High-Intensity Exercise Safe and Effective in Long-Term Heart Transplant Recipients

Vigorous exercise helps heart transplant patients keep their blood pressure levels in check better than moderate intensity exercise, a new study reveals.

 Researchers at the Bispebjerg Hospital in the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, found that high-intensity exercise helps stable heart transplant patients attain higher levels of exercise capacity and gain control of their blood pressure. When compared to moderate exercise, high-intensity interval exercises i.e. training for few minutes at close to maximum heart rate - is safer and efficient.

In this study, researcher Christain Dall looked at whether people who have underwent heart transplant gained similar benefits from high-intensity interval training and whether they should exercise at moderate intensity as recommended currently.

They looked at the effect of 12 weeks of high-intensity interval training and compared this to moderate training in 16 stable heart transplant recipients who had been living with new heart more than a year.

They noticed that high-intensity interval training was safe in heart transplant patients and the effect on exercise capacity and blood pressure was greater than moderate intensity training. There was a 17 percent increase in maximal oxygen uptake in those adhering to high-intensity interval training when compared to 10 percent in patients performing continued moderate training. There was a drop in systolic blood pressure and rise in heart rate in the high intensity group patients and it remained unchanged in the moderate intensity group.  The heart rate recovery improved in both groups.

 Dall said, "The impaired heart rate response has been considered a hindrance for more demanding high-intensity training, but this new study documents that stable heart transplant recipients benefit from this type of training more than from the moderate training that has been recommended so far. Importantly, the training is also safe and well received by patients."

The study was documented in the American Journal of Transplantation.