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This Sleep Pattern Increases Heart Disease Risk 54% 

People who ignore this risk factor increase their odds of developing heart disease or stroke.

Less than seven, or more than eight hours of sleep can cause arterial stiffness leading to heart disease or stroke.

If you like to stay up late and have a drink or check your emails or watch TV and sleep until mid-morning, remember the quantity of sleep is important for your heart health.

The incidence of arterial stiffness is much lower in people who sleep seven or eight hours a night compared to those who sleep for shorter or longer hours, a study has found.

Consequently, people who sleep more than eight hours or less than seven hours are at higher risk of heart disease or stroke.

A research team measured 1,752 adults’ sleep patterns in Greece and based on duration of sleep they were divided into four groups.

The first was ‘normal’ group meaning their sleep was seven or eight hours per night, the second was the ‘short’ group meaning they slept six to seven hours nightly, the third one ‘very short’ meaning they had less than six hours sleep, and the last group ‘long’ as they had more than eight hours sleep nightly.

The results showed that participants who had more than eight hours a night were at a 39 percent higher risk of plaque build up inside the arteries and for those who slept less than six hours the odds increased to 54 percent.

This shows that duration of sleep is as important as exercise and diet for cardiovascular health.

sleep

Dr Evangelos Oikonomou, the study’s lead author, said:

“The message, based on our findings, is ‘sleep well, but not too well.’

Getting too little sleep appears bad for your health but too much seems to be harmful as well.

Unlike other heart disease risk factors such as age or genetics, sleep habits can be adjusted, and even after taking into consideration the impact of established risk factors for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases — for example age, gender, obesity, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, high blood pressure and even a history of coronary artery disease — both short and long sleeping duration may act as additional risk factors.”

Plaque build-up causes the arterial walls to thicken and narrow so the blood flow in the brain and the body will decrease leading to cardiovascular disease or stroke.

Dr Oikonomou, said:

“We don’t fully understand the relationship between sleep and cardiovascular health.

It could be that sympathetic nervous system withdrawal or a slowing [of this system] that occurs during sleep may act as a recovery phase for [usual] vascular and cardiac strain.

Moreover, short sleep duration may be associated with increased cardiovascular risk factors — for example, unhealthy diet, stress, being overweight or greater alcohol consumption — whereas longer sleep duration may be associated with a less active lifestyle pattern and lower physical activity.”

How much sleep we need is related to different factors such as age.

The guidelines for adults are mostly seven to nine hours sleep a night, however, one in three American adults gets less than six hours sleep.

Studies have shown that people who sleep poorly are at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, mental health problem, and early death.

Experts say a regular six to eight hours a night is spot-on.

Dr Oikonomou, said:

“It seems that this amount of sleep may act as an additive cardioprotective factor among people living in modern western societies, and there can be other health benefits to getting sufficient and quality sleep.”

The study was presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology, March 2020.

Mina Dean September 1, 2022

source: PsyBlog


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New Artificial Intelligence Tool Detects Often Overlooked Heart Diseases

Physician-scientists in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai have created an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can effectively identify and distinguish between two life-threatening heart conditions that are often easy to miss: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and cardiac amyloidosis. The new findings were published in JAMA Cardiology.

“These two heart conditions are challenging for even expert cardiologists to accurately identify, and so patients often go on for years to decades before receiving a correct diagnosis,” said David Ouyang, MD, a cardiologist in the Smidt Heart Institute and senior author of the study. “Our AI algorithm can pinpoint disease patterns that can’t be seen by the naked eye, and then use these patterns to predict the right diagnosis.”

The two-step, novel algorithm was used on over 34,000 cardiac ultrasound videos from Cedars-Sinai and Stanford Healthcare’s echocardiography laboratories. When applied to these clinical images, the algorithm identified specific features – related to the thickness of heart walls and the size of heart chambers – to efficiently flag certain patients as suspicious for having the potentially unrecognized cardiac diseases.

“The algorithm identified high-risk patients with more accuracy than the well-trained eye of a clinical expert,” said Ouyang. “This is because the algorithm picks up subtle cues on ultrasound videos that distinguish between heart conditions that can often look very similar to more benign conditions, as well as to each other, on initial review.”

Without comprehensive testing, cardiologists find it challenging to distinguish between similar appearing diseases and changes in heart shape and size that can sometimes be thought of as a part of normal aging. This algorithm accurately distinguishes not only abnormal from normal, but also between which underlying potentially life-threatening cardiac conditions may be present – with warning signals that are now detectable well before the disease clinically progresses to the point where it can impact health outcomes. Getting an earlier diagnosis enables patients to begin effective treatments sooner, prevent adverse clinical events, and improve their quality of life.

Cardiac amyloidosis, often called “stiff heart syndrome,” is a disorder caused by deposits of an abnormal protein (amyloid) in the heart tissue. As amyloid builds up, it takes the place of healthy heart muscle, making it difficult for the heart to work properly. Cardiac amyloidosis often goes undetected because patients might not have any symptoms, or they might experience symptoms only sporadically.

The disease tends to affect older, Black men or patients with cancer or diseases that cause inflammation. Many patients belong to underserved communities, making the study results an important tool in improving healthcare equity, Ouyang said.

ai heart

 

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a disease that causes the heart muscle to thicken and stiffen. As a result, it’s less able to relax and fill with blood, resulting in damage to heart valves, fluid buildup in the lungs, and abnormal heart rhythms.

Although separate and distinct conditions, cardiac amyloidosis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy often look very similar to each other on an echocardiogram, the most commonly used cardiac imaging diagnostic.

Importantly, in the very early stages of disease, each of these cardiac conditions can also mimic the appearance of a non-diseased heart that has progressively changed in size and shape with aging.

“One of the most important aspects of this AI technology is not only the ability to distinguish abnormal from normal, but also to distinguish between these abnormal conditions, because the treatment and management of each cardiac disease is very different,” said Ouyang.

The hope, Ouyang said, is that this technology can be used to identify patients from very early on in their disease course. That’s because clinicians know that earlier is always better for getting the most benefit from therapies that are available today and that can be very effective for preventing the worst possible outcomes, such as heart failure, hospitalizations, and sudden death.

Researchers plan to soon launch clinical trials for patients flagged by the AI algorithm for suspected cardiac amyloidosis. Patients enrolled in the trial will be seen by experts in the cardiac amyloidosis program at the Smidt Heart Institute, one of only a handful of programs on the West Coast dedicated to the disease.

A clinical trial for patients flagged by the algorithm for suspected hypertrophic cardiomyopathy just started at Cedars-Sinai.

“The use of artificial intelligence in cardiology has evolved rapidly and dramatically in a relatively short period of time,” said Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Department of Cardiology at the Smidt Heart Institute and co-senior author of the study. “These remarkable strides – which span research and clinical care – can make a tremendous impact in the lives of our patients.

Source:   Cedars-Sinai Medical Center     February 23, 2022

Story Source:   Materials provided by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:   Grant Duffy, Paul P. Cheng, Neal Yuan, Bryan He, Alan C. Kwan, Matthew J. Shun-Shin, Kevin M. Alexander, Joseph Ebinger, Matthew P. Lungren, Florian Rader, David H. Liang, Ingela Schnittger, Euan A. Ashley, James Y. Zou, Jignesh Patel, Ronald Witteles, Susan Cheng, David Ouyang. High-Throughput Precision Phenotyping of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy With Cardiovascular Deep Learning. JAMA Cardiology, 2022; DOI: 10.1001/jamacardio.2021.6059

www.sciencedaily.com


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Eating Chili Peppers Can Help You Live Longer, Cut Risks For Heart Disease And Cancer


DALLAS, Texas — Previous studies have shown that spicy food can have a positive impact on your health. Now, a study released by the American Heart Association has a “hot” new take on the topic. Researchers say eating chili pepper isn’t just good for your health, it can help you live longer by reducing heart disease and cancer.

The study finds consuming chili peppers cuts the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 26 percent. The odds of dying from cancer decreased by 23 percent compared to people who don’t include peppers in their diet.

One of the key findings is that chili peppers act as a natural anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, and blood-glucose regulator. This is due to the release of capsaicin into an eater’s system. This substance gives a pepper its trademark mild to intense spicy flavor.

The international appeal of chili peppers
Researchers looked at over 4,700 studies from five major health databases to gather their data. Their final report included four large studies on the health of individuals who either did or didn’t eat chili peppers. The data examined more than 570,000 people from the United States, Italy, China, and Iran.

Overall, the report finds a 25-percent drop in all causes of death among people who include chili peppers in their diet.

“We were surprised to find that in these previously published studies, regular consumption of chili pepper was associated with an overall risk-reduction of all cause, CVD and cancer mortality. It highlights that dietary factors may play an important role in overall health,” says senior author Bo Xu of the Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute in a media release.

“The exact reasons and mechanisms that might explain our findings, though, are currently unknown. Therefore, it is impossible to conclusively say that eating more chili pepper can prolong life and reduce deaths, especially from cardiovascular factors or cancer. More research, especially evidence from randomized controlled studies, is needed to confirm these preliminary findings.”

Dr. Xu adds these findings have some limitations because the respondents ate different amount and various types of chili peppers. This makes determining if a specific variety or serving size is better for a patient’s health.

The study is being presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2020.

by Chris Melore NOVEMBER 13, 2020

Source: www.studyfinds.org/eat-chili-peppers-live-longer/


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Smart Speakers May Detect Cardiac Arrest

Home devices that use A I may be able to pick up signs of distress and call for help.

Amazon Alexa and Google Home could be lifesavers — quite literally. A team at the University of Washington (UW) created a new tool that can monitor people for cardiac arrest through your at-home smart speaker.

When someone experiences cardiac arrest, they become unresponsive and may stop breathing or gasp for air. The tool can detect that gasp, known as agonal breathing, and then alert authorities for help.

About 475,000 Americans die each year from cardiac arrest. This occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating. Receiving CPR can greatly improve a person’s chance of survival, but only if someone is present.

“Just like smart speakers can listen to Alexa, what we are showing is that they can also passively listen to agonal breathing sounds and either raise an audible alarm or call emergency services when it detects one,” Shyam Gollakota, PhD, an associate professor in UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, told Healthline. Gollakota was one of the authors of a new study looking at if Alexa can detect signs of cardiac arrest.

How AI can help save your life

The new tool that UW researchers created is a “skill,” similar to an app, which is a built-in capability that can be used on voice devices that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI). These voice devices include Amazon Echo, whose virtual assistant is dubbed Alexa. Skills can be added to an existing Amazon Echo, Google Home, or smartphone.

Researchers tested out the tool, which was developed using real agonal breathing recordings captured from 911 calls. They collected data from 162 calls between 2009 and 2017, and created 236 clips from the calls. The recordings were captured from Alexa-enabled, iPhone 5s, and Samsung Galaxy S4 devices. After different machine learning techniques were applied, the team came up with 7,316 positive clips.

They were played at different distances to simulate possible locational differences. They also added in sounds that may interfere such as air conditioning running or the sound of a pet.

The team then used a negative dataset that had 7,305 sound samples of noises from people such as snoring.

The technology was able to detect agonal breathing 97 percent of the time from up to 20 feet away. The findings were published in NPJ Digital Medicine.

“We envision a contactless system that works by continuously and passively monitoring the bedroom for an agonal breathing event, and alerts anyone nearby to come provide CPR. And then if there’s no response, the device can automatically call 911,” Gollakota said in a statement.

He told Healthline the technology is being licensed and could be commercially available in a year or so.

“We also envision that our system would give users a warning before contacting emergency medical services or other forms of support and provide them a chance to cancel any false alarms,” Justin Chan, a doctoral student and fellow researcher, who also worked on the study, told Healthline.

The researchers plan to commercialize this technology through Sound Life Sciences, Inc. They want to test it on more calls across the country and in other countries.

Chan noted that the technology preserves privacy. It only runs on a smart device and doesn’t send data to the cloud or a third party. Data is only stored locally for a few seconds as required for processing, and is then discarded, he said.

Despite any potential privacy issues, many AI experts find the cardiac arrest detection skill quite a discovery.

“What these researchers have done is brilliant and a glimpse of an important evolution for smart speakers and voice assistants,” Bradley Metrock, an AI and voice expert and CEO of tech-focused Score Publishing, told Healthline.

smartphone

Physicians on a work in progress

Medical experts say the findings are interesting, but by the time Alexa can detect something is wrong, it may be too late.

Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency department physician at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York City, says agonal breathing may start only after brain damage is already occurring.

“Lack of adequate blood flow to the brain for greater than three to five minutes — the amount of time it takes to result in irreversible brain damage — will typically occur well before the onset of agonal breathing,” he explained.

He says further research may help uncover other biomarkers that could help detect warning signs far earlier.

“I think the concept of monitoring breathing in a contactless fashion to detect a heart attack is a work in progress,” Glatter said. “Since early intervention is paramount in trying to save lives, we may need to evaluate biomarkers other than agonal breathing, since its appearance is a sign that death is imminent.”

Speak up for better health

It may seem odd to use a robotic device as a way to call for help, but AI is increasingly being used as a way to improve people’s health and detecting when something is wrong.

The reason is that AI is particularly good at detecting patterns, explained Marius Kierski, a partner with Sigmoidal.

His company specializes in machine learning and AI.

“I believe that AI advancements have a longer way to go to make it into everyday devices, because of the regulatory requirements,” he told Healthline.

Alexa also has a home security skill that can listen for sounds like glass breaking when you are not home. You just put your Amazon Echo (or Echo Dot) into security mode and tell it you are leaving. It listens.

In addition, the Alexa-enabled devices already have a host of healthcare-related skills. Express Scripts, for example, lets patients check the status of a home delivery and get notifications when orders are shipped. Atrium Health, a healthcare system in the South, allows people to find an urgent care location near them and schedule a same-day appointment.

“You don’t have privacy concerns then because you’re not home to be eavesdropped on,” said Freddie Feldman, president and CEO of VocoLabs. He is creating Alexa skills and other conversational interfaces that can help patients. “It’s a little different [than the cardiac arrest skill technology], but very much the same in that they’re using AI to detect a certain pattern of sounds and then act on it.”

“I think the advancement is really great and interesting,” he added. “Having a device in the home that is connected and ‘always listening’ is actually a benefit in a use case such as this.”

Henry O’Connell, president and CEO of Canary Speech, believes these applications will be primarily used in hospitals and in clinical trials rather than the home

O’Connell’s company is creating technology that integrates AI and machine learning for health. They are working to devise disease classification tools for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as conditions such as anxiety and depression.

O’Connell said hospitals and clinical trials may be a better fit for AI voice applications. In part, this is because in these locations, physicians have to be very clear about how their data will be use in order to get informed consent from patients. Only then can their voice data be used to evaluate them for diseases.

Other AI and health applications are in the pharmaceutical industry, which uses AI in the drug research process.

There’s even a chance radiologists may soon employ AI. A 2018 study found AI may beat dermatologists at detecting some skin cancer signs.


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Vitamin D Lowers Risk of Dying From Cancer, Fish Oil Reduces Heart Attack Risk: Study

A large U.S. study designed to gauge the health benefits of vitamin D and fish oil supplements concludes that the omega-3 oil can dramatically reduce the odds of a heart attack while vitamin D’s benefits seem to come from lowering the risk of death from cancer.

Neither vitamin D nor fish oil lowered the odds of stroke or of getting cancer in the first place in the trial, whose participants did not know whether they were taking the real supplements or a dummy pill.

The heart attack rate in fish oil recipients was 28 percent lower than among those who got the dummy pill, or placebo, and it was 77 percent lower among African American participants – although the lead author of the study told Reuters Health that this dramatic drop in risk among black participants needs to be confirmed.

For people taking vitamin D who developed cancer, the death rate from cancer was 25 percent lower, possibly because the vitamin “may affect the biology of the tumor so it’s less likely to spread and become metastatic,” said lead author Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“If you’re talking about prevention of cancer, that may take treatment for well over a decade.”

It took a few years of vitamin D use for the reduction in cancer deaths to become clear.

The results were reported Saturday at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions meeting in Chicago and online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Both supplements have a reputation for being beneficial based on animal tests and observational studies involving large diverse populations or ethnic groups. But large studies that directly test the benefits of vitamin D and fish oil in supplement form have given inconsistent results.

The new study, known as VITAL, is the first large test of both in the general population. Most previous research has focused on volunteers with an elevated risk of heart attack, stroke and/or cancer.

vitamine d

The researchers gave 2,000 international units of vitamin D per day, 1 gram of marine omega-3 fatty acids, or placebo supplements to 25,871 volunteers aged 50 or older. None had a history of cancer, heart attack or stroke. At least half stayed in the study for more than five years.

Based on the new findings, “people already taking vitamin D or fish oil will feel there’s no reason to stop,” Manson said.

People who are considering starting the supplements may want to wait “because we are going to be publishing findings for other endpoints – diabetes, cognitive function, depression, autoimmune diseases – over the next six months,” she said. “These findings may help people decide if the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks for them.”

And people should not be taking higher doses than what was used in the study, Manson noted. With megadoses, “the risk may outweigh the benefit. With high doses of vitamin D there can be a risk of high blood calcium levels developing. Some have suggested a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, falls and even fractures.”

By other measures, neither supplement seemed useful.

Among fish oil recipients, the rates of death from any cause, death from cancer and death from heart disease in general were not significantly different than for people not taking fish oil supplements.

In addition, the collective odds of having a heart attack, stroke or death from any cardiovascular cause were essentially the same whether people were taking fish oil or placebo.

It was only when researchers teased out individual elements of heart disease – such as the rate of heart attack, the rate of fatal heart attack and the need for angioplasty – that a benefit stood out.

Even a little fish oil seemed to help. Volunteers who consumed less fish than average – less than one-and-a-half servings per week – and received the real omega-3 supplements saw a 40 percent reduction in the risk of a heart attack.

In the vitamin D study, which was “the largest high-dose randomized trial of vitamin D in the world,” according to Manson, supplement and non-supplement recipients had similar rates of heart attack, stroke, death from heart attack and cancers of the breast, prostate, or the colon and rectum.

It was only the odds of dying from cancer that were reduced.

By Gene Emery Reuters    November 13, 2018


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Cold Weather Increases Heart Failure Risk, Says New Study

Dropping temperatures and changes in atmospheric pressure can lead to an increase in the risk of heart failure for elderly people, according to a large-scale study – and more care needs to be taken to counter the effects.

Previous research has shown that changes in the weather can affect the health of vulnerable people – for example, heat waves and cold spells have been shown to increase disease and even lead to death in people from low-income neighborhoods. The new study, led by researchers at Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada, reveals the impact of changes in temperature and air pressure on heart failure patients.

“We know that doctors rarely take the weather forecast into account when treating or making recommendations to heart failure patients,” said Prof. Pierre Gosselin, lead author of the study from Universitié Laval in Canada. “So with the extreme differences in temperature due to climate change, we wanted to show how the weather is becoming a more relevant factor. Our study shows that exposure to cold or high-pressure weather could trigger events leading to hospitalization or death in heart failure patients.”

Treating heart failure patients is expensive: according to the Institut Canadien d’Information sur la Santé, people over 65 accounted for 78 percent of patients with the most expensive hospitalization costs per diagnosis between 2011 and 2012 in Canada. Of these, the cost of heart failure ranked third and was estimated at CAN$276 million.

In the new study, the team assessed 112,793 people aged 65 years and older that had been diagnosed with heart failure in Quebec between 2001 and 2011. Patients with heart failure were identified in the Quebec Integrated Chronic Disease Surveillance System (QICDSS) database using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

The participants were followed for an average of 635 days. During this time, the researchers measured the mean temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and air pollutants in the surrounding environment and studied the data to see if there was an association.

The results showed a higher risk of hospitalization or death in the winter period of the year (October to April) compared to the summer period (May to September).

The researchers noticed that the risk to experience hospitalization or death of heart failure cause was increased of 0.7 percent for every 1°C decrease in the mean temperature of the previous seven days. They also found that the risk of heart failure incident increased by 4.5 percent for each increase of 1 kPa in atmospheric pressure.

In other words, a drop of 10°C in the average temperature over seven days, which is common in several countries because of seasonal variations, is associated with an increased risk in being hospitalized or dying of heart failure of about 7 percent in people aged over 65 diagnosed with the disease.

During the follow-up period, 21,157 heart failure events occurred, representing 18.7 percent of the people studied. In total, 18,309 people were hospitalized and 4,297 died. In some cases, hospitalization and death occurred the same day. The researchers calculated this to 0.03 percent of patients experiencing an incident per day, which extends to about 1500 hospitalizations or deaths over a 10-year period, or 150 events per year.

Prof. Gosselin and the team suggest that elderly with heart failure should be given support and access to preventive measures, especially since managing heart failure is expensive for society. He commented:

“Our study suggests that exposure to cold or high-pressure weather could trigger events leading to hospitalization or death in heart failure patients. This means that they should avoid exposure to fog and low cloud weather in winter as they often accompany high pressure systems.”

Sep 28, 2017


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Study Shows Why It’s Massively Important to Have a Good Attitude

Positive thinking may reduce your risk of this deadly disease

Could a grin on your face be your ticker’s saving grace? 

In a new study at Penn State University, scientists looked at more than 1,000 people with coronary heart disease over a 5-year period. Patients who reported having higher levels of positive emotions like determination, excitement, and enthusiasm were more likely to exercise, sleep better, and avoid smoking.

Not surprisingly, those three measures can all reduce your risk of heart disease, according to previous research.

Although the people in this study already had heart problems—and their positive attitudes helped them maintain better health behaviors—other research pegs happiness as a proven preventative tool. A study in the American Journal of Cardiology found that positive well-being was associated with nearly a one-third reduction of coronary artery disease.

The scientists aren’t exactly sure why people with better attitudes are more likely to engage in healthy behaviors, but they have a few theories.

Happier people may be more motivated to carry out and stick to health routines, adjust health-related goals, or cope with the setbacks of having ticker trouble, says study author Nancy Sin, Ph.D.

The most encouraging part of the findings is that the people who had great outlooks weren’t necessarily that way from the start. Patients who increased their positive emotions as the study went on were more likely to keep up healthy behaviors.

Stress and depression tend to hog all the headlines when it comes to factors that influence our health. So we tend to overlook the huge impact that positive thinking can have, says Sin.

But as the study shows, you can always turn your attitude around. “Start with small changes in your life,” says Sin.

BY JADA GREEN October 14, 2015


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Fun Fact Friday

  • The happier you are, the less sleep you require to function in everyday life. Sadness increases the urge to sleep more.
  • Brushing your teeth will keep your heart healthier. People with gum disease have a 25–50% higher chance of getting cardiovascular disease.
  • If it takes less than five minutes to do, do it immediately. Your life will instantly become much more organized and productive.

 

sleeping
The happier you are, the less sleep you require to function in everyday life.
Sadness increases the urge to sleep more.
  • Everyone has experienced something that has changed them in a way that they could never go back to the person they once were. 
  • Eating bananas, pasta, almonds, grapes, oatmeal, chocolate, watermelon, orange juice, cornflakes, and tuna can help relieve stress.
Happy Friday  🙂
 
source:       factualfacts.com       https://twitter.com/Fact       @Fact


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Managing Your Emotions Can Save Your Heart

We often think of the heart and brain as being completely separate from each other. After all, your heart and brain are located in different regions of your body, and cardiology and neurology are separate disciplines. Yet these organs are intimately connected, and when your emotions adversely affect your brain, your heart is affected as well.

The negative impact of emotions when your heart is already vulnerable

There are two kinds of stress that impact your brain. Helpful stress (also known as eustress) can assist you with getting things done by helping you focus your attention. Unhelpful stress (distress), on the other hand, can be so severe that it can lead to fatigue and heart disease.

If you have coronary artery disease (CAD), your heart may be deprived of oxygen. This deprivation, called myocardial ischemia, can occur in as many as 30% to 50% of all patients with CAD. It can be further exacerbated by emotional stress. In fact, if you have any type of heart disease, any strong emotion such as anger may also cause severe and fatal irregular heart rhythms. Expressions like “died from fright” and “worried to death” are not just hyperbole — they are physiologic possibilities. Furthermore, when patients with newly diagnosed heart disease become depressed, that depression increases the risk that a harmful heart-related event will occur within that year.

The negative impact of emotions when you have no heart disease

Of course, stress can have a big effect on your heart even if you don’t have heart disease. Here’s just one example: In 1997, cardiologist Lauri Toivonen and colleagues conducted a study of EKG changes in healthy physicians before and during the first 30 seconds of an emergency call. They saw changes that indicated oxygen deprivation and abnormal heart rhythms.

More recent studies have also observed these changes in the setting of with stress, anxiety, and depression — all of which are, of course, brain-based conditions. Even in people with no prior heart disease, major depression doubles the risk of dying from heart-related causes.

mirror mirror

 

Cardiac psychology: Tending to your emotions for your heart’s sake

It is important to control your worry and stress, not just because you will worry less and feel better, but because less worry means less stress for your heart. This applies to the entire range of stressors, from a small episode of acute panic to a larger context such as living through a natural disaster. For all the reasons outlined above, a new emotion-based approach to heart health, called cardiac psychology, is receiving increasing interest.

You really can change your brain and get a healthier heart in the process. Here are some ways to get started:

  • Seek professional help. Don’t ignore stress, anxiety, depression, excessive worry, or bouts of anger that overwhelm your life. Seek professional help. If you meet criteria for a diagnosis, treatment can help reduce symptoms, thereby protecting your brain and your heart.
  • Available treatments in cardiac psychology. Aside from more traditional psychiatric treatment and exercise, psycho-educational programs, educational training, stress management, biofeedback, counseling sessions, and relaxation techniques should all be considered before or after a heart-related event. Newer treatments such as acceptance and commitment therapy and expressive writing can also be helpful.
  • Exercise. Physical exercise can help you have a healthier heart and brain — in the right doses. For example, many recent studies have demonstrated that aerobic exercise can help you be more mentally nimble by helping you think faster and more flexibly. Even frail older adults have improved their thinking and overall psychological well-being from exercising for one hour, three times a week. And people in rehabilitation after being diagnosed with heart failure report clearer thinking when their fitness levels improve.As clinical research scientist Michelle Ploughman commented, “exercise is brain food.” Various types of aerobic exercise, including jogging, swimming, cycling, walking, gardening, and dancing, have all been proven to reduce anxiety and depression and to improve self-esteem. This is thought to be due to an increase in blood circulation in the brain, and the fact that exercise can improve the brain’s ability to react to stress.

 

A starting point for better brain — and heart — health

If you struggle with stress, anger, anxiety, worry, depression, or problems with self-esteem, talk to your primary care physician — or a cardiologist, if you have one. A consultation with a psychiatrist may be very helpful. Together, you can explore which of these potential therapies might best protect your psychological state, your brain, and your heart.

Srini Pillay, MD, Contributor     @srinipillay     MAY 09, 2016  


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Laugh, Cuddle to Unclog Arteries? Why One Cardiologist Swears By Happy Healers

Michael Miller, MD, has seen firsthand how the power of positive emotions can help our hearts get and stay healthy.

By Michael Miller, MD with Catherine Knepper from Heal Your Heart

Also in Reader’s Digest Magazine March 2015

One of my favorite moments as a physician occurs when, with a very somber look, I inform patients that there’s one thing they absolutely must do in order to make a successful recovery after a cardiac event: Go home and laugh until they cry.

You see, we now know that there’s far more to maintaining heart health and reversing heart disease than diet, exercise, and cholesterol levels. The latest research indicates that stress, and an inability to deal with it, is a direct contributor to heart disease. For example, a study involving nearly 250,000 people found that anxiety was associated with a 26 percent increase in coronary heart disease over an 11-year period.

Anger and hostility rank at the top of the list of heart-harmful emotions. Harvard Medical School researchers recently found that 40 percent of patients who suffered a heart attack reported significant anger within the previous year, and roughly 8 percent of that group reported that they felt rage within two hours of heart attack symptoms.

But while studies reveal a great deal about the harm that negative emotions deliver to the heart, they also clearly demonstrate the amazing healing power of positive emotions. In my 25 years as a cardiologist performing clinical trials and treating patients, I’ve seen firsthand how we can harness optimism, confidence, laughter, social connections, and relaxation to help our hearts get and stay healthy.

laughing

Laugh Hysterically

Deep belly laughter triggers the release of endorphins, which activate receptors in our blood vessels’ linings that signal the production of nitric oxide. This powerful chemical causes blood vessel dilation, increases blood flow, reduces vascular inflammation and buildup of cholesterol plaque, and decreases platelet stickiness, which lowers the risk of blood clots.

In an early study, my team saw that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to use humor in an uncomfortable situation, such as having a waiter spill a drink on them, than people with healthy hearts. In another study, when we asked people to watch a clip from Saving Private Ryan or There’s Something About Mary, we found that participants’ blood vessels were narrowing by up to 50 percent during the stress-inducing clip, while vessel dilation in people who watched a funny clip increased 22 percent. After just 15 minutes of laughing, volunteers got the same vascular benefit as they would from spending 15 to 30 minutes at the gym or taking a daily statin.

Cue the Music

Medical science is now proving what people have known for hundreds of years: that music is deeply healing. In one study, researchers found that listening to music 25 minutes daily for four weeks resulted in a 12 mm Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure (the top number) and a 5 mm Hg decrease in diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number). Results like these are equivalent to the benefit of taking a strong blood pressure medication.

The calming effect of music is so powerful that listening to relaxing music before cardiac surgery was more effective at reducing stress than a sedative medication. And a group who listened to music after surgery fared better than patients who received the sedative. One theory is that music acts directly on the body’s autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for heart rate and blood pressure.

Cuddle Up

During childhood visits to the doctor, I remember feeling that everything would be fine when my pediatrician would place his hand on my upper shoulder as he listened to my lungs. Early in my training, I did the same thing to my patients. Several studies support the idea that interpersonal touch has important heart-health benefits. In one study, women who received frequent hugs from their partner showed reduced heart rates and blood pressure as well as higher levels of the powerful neurotransmitter oxytocin, which leads to blood vessel dilation.

source: www.rd.com