HELP WITH HEART HEALTH & CARDIAC FITNESS
Thanks to some good public health efforts derived from recent cardiology research,
most of us have gotten pretty knowledgeable about what we need to do to keep our
hearts healthy, and avoid (or at least slow down) coronary artery disease (CAD).
Cardiologists have taught us about nutrition, avoiding animal fats and salt, staying
fit with aerobic exercise, keeping our weight down (especially around the middle
and the belly), ingesting anti-oxidants, lowering blood pressure and paying attention
to the ratio of good vs. bad cholesterol. And if you have diabetes, all the above
goes double or even triple.
There’s also a lot known about the importance of managing stress for your
heart’s sake. One of the best known studies shows that people with heart disease
tend to evince unusual degrees of impatience (“hurry sickness”), competitiveness
and hostility, and that the trait to be most concerned about for heart health is
the hostility.
Cardiac research also shows that when we do things like guided imagery, transcendental
meditation, hypnosis, yoga and stress management training, we can actually reverse
coronary artery disease (CAD) – something that wasn’t thought possible
until Dean Ornish and some PET scans proved otherwise.
Ironically, a lot of heart disease-prone people tend to get agitated when offered
a method like guided imagery, hypnosis or meditation, which requires that they slow
down and relax. So even though our guided imagery for a
Healthy Heart is very well-received by some, others jump out of their skin
after the first 3 minutes. For them, the Walking Meditation on our
Relieve Stress audio is much more compatible, because they can move while
listening, and don’t feel so confined. Emmett Miller’s
10-Minute Stress Manager is very wisely
and skillfully geared to speed up the relaxation, and that seems to go down well,
as does his Down with High Blood Pressure.
In addition, we have Ken Cohen’s superb Qigong videos, Qigong, and
Qi Healing, which teach a kind of moving meditation that also serves
the same purpose for the antsy cardiac fidgeter, and there is no better, clearer
teacher than Ken. He also has a wonderful CD on
A Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Breathing, which is yet another way
to help a heart attack-prone person use movement and kinetic focus to settle down.
Andy Weil’s Breathing: the
Master Key to Healing, and his CDs on mindfulness meditation, presented
with Jon Kabat-Zinn - Meditation
for Optimum Health - are also superb choices that are very popular and well-received.
And finally we have fine simple starter yoga instruction, from Susan Winter
Ward, called Accessible Yoga for Every
Body, some wonderful beginner
or intermediate yoga by the legendary
Cyndi Lee with her Om Yoga in a Box, and sophisticated
yoga, skillfully taught by Ken McRae –
Sadhana Yoga I and II.
And one final choice for the fidgeter who hates being stuck, sitting in confined
quarters, in an airplane: Carol Dickman’s superb
In Flight Yoga.
Of course, once someone has had a heart attack or a cardiac procedure or surgery
of some kind, they generally become open to using these quieter methods. (No nay-sayers
in a fox hole, I guess..). For them, our Successful
Surgery, Cardiac ICU & Recovery,
and Relaxed & Awake during Medical Procedures
fills the bill nicely.
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