HEALTH UPDATE: home exercise may aid heavy heart failure patients

24 Apr, 2006

A home-based exercise program for overweight or obese patients with advanced heart failure results in significant weight loss after six months, researchers in California report.
It's well established that exercise is important for long-term weight control for overweight people, Dr Lorraine S. Evangelista, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues point out. "However, little evidence exists confirming such findings in patients with advanced heart failure."
To look into this, the researchers assigned 99 heart failure patients, classified as at least overweight, to a low-level, home-based exercise program or to a comparison "control" group. The participants' average age was 53 years, and most were male, white and married, according to the report in the American Journal of Cardiology.
Those in the exercise program were asked to walk for 45 minutes at least four times a week at a speed that raised their heart rate to 60 percent of maximum. After six weeks, a light resistive training component was added to the exercise regimen.

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