Recovery Through Cardiac Rehabilitation – 3 Things You Should Know

Once you’ve experienced a heart attack, stroke or more, you need to be very cautious. The chances of suffering a fatal, second attack are higher and can cause more damage to your heart. One of the best ways that doctors can help patients is by offering cardiac rehabilitation as a means of speeding up a person’s recovery after the attack.

As a holistic approach, cardiac rehabilitation allows people to recover and improve their heart’s health. These programs are aimed at improving heart health and lowering the risks of future attacks. While there may be medication involved, when the treatment is coupled with a cardiac rehabilitation program, the success rate has definitely improved.

1. How Do You Sign Up For It?

Most hospitals offer cardiac rehabilitation programs but you need to be eligible to qualify for them. Your doctor or medical practitioner can guide you better on the criteria for joining a cardiac rehabilitation program.

2. What Does Cardiac Rehabilitation Offer?

At first glance, people might assume that they’re undergoing lifestyle changes to improve their lives. Cardiac rehabilitation does all that more. It offers crucial solutions that can improve heart health, help one learn healthier habits and also address stress related issues. Most plans focus on the following three core areas:

• Exercise

Not many people are up for exercising after they have had a heart attack but, with cardiac rehab programs, they get the motivation they need. Based completely on their needs, the exercise routines are designed to improve heart health and understand how it impacts their cardiovascular system with ease.

• Healthy Living

Knowing how to make healthy living choices which is a major element in recovery but not everyone is able to let go of their bad habits. With cardiac rehab programs, people can learn more about how smoking affects the heart, which diets are good and bad, why sleeping early is necessary and managing personal risk factors. With this information, a person won’t feel so helpless or confused about their heart condition.

• Counseling

Having a near death experience, in the form of a heart attack, can cause one to experience a mix of emotions. Depression and stress are very common but if left unchecked, they can make things worse. With cardiac rehab programs, they get to understand the cause, learn how to manage stress and identify everyday sources of stress and how to effectively tackle it with ease.

3. Does it Really Work?

As compared to simply giving one medication for their heart condition or heart attack, doctors have found that cardiac rehabilitation can greatly boost the recovery of a person. It also helps to reduce the risk of a second attack after the first one.

An added bonus here is that the patient can feel like they aren’t alone. Isolation is very common for patients to experience but with cardiac rehabilitation, they get to be part of a community. It also creates a collaborative feeling where the doctors and the patients are working together to counter this issue.