Many people know being physically fit may help reduce the risk of heart attacks, but new research from Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine and Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System suggests higher levels of physical fitness can improve the chances of survival after a first heart attack.
The findings are based on medical records data gathered from more than 2,000 men and women who had taken a treadmill stress test before their first heart attack. The researchers also looked at patients' metabolic equivalent score to gauge physical fitness.
They found patients with higher metabolic equivalent scores who are more fit had about 40 percent fewer deaths after a first heart attack as compared to the rest of the patients. Roughly one third of the patients with low MET scores died with a year of their first heart attack.
"We knew that fitter people generally live longer, but we now have evidence linking fitness to survival after a first heart attack," said Michael Blaha, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It makes sense, but we believe this is the first time there is documentation of that association."