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Golf enthusiasts
with heart disease should check with their health care provider
to determine whether they should walk and pull a cart or ride
in a golf cart, according to a study reported by the Journal
of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation.
Researchers
at Johns Hopkins and Wake Forest universities followed 20
male golfers ages 49 to 78, half with heart disease. After
being given a graded exercise test to determine exercise capacity,
each participant with heart disease was paired with a healthy
adult of similar age to play nine holes of golf while pulling
a cart. Portable devices were worn to measure oxygen consumption
during play and rest periods.
On average,
players with heart disease worked at 57 percent of their exercise
capacity, while their healthier counterparts worked at only
46 percent of their exercise capacity. Some patients with
heart disease at times exceeded 100 percent of exercise capacity.
"Some
less-fit patients with heart disease are in danger of exceeding
a safe level of exercise and should be encouraged to monitor
their intensity on the golf course, or consider using a motorized
cart," said the study's lead author Devon Dobrosielski,
a clinical exercise physiologist at Hopkins.
Although
individuals who are more fit may not get enough exercise by
playing golf, Dobrosielski said regular golf participation
would enable them to meet the moderate-level physical activity
recommendations published by the American College of Sports
Medicine.
Another
Johns Hopkins study reported in the June 15th issue of the
American Journal of Medicine found that men who start playing
tennis in their youth and are good at it are likely to continue
playing the sport for years, thereby keeping heart disease
at bay well into middle-age.
After
studying 1,019 male medical students at Hopkins between 1948
to 1964, researchers found that those who reported being skillful
at tennis while in medical school had the highest participation
in the sport in mid-life as 33 percent had played the sport
within a week of the follow-up surveys.
These
tennis players had a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease
and heart attacks compared to those who didn't play tennis.
Those good at golf also kept up the sport, but at a lower
rate. Few to none of the men who played football, baseball
and basketball participated in those sports in mid-life.
"For
physical activity to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,
it must be sustained throughout life, which is something that
should be considered by people planning physical education
programs in middle schools and high schools," said Dr.
Michael J. Klag, senior author of the study and director of
the division of general internal medicine at Hopkins.
Source:
Heart
Disease Week of July 7, 2002
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