www.drkrishna.com

Connections between the

Heart & the Mind

Can your mind affect your heart?

Image credit: http://farm1.staticflickr.com/40/123120605_7e855fd3ef_o.jpgwww.drkrishna.com

Or picture this:You’ve fallen deeply in love, and you’re just about to meet the love of your life for dinner. You spot him across the restaurant, and the two of you begin to walk towards each other. With each step the anticipation and thrill you feel escalates, and your heart rate elevates right along with it.

Picture this:You’ve come home from a hair-pulling, one-crisis-after-another day filled with deadlines, demands and stress. You walk into the house, hug your spouse, change into your most comfortable sweats and plop down in your easy chair to relax. As your day decelerates, your blood pressure drops and your heart rate slows.

Each scenario above describes a situation in which thoughts affect the heart.

www.drkrishna.com

• We understand and accept that love, anger, fear and other emotions, particularly strongly felt emotions, affect the heart on a short-term basis. • What’s less understood is that emotions and thoughts can have long-term effects on the health of the heart, too.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ores2k/394359583/sizes/o/in/photostream/

www.drkrishna.com

Fortunately, pioneering medical researchers have been making the picture clear.

• The patients were divided into three groups.

• At Duke University, researchers studied 107 patients with impaired blood flow to the heart, a condition which worsens the outlook for heart patients.

• One group spent four months learning about stress management; another group undertook a four-month exercise program; and the third group received traditional heart care from their personal physicians.

www.drkrishna.com

During the next three years, just three of the people in the stress management group had experienced a heart attack or required a heart bypass or angioplasty.But seven of the exercise group and 12 of the traditional care group experienced a heart attack or needed surgery.

The conclusion:

Reducing the stress in life can reduce the risk of heart problems.

There’s more.

A study conducted by Johns Hopkins of 2,000 people in Baltimore, showed that people with depression have 4-½ times higher risk of heart attack than people who are not depressed.

www.drkrishna.com

Another study showed that after a first heart attack, “Type D” people – people who tend

to become more easily distressed than others – had a 300 percent greater risk of

having a second heart attack.

www.drkrishna.com

And still another study, this one in 1995 of 232 patients at Dartmouth Medical School

who had undergone elective heart surgery found the "very religious" were three times

more likely to recover than those who were not.

www.drkrishna.com

The evidence is becoming more and more clear: What you think and feel can affect the health of your heart. What can you do to make sure your thoughts – and heart – are healthy?

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dagur/324921730/sizes/l/in/photostream/

www.drkrishna.com

• Stress is part of all our lives, and the goal is to deal with it in a healthy manner. • If your job is causing you stress in an uncomfortable way, you may need to change certain aspects of the job, change your attitude about the job or perhaps even jobs altogether. • Life is full of choices, and you can decide to be a victim or master of them.

Learn to recognize and deal with stress

www.drkrishna.com

Find inner serenity and tranquility.

• Find what works for you and then make sure you find the time to pursue it.

• Different people have different ways of centering themselves in a calm place – meditation, prayer, recreation, gardening, exercise, and solitude.

www.drkrishna.com

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fsara/4864198030/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Find spiritual fulfillment

If that involves belief in a higher power, so much the better, since research indicates that belief itself brings health benefits such as a stronger immune system and a heightened ability to cope with pain and distress.

www.drkrishna.com

Seek healthy relationships

• Those relationships have a tremendous calming effect on us, both physically and mentally.

• We all need people with whom to share our hopes and dreams, people who will support us, people who care about our happiness and our place in the world.

www.drkrishna.com

Look for opportunities to serve others.

Studies show that people who are happiest are more often those involved in helping others in some form or fashion.

www.drkrishna.com Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/feasley/9669892190/sizes/c/in/photostream/

View the world with a sense of humor.

Where there’s humor, there’s laughter, and laughter relaxes muscles, lowers blood pressure and reduces levels of hormones that create stress and suppress immunity.

www.drkrishna.com

Dr. Krishna is president and chief operating officer of INTEGRIS Mental Health, that provides adult and child/adolescent mental health services in inpatient, residential, outpatient & clinical settings; an employee assistance program; and crisis intervention services.

He is also co-founder and president of the James L. Hall, Jr. Center for Mind, Body and Spirit, an educational organization devoted to improving health through raising awareness of the healing power of the connection between mind, body, and spirit.

www.drkrishna.com

Author of VIBRANT: To Heal and Be Whole - From India to Oklahoma City, Dr. Krishna reveals the secrets to living a vibrant life while overcoming:

• Anxiety• Trauma• Sleep dysfunction• Stress• Obesity• Emotional dysfunction• Depression• Addiction

• Substance abuse• Loss• Anger• Unresolved issues• Relationship stress• Mental illness• Alcoholism

www.drkrishna.com

R. Murali Krishna, MD, DLFAPA

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Univ. of OK Health Sciences Center

Co-Founder & President, James L. Hall, Jr Center for Mind, Body and Spirit

President, Oklahoma State Board of HealthFounding President, Health Alliance for the Uninsured

President & COO, INTEGRIS Mental Health

www.drkrishna.com

www.drkrishna.com