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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