![\"Henrietta](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ad6900c08e1c63da0b4cf3ef0d03f64a1c4d476c.png\")
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Brendan Trew felt out of place when he walked into the cardiac rehabilitation gym at his local hospital.<\/p>\n The 47-year-old considered himself fit and was one of the youngest patients in the room.<\/p>\n \u201cI went on a 37-kilometre bike ride and then the following night I was having a heart attack,\u201d said the single father from Hampton in Melbourne\u2019s south-east.<\/p>\n But the six-week program \u2013 which involved a combination of exercise, education, and counselling \u2013 helped rebuild Trew\u2019s strength and, more importantly, slashed his risk of having another heart attack and dying.<\/p>\n A new landmark study, published in the International Journal of Cardiology, found that attending cardiac rehabilitation programs reduced patients\u2019 risk of dying from another heart attack by 75 per cent.<\/p>\n But the study of 7100 Victorian patients across 13 public hospitals found that only one in five eligible patients accessed these programs.<\/p>\n Lead author Dr Susie Cartledge, from Monash University, suspects patients are skipping the programs because advancements in medical technology have minimised the severity of their heart condition.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have a heart stent put in now, it\u2019s just a little wound on your radial artery,\u201d Cartledge said, referring to the small incisions that have replaced many open-chest operations.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause the treatment is so minimally invasive, it actually minimises what has occurred for the patient. They think, \u2018I\u2019ve just got this little scratch on my wrist that healed in a week, I must be OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But Cartledge said heart disease, which leads to blocked arteries and stent procedures, is something patients need to manage for life.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are simply failing to get patients through the door,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we could boost attendance to just 60 per cent, the health system would see massive financial savings, and thousands of families would be spared the tragedy of a preventable second attack.\u201d<\/p>\n She said shorter hospital stays following heart procedures also meant patients found it overwhelming to process the information given to them at discharge. \u201cWe know patients only remember about one-fifth of what we tell them in the hospital,\u201d said Cartledge.<\/p>\n \u201cThen they get home, the sick leave finishes, they go back to work, and they fall right back into old habits \u2013 which is exactly what we don\u2019t want.\u201d<\/p>\n Patients attending cardiac rehabilitation benefited from lower mortality and fewer unplanned readmissions. These health benefits increased with every additional session they attended.<\/p>\n \u201cMortality was four times higher in those who didn\u2019t attend any sessions compared to those who attended the full six-week program,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A typical program in Australia runs for six to eight weeks, and offers supervised cardio and strength training with health professionals and education. Counsellors help patients process the emotional impacts of suffering a cardiac event and facing their own mortality.<\/p>\n The programs are run in public and private hospitals and through community health services.<\/p>\n Trew initially dismissed his chest pain as reflux. But when the pain intensified, he decided to visit Sandringham Hospital\u2019s emergency department.<\/p>\n He was then taken by ambulance to The Alfred and was told he had suffered a heart attack.<\/p>\n The news came as a shock. Trew had no risk factors for heart disease: he exercised regularly, ate reasonably well and had normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels.<\/p>\n He felt vulnerable when he was discharged from hospital two days later. He\u2019d had a stent placed in his previously blocked coronary artery and had been put on medication to control his blood pressure and cholesterol.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a heightened awareness of how frail we all are,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n A counsellor at the cardiac rehabilitation program helped him work through these feelings, while an occupational therapist put in place strategies to help Trew ease back into his job in corporate sales.<\/p>\n He learnt about nutrition during education sessions, and realised that he was eating too much salt.<\/p>\n Cardiologist Kegan Moneghetti, who works at St Vincent\u2019s Health, said cardiac rehabilitation programs helped patients make behavioural changes that had the same clinical powers as pharmaceutical drugs. This includes altering diets, committing to exercise and stopping smoking.<\/p>\n \u201cOften these things are free and just take our time and our effort, but people need a structure and a support system to be able to achieve it,\u201d Moneghetti said.<\/p>\n Related Article He said more funding was needed to ensure that patients could access cardiac rehabilitation programs soon after they were discharged from hospital. He said patients often faced a six to eight-week wait to access these programs.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a small window where you can capture people to engage with change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cardiovascular disease is one of Australia\u2019s leading causes of death and claims a life every 12 minutes, according to the Heart Foundation. About one in six Australian adults live with cardiovascular disease, which includes heart and blood vessel diseases such as coronary heart disease and stroke.<\/p>\n Most risk factors are preventable through a healthy diet, regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Brendan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1f4704a33c9f6b8c3c5b68d1d5c77fba7f285c64.jpeg\")
Brendan Trew, 47, had a heart attack in January. He\u2019s confident that the lessons he learnt from cardiac rehab will extend his life expectancy.Photograph by Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n![\"Trew,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/da7e035fb9c5fca91aff9ead712b9cf9673d4b7b.jpeg\")
Trew, pictured at home with his dog Bonnie, initially dismissed his chest pain as reflux.Photograph by Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n![\"We](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/08271b1636ce75c4c00c932bd83f7446396c3e4e.jpeg\")
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Henrietta Cook<\/a> is a senior reporter covering health for The Age. Henrietta joined The Age in 2012 and has previously covered state politics, education and consumer affairs.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-748746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}