Evidence of the role of emotional and spiritual health on coronary heart disease has been accumulating for years. Along with changes in diet and regular exercise, attaining emotional and spiritual health by reducing stress and addressing emotional issues might not only slow the progress of coronary heart disease, but even reverse its course.
Diet
Adopting a heart-healthy nutrition strategy is a powerful way to help reduce total cholesterol, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugars, and reduce body weight. While most dietary plans just tell you what you CAN'T eat (usually your favorite foods), the most powerful nutrition strategy helps you focus on what you CAN eat. In fact, heart disease research has shown that adding heart-saving foods is just as important as cutting back on others. Some heart-healthy nutrition strategies include:
- Eat more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes.
- Choose fat calories wisely by limiting total fat grams and avoiding saturated and trans fats.
- Limit cholesterol consumption.
- Feed your body regularly: Skipping meals often leads to overeating. Eating five to six mini- meals is the best way to control blood sugars, burn fat calories more efficiently, and regulate cholesterol levels.
Exercise
Regular exercise is essential to a more healthy lifestyle and provides many benefits. These include:
- Strengthening your heart and lungs (efficiency)
- Aiding in weight loss
- Decreasing body fat
- Building energy levels
- Decreasing blood pressure
- Strengthening and building bones
- Improving muscular strength and endurance
- Decreasing stress, tension, anxiety, and depression
- Making you feel healthy
Before beginning any exercise program, it is important that you speak with your health care provider about what types of exercise are right for you. Your health care provider can also help you get started on an exercise program if you are unsure where to begin.
Emotional and spiritual health
Life stresses such as stressful working conditions or emotional issues such as depression and/or loneliness have been linked to a high risk of coronary heart disease. Likewise, for patients with coronary heart disease, stress and emotional issues can play a key role in accelerating the progression of the disease, and increasing the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes.
What are alternative therapies?
Alternative therapies can be defined as practices not widely taught at medical schools, normally available at hospitals or subject to reimbursement. The term “alternative” suggests that these therapies substitute for conventional treatments. However, this is usually not the case, and the term “complementary” is becoming more common. Another term that is becoming more widely used is “integrative medicine.” This describes a system in which therapies once considered alternatives are being incorporated into traditional medicine to create a new way of practicing. Many alternative therapies are based on the belief that mind, emotions, and spirit influence physical health.
Alternative medicine views individuals as whole people with minds and spirits, in addition to bodies, and recognizes the interconnectedness among these dimensions. As scientific evidence for the effectiveness of therapies that acknowledge these interrelationships grows, the trend toward integration of alternative approaches will continue to grow.
Mind/body/spirit approaches to wellness differ from traditional health care in that patients need to take responsibility for choosing practices that aid in their healing. It is ultimately only the patient who can heal emotional and spiritual dimensions.
Practices commonly used to address emotional and spiritual health
- Imagery - Imagery is based on the assumption that individuals have the ability to conjure up images that affect physiology (function of the mind and body). Individuals can use imagery to affect their own well-being. Many audio tapes that guide inner imagery are available. In the health care setting, visual imagery is commonly used to induce relaxation or to encourage patients to visualize healing in the bodies. A common use now involves providing audio tapes before surgery. Several randomized trials have shown decreased anxiety, decreased post-operative pain, and decreased length of time spent in the hospital when imagery was used. Studies of brain activity during imagery, as well as hypnotic suggestion (see below), have shown that the same region of the brain is activated whether a subject imagines an image of an object, or whether the object is actually seen.
- Meditation - Meditation is a practice of achieving a state of inner calm. Most forms of meditation originated in Eastern spiritual philosophies. Meditation typically involves focusing on one's breathing or on a single thought or word as a tool for stilling the mind. Studies of brain activity have shown that when people are meditating, different changes take place than when they are simply relaxing or sleeping. Likewise, meditation can lead to decreases in blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension that are greater than those that occur during sleep or simple relaxation. Because of this research, meditation or “mindfulness” programs are becoming accepted, and are often used in addition to traditional medical interventions. Many tapes and books are available and can help you develop your own meditation or mindfulness program.
- Yoga - Yoga is an ancient Indian practice that involves meditation, spiritual discipline, stretching, diet, breath control, and sound. There are many scientific studies showing that yoga can decrease blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety, and suggesting the benefits of yoga in a variety of medical conditions. Yoga is becoming very popular and classes are widely available. It is becoming increasingly common to find yoga classes being offered in medical centers.
- Prayer - Prayer is another practice, often used in the West to connect with a spiritual source. A sizeable body of literature has demonstrated the benefits of religious practice on health. Brain imaging studies have shown that brain activity changes during prayer, and research has shown that blood pressure and heart rate can decrease.
- Hypnosis - Hypnosis originated in the 18th Century in Western Europe. It leads the person into what is assumed to be an altered state in which decreased perception of the external environment allows increased focus and access to unconscious parts of the mind. Because evidence suggests its benefits, hypnosis is frequently used to treat addiction, pain, anxiety, and phobias.
- Biofeedback - This method is widely used in traditional settings to teach patients to use their mental powers to control bodily functions that used to be considered involuntary, such as blood pressure, heart rate, muscle activity, and brain wave activity.
- Music therapy - Music therapy is based on the fact that music affects emotional states. Its effectiveness in the clinical setting has been researched for years, and a large body of evidence supports its benefits, especially for pain and reducing stress and anxiety.
- Art, journaling, and dance therapies - These are all used to improve emotional well-being. They are designed to aid in self-discovery and connection with an inner self, or they can be used for self-expression.
- Aromatherapy - Aromatherapy is the use of concentrated essential oils extracted from flowers to improve health and emotional well-being. It has been used for thousands of years in countries such as India and Egypt. Many people find the use of these oils to be helpful in decreasing anxiety or inducing a sense of calm and well-being.
- Massage - Massage has been used in healing for thousands of years and is based on the idea that body manipulation can be used to aid in movement of energies. There are many forms of massage, and in recent years methods that focus more on inducing relaxation have developed. Massage has claimed to bring about such improvements as relaxation, relief of muscle tension, improved sleep, and improved blood circulation. Massage has also been shown to have beneficial short-term effects in patients experiencing anxiety.
- Practices based on belief in a “life-force” - Acupuncture is based on the premise that Qi flows through energy pathways or meridians in the body. Research is showing that acupuncture can change brain activity, and that it is beneficial for several conditions, including nausea and pain. Qi-gong and T'ai-Chi are practices used to enhance the flow of Qi in the body. Energy healing is based on the belief that one individual can affect the flow of the life-force in another. Common energy healing practices are Therapeutic Touch that nurses often learn in nursing school, Reiki, and Healing Touch. Although researchers are still testing this, many people use energy healing treatments because they find them helpful in decreasing stress and anxiety.
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This information is provided by the Cleveland Clinic and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or health care provider. Please consult your health care provider for advice about a specific medical condition. This document was last reviewed on: 1/16/2007…#10684
