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Specialized cardiac rehabilitation makes a difference in your recovery

Cardiac rehabilitation—a medically supervised program—can help you recover from cardiac events such as a heart attack or heart surgery, and help to prevent or manage other health conditions. You have access to extensive cardiac rehab programs, personally tailored to your precise needs, at locations across Central and North Texas.

Conditions that cardiac rehab can help

If you’ve recently been diagnosed with a heart problem or are recovering from a cardiac event, cardiac rehab could be the next step in your recovery. A comprehensive rehabilitation program can help you manage or recover from conditions and procedures such as:

Benefits of cardiac rehab

There are many benefits of cardiac rehabilitation, with a focus on improving your quality of life. Most importantly, completing a cardiac rehab program improves your chances of surviving heart disease. It also reduces your chances of returning to the hospital for another heart issue and can reduce your healthcare costs in the years to come.

Additionally, cardiac rehab can give you and your family peace of mind so that you can take steps to prevent another cardiac event.

While cardiac rehab is a commonly used program for many people who have experienced certain heart events or have certain heart conditions, it may not have the same benefit for people with more severe health problems. Your doctor will explain if cardiac rehab is right for you based on your condition and other health factors.

Other benefits of cardiac rehab include:

  • Boosting your energy and strength
  • Developing coping and stress reduction skills
  • Feeling better physically and psychologically
  • Finding social and emotional support with other people who also experience heart problems
  • Helping you get back to your daily activities
  • Improving your mental health
  • Increasing your self-confidence
  • Making progress on new lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, lowering high cholesterol, managing high blood pressure and quitting smoking
  • Relieving symptoms of heart disease, such as chest pain
  • Strengthening your heart with gentle exercise
  • Understanding your new medication regime
Cardiologist sitting at a desk with a patient, discussing the benefits and expectations of cardiac rehabilitation

What to expect during cardiac rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation works to ensure recovery for your entire self—physical, mental and spiritual. In addition to physical health issues, you may find yourself experiencing feelings of depression, anxiety or isolation because your loved ones are unable to relate to or understand what you’re going through.

That’s why our program has three components:

  • Exercise
  • Education
  • Stress management

Cardiac rehab is carefully designed to accommodate your needs, physical capabilities, and interests. Your rehab team includes physicians, nurses, exercise physiologists, physical therapists, counselors, dietitians and chaplains working together to coordinate care—at your pace.

You will typically spend up to 12 weeks in cardiac rehabilitation, attending three sessions per week. The length of your program may depend upon your goals, the progress of your recovery or your physician’s recommendation.

While everyone’s program will be slightly different, here’s what you can expect in cardiac rehab.

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Exercise

You will receive exercise training in a safe and monitored environment, so you feel confident about returning to your daily activities. During your activity sessions, the cardiac rehab team will monitor you with an electrocardiograph (ECG) telemetry unit.

An ECG will inform them how your heart reacts and adapts to activity. You'll also learn to take your pulse and exercise to a level that suits your recovery journey.

Cardiac rehab will also teach you how to safely progress your exercise over time, including how to safely exercise on your own once you have completed the program.

Education

Your team will teach you about heart-healthy living and provide counseling that can help you follow through on your goals. Topics covered may include:

  • Heart-healthy eating and other nutritional counseling
  • Managing your blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol
  • Quitting smoking
  • Weight loss strategies

Stress management

This aspect of the program is designed to improve your coping skills and help you develop a support system. Your counseling team provides education and training on techniques to lower stress, such as meditation, breathing exercises and more. You also have access to support groups to meet people in similar situations as yours.
Physical therapist supervising an older man during exercise therapy as part of a cardiac rehabilitation program

Supervised exercise therapy for peripheral artery disease (PAD)

Just as exercise can help people recover from a heart attack, it can also help reduce leg pain and other issues caused by peripheral artery disease (PAD).

If you have PAD, you can access supervised exercise therapy through our cardiac rehabilitation programs with a referral from your healthcare provider. You work with an exercise professional who takes you through a series of exercises designed to increase your ability to walk longer distances with less pain.

The program also includes counseling to help you quit smoking and improve your diet with the ultimate goal of lowering your risk for additional heart and vascular conditions, such as heart attacks and strokes.

Support for your recovery and beyond

In addition to cardiac rehab, you have access to many other proven programs to improve your recovery after a major heart event or procedure.

  • Keep Your Move in the Tube®: If you have had a sternotomy, this innovative approach to cardiac rehab teaches you how to perform load-bearing movements to avoid excess stress on the sternum. The program can help you regain your strength faster and often eliminates the need for skilled nursing care.
  • Leap for Life®: Leap (Lifestyle Education Awareness Program) for Life offers wellness and disease prevention education for anyone at risk of cardiovascular disease and their families. The workshop provides practical information about exercise, diet, nutrition, stress management and medication management with the goal of reducing your risk for heart disease.
  • The Return to Work Lab®: Your cardiac rehab team will initiate a heart-care plan using actual equipment and tools you would use when back on the job, so you’ll be fully prepared for every challenge.
  • Safe Start: A modified version of our standard cardiac rehabilitation program, Safe Start offers an option if your insurance does not cover cardiac rehab. It allows you to receive many of the benefits of cardiac rehab in a shortened, self-pay format.
  • Caring Hearts and Mended Hearts Programs: In the Caring Hearts and Mended Hearts programs, people who are past their own cardiac event volunteer to visit a patient before and after a procedure, offering empathy and support.

Find a location near you

Cardiac rehab is available through our locations across Central and North Texas. No matter where you received your initial care, we can help you find a cardiac rehab location that’s convenient to where you live or work.

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Frequently asked questions

  • How do I get started with cardiac rehab?

    Your provider or cardiologist can facilitate a referral to a cardiac rehab facility.

  • What is the cost of cardiac rehab?

    Cardiac rehab is typically covered under insurance as long as you have a qualifying diagnosis. The specific program you are enrolling in can and will provide additional information about cost and coverage.

  • What kind of exercise equipment is used during cardiac rehab?

    Typical machines can include (but are not limited to) a treadmill, stationary bike, arm ergometer, NuStep, elliptical, rowing machines, and various strength and resistance training equipment.

  • Do I do the same thing every session?

    No, the cardiac rehab staff and exercise physiologists will work with you to determine an appropriate exercise prescription that will be continuously adjusted and tailored to you as you progress through your exercise sessions.

  • How soon after my event can I start?

    This will be determined by your healthcare provider.