Washington D.C.: Exercise is well known for increasing a person's chances of surviving a heart attack and now, a team of researchers has revealed that it also affects how the body handles a heart attack's aftermaths.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) study shows that people who exercise regularly for a long time before a heart attack occurs are far less likely to be depressed afterwards.
Lead author Linda Ernstsen said that physical activity protects people from depression after a heart attack.
As their starting point, the researchers used the Nord-Trondelag HUNT studies that collected data from a total of 120,000 people during three periods (1984-86, 1995-97 and 2006-08).
The researchers found that people who exercised regularly over several years were less than half as likely to become depressed after a heart attack as those who never exercised.
The survey also provides reason for optimism. It helps if you have exercised and are in good shape from training earlier in life, even if you have since stopped. But it is apparently even better to have started exercising regularly in older age, even if you get off the couch late in life.
"It's never too late to start exercising," Ernstsen says. The study is published in The American Journal of Medicine.
