Heart-failure patients can exercise

"Contrary to popular belief, people with heart failure can work out at the gym, ride bikes and participate in other exercises that once were considered dangerously strenuous, a large international study led by Duke University, USA, researchers has found. The findings free heart patients to be active, and are likely to fuel an effort to change public policy, study authors say. Currently, Medicare and many private insurers do not cover doctor-guided exercise programs for patients who have heart failure. The disease, which afflicts 5 million Americans, is diagnosed when the heart loses pumping force because of blockages, a heart attack or other causes. Treatments costs Medicare more than $4.5 billion a year" - News & Observer Publishing