Cardio Exercise Helps People with Lupus

If you have lupus, you may benefit from speaking to your doctor about participating in exercises to promote cardiovascular health. A small study of 27 patients with lupus showed that there was a good benefit to promoting cardiac health.

Lupus, itself, is a risk factor for heart disease. This may not be obvious to some people who are living with the disease, as they focus on the issues that are more obvious. According to a press release from the Hospital for Special Surgery

“Lupus patients are battling systemic inflammation, which in itself is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease,” said Doruk Erkan, M.D. the [Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Counseling] program’s director and co-director of the Mary Kirkland Center for Lupus Care at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. “But many of them do not know their risk, so it is extremely important to get counseling to manage risk factors such as smoking, obesity and hypertension, which may help decrease their chances of cardiovascular disease.”

The program launched earlier this month. The goal is to help people with lupus understand the unseen risks of lupus and how to protect themselves as much as possible. Twenty-seven patients were asked to fill out a satisfaction survey after participating in the program, 25 responded. They were asked how they felt about the counseling they received, as well as how they felt about the educational material, and if they would recommend the program to anyone else. Initially, 93% of the group had no idea that they were at risk for heart disease.

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