Patients not getting it
Patients with heart disease are just not getting it. The poor nutrition habits that contributed to their diagnosis of coronary heart disease were basically unchanged one year later. As outlined in the results of a study published in the February 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Dietary Association, these patients are not making necessary additions to and cut in their diets. Intakes of fruits, vegetables, and fiber were far below recommended amounts, and consumption of dietary fats, such as trans fats, remained high.
As a clinical exercise physiologist in CardioPulmonary Rehab, I see these data play out before me everyday. Most cardiac patients are senior citizens who for one reason or another are resistant to change. Having grown up in a high-fat diet environment, they defend against a plant-based diet. Only a handful is not educated by their physician about the right foods to eat, and they welcome practical nutrition information. Although cardiac rehab is a golden opportunity to introduce patients to more healthful ways of eating, cardiac rehab staff are usually nurses and exercise physiologists who do not have the time to educate and follow-up with patients who are making dietary changes. It is important that physicians refer patients to Registered Dieticians who have the resources to follow the patients more closely.
About the Author
Peggy Kraus is a clinical exercise physiologist at Southampton Hospital in New York. She received her Masters degree in Professional Physical Education from New York University and after many years in commercial and corporate fitness settings has been in the cardiac and pulmonary rehab setting now for 10 years. Her job duties include educating rehab patients about the link between exercise, nutrition, and good health. Peggy has been published in IDEA’s Fitness Journal and in AFAA’s American Fitness, and her continuing education course, Atherosclerosis: Causes, Consequences, and Treatments, is offered in CEU4U’s nursing course catalog.
