Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Key to Heart Attack Recovery

After a heart attack, life can feel uncertain. Managing new medications, assessing lifestyle choices, worrying about another episode — it’s natural to be overwhelmed. That’s why cardiac rehabilitation is an important tool. It combines education with monitored exercise to help you return to a more active life, and it lowers the risk of a second heart attack.

How to qualify

You qualify for cardiac rehab if you’ve had a cardiac event such as a heart attack and your doctor refers you to the program. Rehab can start as early as two weeks after a heart attack.

Exercise and education

Over the course of the 12-week program, you’ll take part in exercise sessions that help you build strength, stamina, and confidence. Workouts are designed especially for the needs of heart patients, and the heart is monitored to ensure safety. Education sessions provide information about heart disease and contributing risk factors such as weight, smoking, cholesterol, stress, diabetes, and blood pressure.

Meet the team

With over 30 years of working together — and five other experienced staff on their team — Krista Howell, Exercise Physiologist, and Julie Mena, Clinical Nurse Specialist, offer a special program for our community. “Often when patients come to us, they’re wondering if they’ll ever feel good again,” Mena says. “During their time in cardiac rehab, we see a dramatic change. The person looks better, feels better, they become more animated — it’s like a dark cloud is lifted. That’s the joy of our job.”

“We all work well together,” Howell explains about their team approach. “And our experience makes patients feel confident.”

Mena continues, “We’re lucky to have jobs we love and it’s because our patients inspire us.”