Heart Failure Improves with Resistance Training

     Thu Nov 25, 2:53 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Combining resistance exercises such as weight
lifting with endurance training safely improves the health of people with
chronic heart failure, researchers in Belgium report.

Although resistive weight training is theoretically beneficial to heart
failure patients, there is concern that it could cause unfavorable changes in
the structure of the heart and perhaps trigger dangerous heartbeat
irregularities, Dr. Viviane M. Conraads and colleagues at University Hospital
Antwerp explain in the European Heart Journal.

Conraads' group followed 27 heart failure patients who participated in a
combined endurance and resistance exercise program, along with 22 similar
patients ("controls") who could not participate. The exercise program included
three hour-long sessions per week for 4 months.

The investigators measured levels of a protein called NT-proBNP, which is a
good marker of heart-wall stress as well as an indicator of mortality risk.

Levels of NT-proBNP decreased by about 25 percent at the end of the 4-month
training period in the exercise group, but remained unchanged in the control
group. Heart function also was improved only in the trained group.

Those in the training class exhibited a significant decrease in heart
dimensions, which argues against any harmful effect from resistive weight
training in heart failure patients, the investigators report.

There were no adverse events, such as hospitalization, heart attack or severe
heart rhythm abnormalities during the study.

"The results of the present study add to the evidence that a combined training
protocol offers both a safe and effective approach" for people with severe
heart failure, Conraads team concludes.

SOURCE: European Heart Journal, October 2004.