Forty minutes of regular physical activity for 5 days in a week reduces the chances of a dreadful type of heart failure by 11%.
Highlights
- Heart failure is approximately equally divided between two subtypes: heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). //
- Ejection fraction refers to the percentage of the blood that exits the heart with each contraction.
- In heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, the heart stiffens and doesn't relax enough.
- The incidence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction was 19 percent lower for individuals who exercise and who have a lower BMI.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction accounts for up to 50 percent of heart failure cases and is associated with poor outcomes. It has also proven to be resistant to available therapies, leading to prevention being a critical part of controlling the growing burden of this disease.
"We consistently found an association between physical activity, BMI and overall heart failure risk," said Jarett D. Berry, MD, associate professor in the department of internal medicine and clinical sciences and director of cardiac rehabilitation at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and the study's senior author. "This was not unexpected, however the impact of these lifestyle factors on heart failure subtypes was quite different."
Study Analysis
Researchers analyzed data from three cohort studies that included 51,541 participants with 3,180 heart failure events. The three studies used to pool data were the Women's Health Initiative, the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and the Cardiovascular Health Study.
Physical Activity Reduces the Chances of HFpEF
A total of 3,180 heart failure events were observed from the pooled data; of these events, 39.4 percent were HFpEF, 28.7 percent were HFrEF, (the type of heart failure that is associated with a weak heart muscle that doesn't pump well), and 31.9 percent were unclassified.
When compared to no physical activity, low levels of physical activity were associated with 6 percent lower risk of heart failure. Researchers found that higher levels of physical activity had even lower risk of heart failure--11 percent lower risk for those who met the guideline-recommended amount of activity and 22 percent lower risk for greater than guideline-recommended physical activity.
Overall, the incidence of HFpEF was significantly lower among study participants with higher levels of physical activity. For those achieving physical activity levels above the guideline-recommended amount, they had a 19 percent lower risk of HFpEF.
Ambarish Pandey, MD, a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and first author on the study said, "There was a distinct relationship between both physical activity and BMI and the different heart failure subtypes, which may have important clinical and public health implications. These data suggest the importance of modifying lifestyle patterns to help prevent HFpEF in the general population."
Limitations include the inability to prove a cause-and-effect relationship due to its observational nature.
Reference
- Jarett Berry et al., Inactivity, excess weight linked to hard-to-treat heart failures, Journal of American College of Cardiology (2017).
Source-Medindia