DALLAS, Oct 01, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The American Heart Association is now recommending that Americans exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, six days a week, to avoid heart attacks and strokes.

Dr. Gerald Fletcher of the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla., said the new AHA recommendations bring the heart group "more in line with other exercise recommendations. It does appear that more frequent exercise produces a greater benefit." Previous AHA guidelines recommended 30 minutes of exercise at least three days a week.

The new guidelines, which are published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, recommend exercise "most days of the week." Fletcher, who chaired the committee that drafted the guidelines, told United Press International that daily exercise is best but "at least six days is recommended."

Dr. Dennis Sprecher, who heads up preventive cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, said he has no doubt that "six days of exercise is better than three days" but he questions the practicality of the recommendation. Sprecher, who was not involved with drafting the guidelines, said the biggest difficulty facing many heart specialists is "just getting people up and doing anything." He told UPI that when people hear that "they need to exercise six days instead of three, they may decide that is too difficult to even attempt."

Intensity of exercise may also be a problem, said Sprecher. The AHA guidelines are urging vigorous exercise. Fletcher said a leisurely stroll is not as beneficial as "moderately intense walking, a 14 minute mile." He said he tells his patients to "get the car out and measure the mileage" so that they can gauge their walking speed. "A 14 minute mile is really vigorous walking," said Sprecher. "I'm not sure that a lot of my patients could do that."

While Fletcher is urging more vigorous exercise, he did caution that exercise be adjusted for weather conditions. On very hot or humid days he urges patients to break up exercise into 10 or 15 minutes segments or "to exercise indoors." Likewise, he says that people who are exercising in extremely cold climates should "be careful to wear appropriate clothing."

And Fletcher cautions that the AHA doesn't believe in working through pain. "We differ here a bit from the exercise trainers," said Fletcher. "We want people to still be able to talk while they are working out. We don't want people exercising to the point of exhaustion."

(Reported in Cleveland by Peggy Peck.)

From Healthy.net