> I have multiple friends who get told to just get more fit, despite also having observed cardiac symptoms that worsen to any exercise. Clinically, it's rare f

> I have multiple friends who get told to just get more fit, despite also having observed cardiac symptoms that worsen to any exercise. Clinically, it's rare for people (below retirement age) to have cardiac conditions that exclude any exercise. I don't know your friends' details, but a common pattern in these situations is for there to be a misunderstanding about what "exercise" means. If someone is having life-threatening cardiac symptoms, no reasonable doctor is going to recommend that they just go to the gym and sweat it out. In the worst cases, what they're trying to avoid is the deconditioning slide that comes with chronic illness. The goal isn't to get fit or go for runs or push to exhaustion. The goal is to slow the physical health decline that comes with being too sedentary. It can be counterintuitive, but doing extremely light activity (walking 0.1 miles per day, working up to 0.4 miles per day) can be extremely beneficial compared to avoiding activity altogether, even if it's uncomfortable. Once the fitness is gone, it's hard to get it back. A lot of patients start out with one condition, which then becomes a combination of that condition plus a year of deconditioning. Physical therapists trained in chronic illness specialize in these treatments and adapting to the bounds of any cardiac limits.