Practical Guide about PAD

↪ Canadian Foundation for Vascular Health 16 7. What else can i do? 7.1. Peripheral artery disease and exercise Although the interventional approach (surgery or dilation) is often effective for treating advanced stages of peripheral artery disease (PAD), medical therapy (medication and/or exercise) is still an important step in the treatment of PAD, but often underestimated 11 . Exercise is not only effective, but beneficial 16 . Walking is a privileged exercise to treat the patient with PAD! Walking exercise has always been the preferred type of exercise for treating patients with PAD. It is also strongly recommended for patients who have had a peripheral vascular intervention as well as surgical treatment. The beneficial effects for walking capacity and reduced mortality are well known. A recent study showed that exercise improves walking time by 50% to 200%, pain-free walking time by 100% and maximum walking distance by at least 100% in PAD patients. Exercise also greatly reduces total mortality and cardiovascular death in patients with PAD. Data in the literature provide convincing evidence that exercise plays a key role in preventing many chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases 6 . 7.2. Why is exercise so beneficial? Exercise produces favourable effects on many traditional risk factors, such as obesity, high blood pressure , diabetes, smoking, and cholesterol. It is also important to remember that physical activity has multiple positive effects related to aging. Even though the beneficial effect of exercise in cardiovascular prevention is well-known, the precisemechanisms causing that benefit have yet to be determined for PAD patients. Studies are limited and not very recent, meaning that the hypotheses put forward still need to be confirmed or developed. In a patient with PAD, exercise may improve performance without necessarily providing a significant increase in blood flow to the affected limbs. This suggests that other mechanisms might participate in the beneficial effects of exercise observed in these patients. These mechanisms are complex and are still being studied.