A jolt of pain wrenched him from sleep: Cardiac rehab

Last February, a jolt of pain wrenched him from sleep. It was a heart attack. Ninety minutes later, he was at Massachusetts General Hospital, where doctors cleared a potentially lethal clog from one of his heart arteries.

Then they told Arthur Manjourides, 66, it was time to change his life. They gave him prescriptions for both pills and cardiac rehabilitation. Now he's 55 pounds lighter, and has lower cholesterol – and fewer hours at work.

"I wanted to get better. I wanted to get healthy. I would rather not be alive than have to be crippled by not doing things," he said.

A study in the October issue of Circulation by Dr. William Stason and others said few older survivors of heart attacks (14%) and few heart surgery patients (31%) enter cardiac rehab, though many more would benefit from it. Bypass surgery and artery-clearing procedures don't actually cure patients; they only address the most pressing symptoms of heart disease. Lifestyle changes and medications fix the underlying problems.

Advice to advocates for heart attack and heart surgery patients: Ask the doctor whether cardiac rehab would help.

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Thanks to Stephen Smith for the source article in today's Boston Globe.