Remember that there are other prevention and prophylactic measures you can take to get healthier despite your heart or medical history. Every little step towards getting healthy and staying that way counts! Think of it this way. If you were to take a long trip 100 miles away or so and didn't have a car, would every step count? Absolutely! You may or may not be able to depend on a lot of exercise to get you healthy, but every other step counts just as much. Regardless of damage... some exercise is better than nothing. This may mean that you develop a walking program with the help of your doctor instead of training for a marathon... remember each step counts.
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