Depression, Coronary Heart Disease and Exercise

This article discusses the relationship between exercise, depression, and coronary heart disease (CHD). It highlights the benefits of aerobic exercise in reducing depression and improving overall physical health in CHD patients.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Healthcare
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Depression, Coronary Heart Disease and Exercise
In this article, my fellow friend has highlighted that there is an inherent relationship
with exercise in reducing the severity of depression among the individuals suffering from
coronary heart disease (CHD). In the discussion paper emphasis was given to aerobic
exercise for the reduction of depression (Blumenthal et al., 2012). In relation to this, I would
like to highlight further that aerobic exercise helps in the improvement of the overall exercise
capacity of the patients with CHD. Conraads et al. (2015) conducted a randomized control
trial over 200 CHD patients in order to check the efficacy of aerobic exercise. The analysis of
the results highlighted that aerobic exercise helps in the improvement of the peripheral
endothelial function along with a reduction in the diastolic blood pressure (p<0.001). The
review conducted by Mann, Beedie and Jimenez (2014) showed that the practice of regular
aerobic exercise helps in the improvement of the level of the blood cholesterol among the
patients of CHD. Moreover, regular practice of exercise helps to increase the level of physical
activity, which in turn leads to a decrease in one of the prime risk factors of CHD,
dyslipidaemia.
Thus from the above analysis, it can be said that the performance of the aerobic
exercise not only helps in reducing the level of depression or the improvement of the mental
health condition, but also helps in improving the overall physical health conditions of the
people of CHD. However, high-intensity cardio must be avoided for the individuals with
CHD as it might lead to adverse disease outcome (Weston et al., 2014).

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References
Blumenthal, J. A., Sherwood, A., Babyak, M. A., Watkins, L. L. Smith, P. J., Hoffman, B. M,
… Hinderliter, A. L. (2012). Exercise and pharmacological treatment of depressive
symptoms in patients with coronary heart disease. Journal of the American College of
Cardiology, 60(12, 1053-1063.
Conraads, V. M., Pattyn, N., De Maeyer, C., Beckers, P. J., Coeckelberghs, E., Cornelissen,
V. A., ... & Possemiers, N. (2015). Aerobic interval training and continuous training
equally improve aerobic exercise capacity in patients with coronary artery disease: the
SAINTEX-CAD study. International journal of cardiology, 179, 203-210.
Mann, S., Beedie, C., & Jimenez, A. (2014). Differential effects of aerobic exercise,
resistance training and combined exercise modalities on cholesterol and the lipid
profile: review, synthesis and recommendations. Sports Medicine, 44(2), 211-221.
Weston, K. S., Wisløff, U., & Coombes, J. S. (2014). High-intensity interval training in
patients with lifestyle-induced cardiometabolic disease: a systematic review and meta-
analysis. Br J Sports Med, 48(16), 1227-1234.