Exercise may generate new blood vessels By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
2 hours, 32 minutes ago VIENNA, Austria - Having a bad heart doesn't mean you can skip
exercise, doctors said Wednesday. In fact, it may even help your heart
to repair itself. Research presented at the European Society of
Cardiology meeting showed that exercise sparks the creation of new
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In a small study of 37 people at Leipzig University in Germany,
Dr. Robert Hollriegel found that people with serious heart failure who
rode a bike for up to 30 minutes a day for four months produced new
stem cells in their bones.
They also had more small blood vessels in their muscles. Those who didn't exercise had no change in their vessels or muscles.
Most patients with heart failure are over 70 years old, and some can
barely walk a few steps without stopping for rest. Doctors think that
even these patients would benefit from light exercise such as walking
or cycling. To ensure that patients will be able to handle a certain
level of physical activity, doctors conduct a test first to determine
their maximum limits and to ensure they would not be exceeded. Some
exercise regimens also are supervised by health professionals.
"We're not talking about patients with acute heart problems," said
Dr. John Cleland, a heart failure specialist at the University of Hull
in Britain who is spokesman for the European Society of Cardiology.
Cleland was not involved in Hollriegel's research.
"This is to prevent people from getting into a cycle of
deterioration where they're afraid to exercise and they just avoid any
activity that leaves them out of breath," he said.
Physical activity strains the heart's arteries and muscles by
sending 10 times the normal amount of blood to the muscles being used.
Stem cells then are dispatched to relieve this stress and may repair
any damaged parts. If you continue to exercise, these stem cells help
the body adapt to the stress, by building new blood vessels and
strengthening muscles. But to maintain such benefits, you must exercise
regularly.
Cleland said that people with heart failure should exercise to a
state where they're breathless at least once a day. Pushing the limits
of their heart's capabilities should help make it stronger.
"People think that if they have heart failure, then they're at the
end of the road and they can't exercise," said Dr. Freek Verheugt, a
cardiologist at the University of Nymegen in the Netherlands. "But this study shows that exercise can work to produce new blood vessels, even in patients with serious heart disease."
Because no drugs exist to produce new stem cells, exercise may be the only method for some patients to rebuild their hearts.
"We are not saying that patients should run marathons, but there is
no other way to augment your arteries," said Dr. Francois Carre of
Rennes University Hospital in France. "Patients have to exercise if they want that."
Previous studies have shown that people who do physical therapy
after a heart attack live longer than those who don't. Experimental
studies in rats have also suggested that exercise can even be more
effective than statins, drugs that are commonly used to treat heart
disease.
Though doctors routinely recommend that patients exercise, it is not
an actual treatment. Carre thinks that should change. "We need to write
patients prescriptions to exercise the same way we write prescriptions
for drugs," he said.
"People have been trying for years to create a polypill to treat
many different parts of heart disease," Carre said. "But that already
exists. It's exercise."
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