Cardiac Rehabilitation is a medically supervised Life-Style Modification Program for patients who have suffered a Heart Attack, have undergone Bypass Surgery or Angioplasty or patients suffering from Heart Failure.

Who is eligible to join cardiac rehabilitation?

Those who have had:

• Heart attack
• Bypass surgery
• Angiography showing blockages
• Angioplasty
• History of cardiac arrhythmias
• Heart failure
• Stable angina
• Heart valve replacement
• Pacemaker, ICD or CRT implantation

 

We Cure the Disease, and not just repair it:

After undergoing Bypass surgery or Angioplasty, the patient’s Blocked arteries are bypassed. However, their risk is not over yet. Surgery just treats the Blockages and not the cause of Blockage. The patients are most likely to develop blockages in the bypassed arteries or other arteries of the Body in a very near future if they do not improve their Life-style.

There are 12 risk factors (causes) for Heart Diseases:

• High Cholesterol
• High Triglyceride
• Low HDL Cholesterol
• Altered Cholesterol: HDL ratio
• High LDL and VLDL Cholesterol
• High BP
• Smoking
• Diabetes
• Lack of Exercise
• Obesity and Overweight
• Low Fiber and Anti-oxidants in the Diet
• Stress

 

All these risk factors need to be addressed with Life-style modifications, Heart- friendly diet, Salt restrictions, Regular Cardiac Exercise and Certain Medicines if required.

Cardiac Rehabilitation is a 1 month program where we aim to treat all these risk factors with Life-style modifications so that Patients can permanently get rid of Heart Diseases. Cardiac Rehabilitation is a Class - I indication by American College of Cardiology/ American Heart Association after any Cardiac Procedure. However it was not available in Gujarat till date. Now a Structured Cardiac Rehabilitation Program is available at Blessed hearts Clinic which includes the following services:

After suffering from Heart disease, it is compulsory for all the heart patients to perform 30-45 minutes Cardiac Exercise every day for the rest of their Life. Examples of Cardiac Exercise include Walking, jogging, swimming, cycling etc.

Cardiac Exercise increases the demands of Body tissues for Oxygenated Blood & Nutrients. Hence the Heart needs to enhance its function during Cardiac Exercise and thus modest amount of risk lies for the Heart Patients. Thus, Continuous monitoring of ECG, Arterial Oxygen Saturation, Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar and Exercising under Doctor’s Supervision becomes very important especially in the early phase when the patient starts with Exercise after Cardiac Surgery.

With continuous monitoring, the Doctor can understand whether the demands laid by the body on the Heart are being fulfilled sufficiently or not. At Blessed Hearts Clinic, we provide medically safe environment for Heart Patients during Cardiac Exercise. We have state-of-the-art wireless telemetry monitoring system through which Doctor is continuously monitoring patient’s ECG, Arterial Oxygen Saturation (Spo2) and Blood Pressure during Cardiac Exercise.

Diet plays a very critical role in reversing the Heart Diseases. In a developing country like India as the society moves up the socioeconomic scale there are substantial changes that occur in diet. These include greater consumption of calories, fats (saturated fat and trans-fat), salt, refined carbohydrates and sugars and decreased intake of high-fiber foods, legumes and vegetables. A Heart-healthy diet should be exactly the opposite.

Specific guideline-based dietary advice becomes very much important in Heart patients to improve their Cholesterol & Blood Sugar levels and salt restriction is of utmost importance to reduce their Blood Pressure. At Blessed Hearts Clinic, after assessing Patient’s Current dietary pattern, he/ she is prescribed with Evidence based Heart-Healthy diet by expert Cardiac Dietitian.

Smoking narrows the arteries of the Heart and makes the inside of the arteries sticky so the Cholesterol and other substances can easily form a blockage in the Heart, thus triples the Chances of Heart Diseases. At Blessed Hearts Clinic, patients get a proper Medical support to quit Smoking and we make sure that their Smoking doesn’t relapse with proper timely Counselling and Nicotine Patch or Gum Support if required.

Stress is an unavoidable part of today’s life and Stress is considered a chief culprit behind Heart Diseases. Stress doubles the speed of Plaque build-up in the arteries and thus Stress- Management plays a key role in treatment of Heart Diseases. At Blessed Hearts Clinic, we try to reduce Stress with Yoga and Relaxation Techniques.

With regular Cardiovascular Exercise under Doctor’s Monitoring, with adherence to a Heart – friendly diet and with Medicines (if required) Patients will have their Blood Pressure, Sugar and Cholesterol levels under control.

With Sub-maximal Cardiovascular Exercise, there will be development of new Collateral Blood vessels in the Heart. These vessels will substantially increase the Blood Supply to the Heart Muscle. Thus the patient starts feeling relief from the symptoms of Chest Pain and Breathlessness after a few sessions of treatment.

Depending on how patient’s ECG, Blood Pressure & Sugar levels will respond to sub-maximal Cardiac Exercise, Doctor will need to make certain changes in Medications which will all be included in the 1 month program.