Stents or drugs are often used in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). But the latest health news shows that exercise may do just as well in helping these people improve their walking ability. The health breakthrough was just presented at an American Heart Association meeting in Rhode Island.
PAD is caused by plaque build-up in the arteries, disrupting blood flow, especially to the legs. About 10 million Americans suffer from PAD and the painful cramping (“claudication”) that it causes in the leg muscles. This makes walking hard, leading to a sedentary lifestyle that worsens health.
Currently, doctors’ advice is to go with medication, supervised exercise rehabilitation, and stents. The new study is the first multi-center clinical trial to compare the treatment strategies. It is published in the November issue of “Circulation.”
(By the way, if you do have stents protecting your arteries, here’s a great tip for you: Special Report for Those on Heart Drugs.)
The study found that, amongst 111 patients, the most effective treatment proved to be supervised exercise. This is based on the results of a treadmill test taken at the beginning and six months later. Patients in the supervised exercise group improved by a mean of 4.6 minutes in the treadmill test, while the group who received stents improved by a mean of 2.5 minutes.
Conversely, quality of life was reported higher in the stent group, even though their ability to walk did not improve as greatly as the exercise group.
Still, the study shows that patients with claudication can turn to exercise (where they know what they are doing) to improve their walking performance. This benefit is associated with an improvement in self-reported walking distance, as well as an increase in HDL (“good”) cholesterol.
There is no illusion here: healthcare costs are big news these days. So, this study provides an avenue by which we could achieve a major positive set of health outcomes at low risk and at lower cost. Simply walking more often on a treadmill.
While more studies are necessary, the researchers believe that supervised exercise may be an effective recommended treatment for PAD patients with claudication. If that is you, then now you are armed with some very useful information.
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