The goal of comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation is to help heart disease patients regain their physical and mental health by providing them with a personalized exercise plan, education and counseling. The safety and benefits of exercise for heart disease patients are well documented. The American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recommend regular exercise and recognize the value of cardiac rehabilitation for patients with stable heart failure (Yancy et al., 2013). Exercise improves cardiac muscle perfusion, dilates coronary vessels and stimulates the development of collateral circulation; it also strengthens skeletal muscles and increases cerebral blood flow (Anderson & Taylor, 2014; Garcia et al., 2013). Additional education allows you to personalize and reinforce the information obtained at discharge, and counseling can provide needed psychological support as many heart failure patients struggle with depression. This holistic approach is congruent with one of the themes of Healthy People 2020: “Health-related quality of life and well-being” of each individual, which aims to achieve well-being in all areas of life: physical, mental, social and emotional (People healthy 2020,
tags