Cardiac Rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation, also called cardiac rehab, is a medically supervised program for people who have had a heart attack, heart failure, heart valve surgery, coronary artery bypass grafting, or percutaneous coronary intervention. Cardiac rehab involves adopting heart-healthy lifestyle changes to address risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

To help you adopt lifestyle changes, this program includes exercise training, education on heart-healthy living, and counseling to reduce stress, helping you return to an active life. Cardiac rehab can improve your health and quality of life, reduce the need for medicines to treat heart or chest pain, decrease the chance you will go back to a hospital or emergency room for a heart problem, prevent future heart problems, and even help you live longer.

Your therapy team will work with you to tailor a program that fits your life and needs as the goal of South County’s program is to help you with your goals.

Cardiac Rehab Involves:

• Medically supervised exercise counseling and training: You’ll learn how to get your body moving, your heart pumping, and your cardiovascular system working in order to promote heart health. Includes programming focused on cardiovascular training, strength and balance with your goals in mind.
• Education for heart-healthy living: A key element of cardiac rehab, learn how to manage your risk factors, choose good nutrition, quit smoking, self-manage diabetes, and other heart-healthy lifestyle changes.
• Counseling to reduce stress: Identify and tackle everyday sources of stress that can affect your heart.

Common benefits of cardiac rehabilitation include increased confidence and energy, optimizing medical management, and returning to previous activity levels.