Exercise and Heart Health: Here’s What Your Patients Don’t Know

By Toby Cosgrove, MD

How much exercise is best for your heart health? If you’re stumped, don’t feel bad. Just 20 percent of Americans were able to answer this question correctly in a recent national survey.

What Americans don’t know

Exercise is one of the keys to preventing heart disease, which is the No. 1 killer of both men and women in the United States, yet most Americans don’t know that 2.5 hours a week — or an average of a half hour, five days a week — of moderate aerobic exercise is recommended for a healthy heart.

The survey — conducted by Cleveland Clinic in recognition of American Heart Month — also showed that 40 percent of Americans are exercising less than that recommended amount. It also revealed important misconceptions about how many calories to burn, who should undergo stress tests, and whether those with heart conditions should exercise.

Educating for health

Considering that heart disease kills about 1 in 4 Americans, these details are not trivial. If Americans can learn how — and how much — to exercise, we can greatly reduce cardiovascular disease by controlling high blood pressure, improving cholesterol levels, regulating weight and body fat and, of course, strengthening heart muscle.

Yet in our survey, only 32 percent of Americans say they exercise to benefit their hearts. Instead, weight is the biggest motivating factor for those who exercise weekly. There’s nothing wrong with that; anything that motivates a person to work out is positive, because there are always barriers that make exercise difficult, as survey respondents pointed out. Most commonly, respondents cited work obligations (41 percent) as the biggest deterrent, followed by fatigue (37 percent) and obligations with family and friends (28 percent).

‘Love Your Heart’

Other survey findings include:

• Despite exercising for weight control, only 31 percent of those surveyed know they need to burn or cut out 500 calories from their diet to lose one pound a week.
• Only one-third of Americans know that someone with heart disease needs to exercise the same amount as someone without heart disease.
• While it’s true that those with heart disease should talk to their doctor about starting an exercise program, most Americans don’t understand which patients actually need stress tests. More than 80 percent of those surveyed incorrectly thought that someone with high cholesterol needs an exercise stress test before starting an exercise program.

The telephone survey of 1,009 adults (487 men, 522 women) gathered insights into Americans’ perceptions of heart disease and exercise as part of Cleveland Clinic’s “Love Your Heart” consumer education campaign in celebration of American Heart Month.