People who suffered a heart attack should be careful when exercising. We tend to think that there is almost never enough time spent doing physical exercises. However, new research shows that heart attack survivors have to pay extra attention when scheduling their exercises.
Regularly, doctors recommend exercises for everybody. Those who suffered a stroke, must not engage in exercising for more than half an hour, because it might hurt them more than doing good.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory life sciences researcher Paul T. Williams and Paul D. Thompson, cardiologist at Hartford Hospital, CT, conducted a study on the matter. The conclusion is that for heart attack survivors, more than 30 miles of running per week is detrimental to their health.
Doctors recommend running for everybody. Another recent study confirmed the benefits accrued through this specific type of exercise. Even five minutes of running per day may add three years to your lifespan.
Heart attack survivors should run a maximum of around 40 miles per week
More than 2300 people were investigated to reach the conclusion. They all suffered heart attacks when they registered to National Runners’ and Walkers’ Health Study. In average, each of the subjects was followed up for 10.4 years. Those who ran between 30 and 46 miles per week had progressively decreased their chances of suffering a similar attack again by 70 percent compared to those who did not run or walked at all.
In the cases of the subjects who ran for more than 46 miles per week, the risks of suffering another heart attack were similar to those who did not run at all. In total, the excessive runners faced a 2.6 times higher risk of dying from a cardiovascular disease, compared with those who ran less.
Specifically talking about heart attack survivors, “the results are surprising,” said Williams. “Our previous research has shown that heart disease risk factors and the risk for nonfatal heart attacks improved with greater running distance through at least 40 miles per week, with no indication that things got worst at higher mileages. Like other medical treatments, there appears to be a level that can be excessive.”
The authors underlined that the results do not apply to patients who suffered other traumas or diseases or to healthy persons. In the end, they advise heart attack survivors to exercise moderately twice a week and avoid daily high-intensity exercises.