Anxiety and stress can contribute to heart attack episodes. They can also can contribute to the conditions that underly a heart conditiondisease. Learning how to manage stress effectively and relax regularly could promote the health of your heart and improve your quality of life.
For more information, see the articles on stress management and relaxation therapies.
You can learn and practice many stress management and relaxation techniques on your own, and for little or no money. You can also consult with a variety of professionals who offer personalized guidance and instruction. Consider the following:
There is almost an endless number of techniques for managing stress and inducing relaxation. Some techniques are very low-tech; you can do them anywhere, at anytime, and can learn them on your own. Other techniques are more elaborate and might involve the instruction of a trained professional, such as a yoga therapist. The bottom line is that you should find something that fits with you and your life, and do it regularly.
Consider the following:
Evidence The work of Dean Ornish, MD, suggests that a program of intensive lifestyle modification, involving an extremely low-fat diet along with exercise and stress reduction, can actually reverse coronary artery disease in people who have had heart attacks, or are at high risk for it.11-13
The work of Dean Ornish, MD, suggests that a program of intensive lifestyle modification, involving an extremely low-fat diet along with exercise and stress reduction, can actually reverse coronary artery disease in people who have had heart attacks, or are at high risk for it.11-13
There are a number of ways that stress may contribute directly and indirectly to poor heart health, including raising blood pressure and causing or exacerbating arrhythmias. Managing stress more effectively can ease the burden on the heart and help improve or even heal some of the factors that contribute to heart disease.
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Anxiety and stress can contribute to heart attack episodes. They can also contribute to the conditions that underly heart disease. Learning how to manage stress effectively and relax regularly could promote the health of your heart and improve your quality of life.
For more information, see the articles on stress management and relaxation therapies.
There are a number of ways that stress may contribute directly and indirectly to poor heart health, including raising blood pressure and causing or exacerbating arrhythmias. Managing stress more effectively can ease the burden on the heart and help improve or even heal some of the factors that contribute to heart disease.
Arrhythmias can be caused or exacerbated by anxiety and stress. Learning how to manage stress effectively and relax regularly could help treat your arrhythmia and improve your quality of life.
Part of our body's natural "fight or flight" response is an increase in heart rate. This is why you can feel your heart race when you are in an intense situation. Under normal circumstances, this is okay and even helpful, but for someone with an arrhythmia, especially an abnormally fast heartbeat (tachycardia), this can be unpleasant and possibly dangerous. The stressful nature of our modern world can mean that we are almost constantly experiencing stress reactions. Being in this state of chronic arousal eventually takes its toll on the heart.
For more information, see the articles on stress management and relaxation therapies.
You can learn and practice many stress management and relaxation techniques on your own, and for little or no money. You can also consult with a variety of professionals who offer personalized guidance and instruction. Consider the following:
Stress management and relaxation techniques can help you in a number of ways. These techniques can help you can develop awareness about which situations are stressful for you, and based on this knowledge, you can either avoid them or react less strongly to them. Stress management and relaxation are like many other things--they get better with practice. If you practice them regularly, you can help your body be in a more relaxed state more often, and this will be beneficial for your heart health.
Here are some There is almost an endless number of techniques for managing stress . Not all of them will work well for all people, but the important part is to try a number of them until you find the right ones for you.
Deep Relaxation: When you use deep relaxation techniques, you get yourself into what is called an “alpha state” which describes the brain-wave patterns you exhibit in that state. It is in this state that your immune function benefits the most from your relaxation.1
Here are some deep relaxation techniques you can try: Sit in a chair, or lie down, making sure you are very comfortable Start by taking very slow, deep breaths. You should breath from your abdomen (you can tell you’re doing this by placing a hand on your stomach. You want to see that hand rise and fall significantly with every deep breath). Do this a number of times until you start to feel relaxed. Try to clear your mind and focus only on your breath coming in slowly, and going out. Sometimes listening to soft or soothing music can help you focus on the breathing and relaxing. Sometimes people will chant the word “om” slowly and deeply. Just type in “chanting om” at www.youtube.com and you will see many examples of how to do “om” chanting.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Another technique for stress management is called Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and has been used clinically since the late 1930’s.2 The basic practice behind PMR, and why it works, is that you tense and then relax different muscles in your body. When you relax them, your body starts to feel more relaxed. This happens because if you do it correctly, the muscle become more relaxed than they were before you started tensing them. And more relaxed muscles physiologically lead to a more relaxed total body, when then leads to mental relaxation. For a complete writeup on the technique, see the following website: http://www.guidetopsychology.com/pmr.htm.
Biofeedback: This is a technique where a trained expert can take measurements of your levels of stress and then teach you techniques to manage that stress by allowing you to immediately see the results of your stress management on your measured stress levels. Hence, through biofeedback, you can actually proactively work on and refine your skills for managing stress in real-time.^^ Research into Biofeedback has been going on for a long time. In 1961, Neal Miller first proclaimed that the autonomic nervous system could be trained and controlled. In plain English, when you commonly consider involuntary functions of your body, can actually be trained and controlled to respond in the way you want them to. Since then, people have used biofeedback to lower their blood pressure, increase hand temperature on command, relieve arterial constriction
Deep breathing: When we our stressed, our breathing rate tends to go up significantly, and we take shallow breaths as opposed to long, deep breaths. Hence, by practicing deep, slow breathing when we start to feel stressed, we send electrical and chemical signals to our brain that it should be relaxed, not stressed.5
Laughter: The scientific evidence that supports laughter as a positive and effective therapy is enormous. This began when Norman Cousins cured his own degenerative spinal disease, from which he had less than 0.2% chance of recovering from, simply by developing and practicing a humor protocol that resulted in him laughing hard for 15 minutes a day. This case was later published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1979. Now, 30+ years later, there is an entire field of science (psychoneuroimmunology), that includes the study of humor on the immune system. Dr. Lee Berk, a professor at LLU’s School of Medicine and Public Health says that, “If you took what we know now about the capability of laughter to manipulate the immune system, and bottled it, it would need FDA approval.”4 In other words, humor can be so effective as an aid in bolstering the immune system, an important part of fighting cancer, that it is easily as effective as many of the drugs your doctor prescribes to you. Dr. Berk and his team have demonstrated that humor reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, and boosts the immune system by raising the level of T-cells, Gamma-interferon, B cells, all of which are powerful parts of your immune system. Hence, laughter can be a powerful tool in your fight against melanoma. So spend time with friends and family that make you laugh. Watch lots and lots of funny movies and television shows. See comedy shows or taped comedy broadcasts. Read funny comics or joke books – maybe even start and end each day with a funny joke.
and inducing relaxation. Some techniques are very low-tech; you can do them anywhere, at anytime, and can learn them on your own. Other techniques are more elaborate and might involve the instruction of a trained professional, such as a yoga therapist. The bottom line is that you should find something that fits with you and your life, and do it regularly.
Consider the following:
There is almost an endless number of techniques for managing stress and inducing relaxation. Some techniques are very low-tech; you can do them anywhere, at anytime, and can learn them on your own. Other techniques are more elaborate and might involve the instruction of a trained professional, such as a yoga therapist. The bottom line is that you should find something that fits with you and your life, and do it regularly.
Consider the following:
Arrhythmias can be caused or exacerbated by anxiety and stress. Learning how to manage stress effectively and relax regularly could help treat your arrhythmia and improve your quality of life.
Part of our body's natural "fight or flight" response is an increase in heart rate. This is why you can feel your heart race when you are in an intense situation. Under normal circumstances, this is okay and even helpful, but for someone with an arrhythmia, especially an abnormally fast heartbeat (tachycardia), this can be unpleasant and possibly dangerous. The stressful nature of our modern world can mean that we are almost constantly experiencing stress reactions. Being in this state of chronic arousal eventually takes its toll on the heart.
For more information, see the articles on stress management and relaxation therapies.
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Stress management and relaxation techniques can help you in a number of ways. These techniques can help you develop awareness about which situations are stressful for you, and based on this knowledge, you can either avoid them or react less strongly to them. Stress management and relaxation are like many other things--they get better with practice. If you practice them regularly, you can help your body be in a more relaxed state more often, and this will be beneficial for your heart health.
Arrhythmias can be caused or exacerbated by anxiety and stress. Learning how to manage stress effectively and relax regularly could help treat your arrhythmia and improve your quality of life.
Part of our body's natural "fight or flight" response is an increase in heart rate. This is why you can feel your heart race when you are in an intense situation. Under normal circumstances, this is okay and even helpful, but for someone with an arrhythmia, especially an abnormally fast heartbeat (tachycardia), this can be unpleasant and possibly dangerous. The stressful nature of our modern world can mean that we are almost constantly experiencing stress reactions. Being in this state of chronic arousal eventually takes its toll on the heart.
For more information, see the articles on stress management and relaxation therapies.
Stress management and relaxation techniques can help you in a number of ways. These techniques can help you develop awareness about which situations are stressful for you, and based on this knowledge, you can either avoid them or react less strongly to them. Stress management and relaxation are like many other things--they get better with practice. If you practice them regularly, you can help your body be in a more relaxed state more often, and this will be beneficial for your heart health.
