It may be an age old symbol of emotion, but everyone knows that the human heart is really nothing more than a pump. Or is it? New research suggests a direct link between your state of mind and the state of your heart. Here’s how to keep it ticking happily.
You’ve seen it on TV. A hospital humming with urgent activity, the echo of footsteps on shiny floors, a roomful of white coated figures, and an unbroken note that pierces the air. A flurry of gloves, a jolt of electrical energy, and the note shifts into a regular, rhythmic pattern. The human heart, pulsing back into life.
But the industrious organ that shepherds your blood and its vital cargo of oxygen through the body is also an age old symbol of emotion. Be it aching or breaking or brimming with love, the heart has always overruled the brain as the supposed wellspring of the way we feel.
As it turns out, this may not be such a fanciful notion. A growing body of clinical research seems to confirm what poets and songwriters have long proclaimed. There’s a real and direct link between our hearts and our minds. Or to put it in the language of the white coated figure; psychosocial factors may present stronger risks for acute myocardial infarction than diabetes, smoking, hypertension and obesity. Which means that stress at work or home, along with your perceived ability to cope with life, can significantly increase your risk of heart disease. The mortality rate in heart failure patients with major depression is two and a half times higher than in heart patients without depression.
Yet, depression in heart failure patients often goes undiagnosed. This is partly because of the overlap in the symptoms of the two conditions (among them: fatigue, loss of energy, poor appetite, and sleep disturbance) and partly because many patients see depression as a character weakness or personality flaw, when it’s really a common clinical condition that affects as many as one out of five patients with heart disease.
It is here that the big question of cause and effect comes to mind. Is depression a natural consequence of the life changing impact of heart failure? Or is heart failure a likely outcome of the physical effects of depression? The answer, in both cases, is yes. If you’re depressed or anxious, you are more likely to develop a cardiovascular problem. How, exactly?
A heart attack is cause by a blocked blood vessel to the heart and depression is one of the known contributors to the development of such a blockage. Inside the blood vessels we find the lumen, where the blood is able to flow. Factors such as smoking, high cholesterol and depression can cause fatty deposits to accumulate on the wall, forming a plaque that juts into the lumen. If this plaque becomes damaged or ruptured, your body’s repair system shoots to the rescue, building a blood clot to patch up the gash.
But the clot also seals off the artery’s lumen, blocking the blood flow and leading to possible bypass surgery. Depression is a risk factor for heart disease, but heart disease is also a cause of depression. When your heart is heavy, you may lose your natural inclination to get out and get active, and you’re more likely to drink and smoke and eat the wrong things. Heart failure patients should be screened for depression and treated when depression is found to be present. This may help to improve the patient’s quality of life, and potentially improve long term outcomes.
But it’s not only all up to the doctors. We all need to learn how to make our hearts happy. The heart is an easy organ to please. It all begins with proper exercise and nutrition. Nobody can change their family history, but we can all do something about the foods we eat and the activities we do.
A healthy diet consists of the four essentials: Fats, Fiber, Fruit and Vegetables.
Your body doesn’t need a lot of fat to stay healthy, so try to keep your fat intake low. Fiber is a must because it lowers your cholesterol and fills you up so you eat less. Physical activity is equally important. It boosts your circulation, reduces stress levels and stimulates the release of happy hormones or endorphins. Even if you have a heart condition, exercise can help you get back on track.
Goal number one? Do whatever it takes to keep your heart happy. Love your body. Live your life. And above all, never lose heart.
It is quite common for one to hear about all of the reasons that you should exercise. You typically hear that it is good for your health or can help us to lose unwanted pounds. But, these reasons are a bit vague for those of us who are a bit more scientifically minded.
Specifically, what positive effects does exercise have on the heart? Sure, you know that working out, walking, biking, swimming, and related exercises are good for your heart. But, you may find yourself wanting more facts and details about exercise's effect on the heart.
If you are wondering about exercise's effect on your heart, here are 10 ways exercise helps your heart:
1. Helps you lose weight, which means less strain on your heart muscle:
Working out - especially engaging in cardiovascular exercise - burns calories. Over time, along with the proper diet, this has the effect of helping you to lose noticeable amounts of weight. And as the weight comes off, your heart has to work less hard to pump blood through your circulatory system.
2. Strengthens your heart:
Your heart is a muscle. And, by elevating your heart rate to about 60-80% of your target maximum heart rate for at least 20 minutes per day, you can strengthen that muscle significantly.
3. Reduces bad (LDL) cholesterol:
Working out can reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol in your blood. This is the kind that, if it goes unchecked, can lead to the buildup of plaque and hardening of the arteries. In turn, these problems are the main causes of both heart attacks and stroke. Having less than 100 mg/dL of LDL in your blood is optimal.
4. Increases in good (HDL) cholesterol:
Having higher HDL cholesterol levels is also a common result of exercise. Higher HDL can provide some protection against heart disease. An HDL cholesterol of 60 mg/dL or higher is desirable.
5. Lowers your blood pressure:
Blood pressure is simply the pressure that the blood exerts on the walls of your blood vessels. Having high blood pressure puts you at risk for heart attack because it can result in the restriction of oxygen flow to the heart, leading possibly to angina or a heart attack. Exercise can bring down your blood pressure to reasonable or even optimal levels.
6. Improves sleep, which gives your heart more chance to rest:
Studies have shown that working out regularly can help you get more sleep at night. Getting enough sleep is an important way to allow the entire body, including the heart, to get the renewal it needs each night.
7. Increases your energy level:
Anybody who works out regularly will tell you how good they feel when they do. This is due to an overall increase in the body's energy levels. When you have more energy, your heart does not need to work nearly as hard.
8. Strengthens your muscles:
Lifting weights or doing other forms of resistance training greatly strengthens your muscles. With stronger muscles, you are able to perform physical tasks more easily, which puts less strain on your heart.
9. Improves endurance:
The more you exercise, the longer you will be able to endure any particular strain on the body, from extreme physical exertion to daily moving about home, office, or town. Better endurance means the less hard your heart has to work.
10. Boosts self-image and self-esteem:
The heart responds to psychological and emotional stimuli, as well as to the physical. By exercising, you will start to look and feel more fit, which leads to improved self-esteem and often to more rewarding social interactions. This, in turn, will make you feel happier - a key ingredient to a healthy heart.
Take these 10 positive exercise effects on the heart into account as you find ways to work exercise into your daily routine.
Submitted By: Everett Maclachlan
It may be an age old symbol of emotion, but everyone knows that the human heart is really nothing more than a pump. Or is it? New research suggests a direct link between your state of mind and the state of your heart. Here’s how to keep it ticking happily.
You’ve seen it on TV. A hospital humming with urgent activity, the echo of footsteps on shiny floors, a roomful of white coated figures, and an unbroken note that pierces the air. A flurry of gloves, a jolt of electrical energy, and the note shifts into a regular, rhythmic pattern. The human heart, pulsing back into life.
But the industrious organ that shepherds your blood and its vital cargo of oxygen through the body is also an age old symbol of emotion. Be it aching or breaking or brimming with love, the heart has always overruled the brain as the supposed wellspring of the way we feel.
As it turns out, this may not be such a fanciful notion. A growing body of clinical research seems to confirm what poets and songwriters have long proclaimed. There’s a real and direct link between our hearts and our minds. Or to put it in the language of the white coated figure; psychosocial factors may present stronger risks for acute myocardial infarction than diabetes, smoking, hypertension and obesity. Which means that stress at work or home, along with your perceived ability to cope with life, can significantly increase your risk of heart disease. The mortality rate in heart failure patients with major depression is two and a half times higher than in heart patients without depression.
Yet, depression in heart failure patients often goes undiagnosed. This is partly because of the overlap in the symptoms of the two conditions (among them: fatigue, loss of energy, poor appetite, and sleep disturbance) and partly because many patients see depression as a character weakness or personality flaw, when it’s really a common clinical condition that affects as many as one out of five patients with heart disease.
It is here that the big question of cause and effect comes to mind. Is depression a natural consequence of the life changing impact of heart failure? Or is heart failure a likely outcome of the physical effects of depression? The answer, in both cases, is yes. If you’re depressed or anxious, you are more likely to develop a cardiovascular problem. How, exactly?
A heart attack is cause by a blocked blood vessel to the heart and depression is one of the known contributors to the development of such a blockage. Inside the blood vessels we find the lumen, where the blood is able to flow. Factors such as smoking, high cholesterol and depression can cause fatty deposits to accumulate on the wall, forming a plaque that juts into the lumen. If this plaque becomes damaged or ruptured, your body’s repair system shoots to the rescue, building a blood clot to patch up the gash.
But the clot also seals off the artery’s lumen, blocking the blood flow and leading to possible bypass surgery. Depression is a risk factor for heart disease, but heart disease is also a cause of depression. When your heart is heavy, you may lose your natural inclination to get out and get active, and you’re more likely to drink and smoke and eat the wrong things. Heart failure patients should be screened for depression and treated when depression is found to be present. This may help to improve the patient’s quality of life, and potentially improve long term outcomes.
But it’s not only all up to the doctors. We all need to learn how to make our hearts happy. The heart is an easy organ to please. It all begins with proper exercise and nutrition. Nobody can change their family history, but we can all do something about the foods we eat and the activities we do.
A healthy diet consists of the four essentials: Fats, Fiber, Fruit and Vegetables.
Your body doesn’t need a lot of fat to stay healthy, so try to keep your fat intake low. Fiber is a must because it lowers your cholesterol and fills you up so you eat less. Physical activity is equally important. It boosts your circulation, reduces stress levels and stimulates the release of happy hormones or endorphins. Even if you have a heart condition, exercise can help you get back on track.
Goal number one? Do whatever it takes to keep your heart happy. Love your body. Live your life. And above all, never lose heart. Author: Sandra Prior
Source:Isnare.com
