Regular Exercise Helps Fight Heart Failure

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Exercise consisted of riding a stationary bicycle at least 30 minutes a day (usually in two sessions).

At the end of six months, biopsies of the patients' thigh quadriceps revealed that the number of progenitor cells in the exercise group increased by 109 percent, progenitor cells turning into muscle cells increased by 166 percent, and progenitor cells actively dividing to form new cells and repair damage to the muscle increased sixfold.

For the second study, 37 men with severe heart failure were randomly assigned to receive three months of exercise or to remain inactive.

The exercisers experienced dramatic changes: Circulating progenitor cells increased 47 percent, progenitor cells beginning to mature into endothelial cells increased almost 200 percent, and the density of capillaries in skeletal tissue increased 17 percent. There were no changes in the control group.

When they began, the exercising patients had peak oxygen uptake in the range of other patients needing heart transplants. But regular exercise was linked to an average 35 percent increase in exercise capacity, giving the men about 75 percent of the capacity seen in healthy people of the same age.

"Your heart is like an engine with six cylinders, and when we started the exercise program in those patients, about 3.5 cylinders were just not working," Linke explained. "After three to six months of exercise training, two of the cylinders started working again."

"It's a tremendous improvement, and no medication is able to do it," he noted.

But patients with heart failure should only embark on an exercise regimen under the supervision of a physician, Linke added.

"We recommend exercise once a day for up to 20 minutes five days a week for patients with heart failure, but clearly an exercise program should be initiated in in-hospital conditions or an outpatient setting, because you never know how an individual patient might react to initiation of a training program," he explained.

More information

For more on exercise and fitness, head to the American Heart Association.