Why Cardiac Rehab is Important

It’s a very frightening experience, sitting in the waiting room while a loved one is having a heart procedure. It may be even more frightening to be the one having the procedure. The staff at the hospital is very caring and provided the information we needed as things progressed.

However, once you’re out of the hospital accurate information may be hard to come by. That’s why your doctor will probably want you to go through cardiac rehabilitation. That way, the information you get is approved by the doctor, who knows your medical history. Here are a few of the benefits.

Disease Management Counseling
While most people have an idea of what some heart problems are, but no idea what it’s going to mean in the long run. One of the tools that has been used after angiograms is to show the patient the video of the procedure.

Start an Exercise Program
Anyone can start an exercise program, but after developing cardiovascular disease it’s important to make sure the exercise is right for you. If it’s been a while since you last exercised, the rehab program will probably have you start slowly and build up to a certain level before moving on to more advanced stuff.

Nutrition Counseling
Unless you’ve discovered a need to study nutrition labels, you may be surprised at what you’re eating. The lettuce on your burger and the French fries in that value meal don’t mean you’ve had two servings of vegetables. It does mean you’ve probably consumed two days of your new salt recommended maximum and two or three days of your new fat/cholesterol levels.

You may end up like many of us who are concerned about what we eat. You’ll find us in the canned goods aisle, picking up a product, reading the label, sighing and putting it back on the shelf. It takes a lot of work to find processed foods with any number in the safe level.

What are these levels I’m writing about? Healthy people are supposed to consume no more than 2400 mgs of sodium per day and fewer than 300 mgs of fat. If you have heart disease those levels are 1200 mgs of sodium and 200 mgs of fat.

Help Modifying Risk Factors
While you can’t change such factors as heredity, there are a few you can change. Diet is one, but you’ll also want to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. If you smoke, stopping is a good idea. Obesity and diabetes should also be managed in order to avoid more problems.

Vocational Guidance
Some careers may need to be changed if you have cardiovascular disease. Your rehab counselors can help you understand whether this is something you need to consider.

Explain Physical Limitations
Depending on the severity of the disease, you may not be able to do some of the things you used to do. Hiking, soft ball and other activities may be ok for some but potentially deadly for others.

Your medications may provide other limitations, which the cardiac rehab counselors can explain. Many blood pressure medications lower blood flow to certain regions of the body. There are a few things that can be done for this, but it’s best to work with a the rehab counselors to choose the best way to handle this problem.

Emotional Support
There are a lot of emotions that will go through your mind. Fear of death, anger, grief and other emotions are real, reasonable and should be dealt with. You may go through more than one episode of each. Having someone to talk to about it can help, and these are trained to help you work through the emotions.

How to Use Prescriptions
Heart disease usually requires a lot of medications to keep under control. You may need more than one type of blood pressure medication, anti-cholesterol medications and blood thinners. The rehab counselors will help you figure out when to take them for best efficacy. If there is a problem, they can relay that to the doctor who may choose to change the prescription.

Cardiac rehab is a good tool to help you deal with a life altering and life threatening problem. Believe me, you don’t want to go through the pain and fear induced by emergency cardiac intervention more than once.