Recovering From Heart Attack

After a heart attack, the patient must rest for a while to reduce the work load on the heart and allow it to heal. During the healing process, scar tissue will form around the area where the heart muscle has died. This scar tissue cannot contract, but if the scar is small, the heart may continue to function well and the patient may recover. Today, physicians are advising a shorter period of bed rest than they did in past decades. They stress starting a planned program of exercise under medical supervision as soon as the patient is well enough. Exercise can aid the process by which the heart develops collateral circulation, a system of smaller blood when a main artery is blocked.

People recovering from heart attacks experience many different emotions. Many are very frightened, and understandably so. They may have the idea that it will be dangerous to put any strain whatsoever on their heart. They may be afraid to exercise at all, even to get out of a chair and walk across the room. Spouses may try to encourage victims to avoid exercise, including sexual activity, and thus may reinforce and doubts the individual already has about his or her heart. The patient's fear of a recurrence of the heart attack symptoms, or even of sudden death, may interfere with rehabilitation.

The first step in cardiac rehabilitation, then, is to reassure patients that a careful, step-by-step exercise program is not likely to hurt them. Through rehabilitation, patient can be restored to a relatively high level of functioning and may can eventually return to normal life. Their chanees for long term recovery are better, of course, if they also make lifestyle changes, reducing some of the risk factors.