CHICAGO — Good news: Sex is safe for most heart patients. If you’re healthy enough to walk up two flights of stairs without chest pain or gasping for breath, you can have a love life.
That advice from a leading doctors’ group Thursday addresses one of the most pressing, least discussed issues facing survivors of heart attacks and other heart patients.
In its first science-based recommendations on the subject, the American Heart Association says having sex only slightly raises the chance for a heart attack. And that’s true for people with and without heart disease.
Surprisingly, despite the higher risk for heart patients to have a second attack, there is no evidence that they have more sex-related heart attacks than people without cardiac disease.
Heart patients should get a doctor’s OK before engaging in sexual activity. Many might be advised first to do cardiac rehab — exercise while being monitored for heart symptoms — to improve heart strength and increase fitness. But the heart association says most eventually will be cleared to resume sexual activity. The Associated Press
