Stay Active After a Heart Attack

By Editorial Staff

Exercise promotes heart health and can help prevent a heart attack. New research suggests physical activity can also help you live longer after you've suffered one. In fact, compared to heart-attack patients who were inactive during the first 10-12 months following their heart attack, patients who were active during that entire time period (post-attack) were 71 percent less likely to die over the next four years.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that even heart-attack sufferers who were inactive at first, but then increased activity levels during the 10-12-month window, were still 59 percent less likely to die compared to patients who remained sedentary. And even patients who reduced activity levels following their heart attack, but still did some activity, were 44 percent less likely to die compared to inactive patients.

More than 22,000 heart-attack survivors were included in the study, and patients were surveyed 6-10 weeks and 10-12 months post-attack. The moral to the story? Exercise matters! Talk to your doctor to learn more about how exercise and other lifestyle factors can influence heart-attack risk and overall health; and click here for great tips from the American Heart Association.