The Role of Physical Fitness in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

Dr. Carl Lavie from the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, New Orleans, LA and Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA moderated the topic "The Role of Physical Fitness in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention" with Drs. Ross Arena from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, Timothy Church from Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, and James O'Keefe from the Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, MO. The discussion focused primarily on: 1) The role of physical fitness in cardiovascular disease prevention 2) the definition of cardiorespiratory fitness 3) tests to assess fitness 4) the importance of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) 5) oxygen consumption versus estimated metabolic equivalents (METs) 6) the role of fitness in prognosis 7) the genetic component to physical fitness 8) the role of age in fitness 9) the role of resistance exercise versus aerobic exercise. Med Roundtable Gen Med Ed. 2012;1(2):152–163.