The main and most striking consequence of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been that patients with cardiovascular disease have avoided going to health centers for fear of infection.
As a concrete example, 40% fewer patients with “heart attacks” (as we colloquially call acute myocardial infarction) have been attended than usual in previous months, as reported by the Spanish Society of Cardiology, which has undoubtedly led to an increase in avoidable deaths, as well as the appearance of complications derived from delayed care.
To this we must add the lack of direct care for patients with diseases such as heart failure, which is hardly carried out by telephone, as has been attempted alternatively.
Patients with a history of infarction or angina should be supervised under the best conditions during the pandemic, as they are the group most vulnerable to suffer fatal complications.
And not because it has less impact on mortality, we should not forget that stopping exercise has serious consequences. When we stop exercising, there is a cardiac and vascular maladjustment, which leads to a rise in heart rate and blood pressure”.
Why is it important to control sports practice after a long period of inactivity?
In this sense, it is important to resume physical activity in a gradual and controlled manner to avoid cardiovascular problems and we must take into account two concepts when resuming physical exercise: time and intensity. The best: more time and less intensity.
We must take into account what was done before, and although we can progressively increase the volume of exercise, we must limit its intensity in the initial phases and increase the duration, which will allow us to readapt to physical exercise more quickly. Another important point is that oxygenation is fundamental when exercising. If there is no good oxygenation, we will be subjected to greater stress and exercise can be more counterproductive”.
Therefore, in patients with heart disease, the ideal, more than the use of a mask, is to keep a safe distance. Finally, attention should be paid to the symptoms. Most of the symptoms that indicate a heart problem, such as shortness of breath or chest pain, among others, appear during exercise.
In older people or those with previous cardiac pathologies, the fact of having been inactive may have led to a worsening of these diseases that has gone unnoticed.
For this reason, the expert should pay the greatest possible attention to the patient in the presence of these symptoms during the return to physical activity. If they appear, the patient should be consulted immediately.
People with cardiovascular risk factors should also be monitored and followed up, especially blood pressure, when they resume exercise.