Novel Program Shows Heart Patients can Dance at Her Active Life

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Novel Program Shows Heart Patients can Dance

Posted June 15, 2008 at 01:00 PM by Kathleen Blanchard

Section: Her Fitness, Training Programs, Her Health, Injury & Rehab, Her Motivation, Music

ENTER IMAGE NAME BETWEEN QUOTES - USE ENGLISH NOT FILE NAMING STRUCTURE Recent studies show that heart patients don’t take advantage of cardiac rehabilitation centers. Even though most programs are covered by insurance and Medicare, their use is underwhelming. A two-year study shows that patients who attended a formal rehabilitation program that incorporated dance routines into their program kept coming back. The results were as good as traditional exercise – the patients all experienced adequate exercise levels and the positive effects of muscle strengthening safely. Those who were able to exercise at the highest level performed salsa routines. The program offered various levels of dance – blues for warm-up and low-level exertion, rock and roll or Cuban danzón (the official dance of Cuba) for intermediate exercise, and vigorous salsa for the highest level.

Paula V Quiroga (National Institute of Cardiology Ignacio Chavez, Mexico City, Mexico) reported the findings at the World Congress of Cardiology 2008, saying, “It’s a great alternative to the conventional rehabilitation program, and helps them avoid a sedentary lifestyle.”

Some of the patients were as old as 80, and all seemed to enjoy the increased socialization that goes along with getting up and dancing. Most of the patients were in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, with various forms of heart disease. Some experienced heart valve problems, and others had congestive heart failure. The most typical candidates for cardiac rehabilitation are those who have had open heart surgery and heart attacks (MI).

All of the dance routines were designed to keep the patient’s heart rates at varying levels, just as in traditional cardiac rehabilitation settings. Most interesting, is the fact that the idea came from one of Dr. Quiroga’s patients who is a dance teacher.

There were no instances of serious heart rhythm problems, and only 7% of the patients showed EKG changes that indicated ischemia (decreased blood flow) to the heart. The program enlisted patients twice a week for four weeks.

The study comes on the heels of report released in February from the CDC, showing that only one-third of patients who have experienced heart attack attended cardiac rehabilitation programs, and concluded with “Programs and policies directed at increasing the number of patients who are referred to and participate in cardiac rehabilitation need to be strengthened. Future research should focus on identifying barriers to cardiac rehabilitation participations and interventions to improve referral and receipt of outpatient rehabilitation services”.

It just proves that the best ideas come from healthcare consumers. Sometimes it just takes an open mind to change the way we look at our options. I’m thinking this must be good for the cardiac rehab nurses too – you don’t see much dancing at your typical nursing job. Where can I apply?

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18235423?dopt=Abstract
http://www.theheart.org/article/841697.do
http://www.theheart.org/article/868343.do

Kathleen is a Registered Nurse. You can read more by visiting her blog