Test backs moderate exercise for patients with heart risk
Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
Published December 12, 2005 at midnight
BOULDER - University of Colorado researchers who put rats on a treadmill found that moderate exercise - the equivalent of a leisurely stroll by a human - can significantly delay the onset of congestive heart failure in those at risk.
The new study also pointed out the danger of too much exercise for those with congestive heart failure.
The rats carried genetic characteristics for developing heart failure, according to the study led by professor Russell Moore of CU's integrative physiology department.
The rats put on a treadmill lived 10 percent to 15 percent longer than those that simply sat in their cages, Moore said.
"Assuming the results are applicable to humans, low-intensity exercise is likely to have benefits to humans in early stages of congestive heart failure," Moore said.
Numerous studies have shown the benefit of moderate exercise for the general population. But it's been difficult to show that it is much of a positive for those suffering from congestive heart failure.
That's because most people with congestive heart failure also have hypertension and are on medications for it.
The CU study is unique in that the benefit was achieved without reducing high blood pressure in the animals - so researchers could attribute the benefit to exercise alone.
The amount of exercise made a huge difference. The rats started out running about 10 meters a minute on the treadmills. When that was raised to 17 meters a minute, several of the rats died.
But when the pace was lowered to 14 meters a minute, no more of the rats died, and they outlived the rats that didn't exercise at all or as much. Of the 10 rats that didn't exercise, nine died at an average age of 19 months.
After 22 months, when all of the rats that exercised were still alive, researchers stopped the study.
CU hopes to get a National Institutes of Health grant to see exactly how long heart-stressed rats that exercise can live, said Moore.
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