Hate to Exercise? Do it Anyway

If you're a kidney transplant patient who doesn't like to exercise, you must read this short article now. Here's the gist of it:

Dutch researchers took a physical health assessment of 540 kidney transplant recipients between 2001 and 2003 and monitored their physical activity levels until 2007. They discovered there were 260 patients, or 48%, who did not meet guidelines for minimum requirements of physical activity and that 79 patients, or 14.6%, were completely inactive. During the study period, 81 patients died, including 37 who suffered heart-related deaths. As you've probably guessed, the death rate was higher among those who participated in lower levels of physical activity. Below are a few more detailed findings from the study, as reported in the article.

Cardiovascular deaths occurred in:

• 11.7% of inactive patients
• 7.2% of moderately active patients
• 1.7% of active patients

Death rates from any cause occurred in:

• 24.4% of inactive patients
• 15.0% of moderately active patients
• 5.6% of active patients

We transplant recipients must exercise on a regular basis; there is simply no question about it. This is particularly true for those of us taking prednisone (as I will cover in an upcoming post). I include both cardiorespiratory and strength training in my exercise regimen. This is of vital importance, as patients like me are more susceptible to cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Remember, kidney transplant recipients are 4-6 times more likely to die from cardiovascular causes than are people in the general population. So even if you hate to exercise, do it anyway.