Old
Farnhamians' Association
2008 Farnham Lecture
Cardiac
Rehabilitation
by
29 November, 2008
On a very cold
October evening, a smaller than usual audience listened to the twentieth
Farnham Lecture, given by one of the pioneers in cardiac rehabilitation. Dr.
Hugh Bethell is the founder of the Rehab unit at
He moved on to the
many reasons for this escalation and these included heredity, obesity, lack of
exercise, stress, high cholesterol and general lifestyle. All of these could
cause a breakdown in the functions of the heart and would result in a coronary
attack of minor or major strength. Diagrams and photos were shown of the hearts
of victims and one could see clearly the different types of problems that occur.
Today there are
several methods of repairing the body after an attack and Dr. Bethell went into
some detail about the use of by-passes, whether single, double, triple or
quadruple, and the recent increase in the use of stents. All of these have to
be followed by an exercise regime to insure that the patient remains fit and
the blood in the body continues to flow properly.
The speaker said
that in the past heart problems were dealt with by molly-coddling the patient,
and it was not until the 1950s that ideas began to change and it was realised
that it was necessary to work this important organ to regain and maintain
fitness. In the early 1970s he worked with the then manager of Alton Sports
Centre on a series of fitness sessions and began to offer the service to local
people. Initially they only took in people who had already suffered a heart
attack and began by monitoring them on either a treadmill or a bicycle to
assess their levels of fitness. The patient was then given a programme of
exercises to follow on a regular basis and monitored to see how the levels of
fitness improved and how the heart itself improved. This scheme proved highly
successful and soon the expanded the type of patients to those with angina,
high blood pressure etc.
By the early 1990s
the throughput of patients was such that the Sports Centre could not cope and
it was necessary to have a purpose built building for the Rehab Centre. There
would be no local or government help and it took four years to fund-raise the
money to build the unit that exists today. Gradually, an experienced staff was
built and now the centre takes in over five hundred new patients every year and
runs more than one thousand sessions each week. Hugh Bethell has retired from
running the centre, but is still involved in overseeing progress of this
revolutionary method of treating such a delicate organ of the body. He is now
Chairman of the British Cardiac Rehabilitation Association and his methods are
used nationally as well as abroad. He recently received an MBE for his work.
This was a thought
provoking lecture by a man who made a difference to the lifestyle of many
people in this country and especially in this area.