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A free email service that keeps you posted on new information
and products which increase the effectiveness of the services
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***** INSIDE THIS ISSUE *****
I. Healthier Hearts - by Harry Campbell
Heart Disease kills more men and women in the United States of
America than anything else. According to an article in the
February 2007 National Geographic magazine entitled "Mending
Broken Hearts", by Jennifer Kahn, 500,000 people per year die
in the USA from coronary heart disease. Internationally the
yearly deaths number over 7 million.
There are many factors that contribute to heart disease. These
include family history (genes), poor diet, lack of exercise,
smoking, stress, excess weight, hypertension, and unhealthy
levels of cholesterol. Scientists are doing research on the
genetic markers that would indicate higher risk of heart
disease. Although there is not much we can do about the genes,
the knowledge of being at higher than average risk may motivate
some people to change more of the things that we do have
control over.
The following heart attack risk factor statistics were included
in the National Geographic article:
You probably have noticed lately that Dr. Robert Jarvik the
inventor of the artificial heart has become a spokesman for
Lipator the cholesterol drug. He is doing lots of TV
commercials and his picture in on the literature and the
product website. This is helpful to get people to think about
dealing with the cholesterol problem and to get people to use
Lipator.
Larry King, the CNN talk show host who had a heart attack in
1987 followed by quintuple bypass surgery did a TV special on
heart disease earlier this year. He had a panel of medical
experts on the show to discuss the topic. Stress was again
mentioned as a factor, but a comment was made that made it
sound as though people couldn't really do anything about stress
so they should focus on the things that they could do something
about. The truth is that there is a great deal that can be
done about stress and since it can almost triple the risk of
heart attack it should be a priority too.
Dr. Mjid Ali states in his article "The Seven for the Heart" in
Aging Healthfully Magazine that "The most dangerous heart
killers are anger and stress".
It would be impossible to remove all negative stress from our
lives but there are many things that we can do. We can avoid
many stressful situations by the choices we make. Choosing the
type of jobs we work on, the people that we associate with, the
television programs and movies we watch, and the way we manage
our time can reduce our exposure to negative stress.
We can also reduce the negative effects of stress on our minds
and bodies by practicing relaxation exercises like
diaphragmatic breathing, autogenic relaxation,
visualization/imagery, and progressive muscle relaxation. There
are very effective biofeedback protocols for reducing the
stress response and improving blood pressure. Temperature
biofeedback is used to help teach a person to increase hand
temperature. The increase in hand temperature is due to the
dilation of blood vessels that occurs when a person relaxes
deeply. This has a fairly direct effect of lower blood
pressure. EMG (Electromyography) is used to teach a person
muscle relaxation which can also be helpful. More recently,
HRV (Heart Rate Variability) is being used with hypertension.
HRV biofeedback helps people learn to control their emotions
better and to breathe in a more relaxing manner. There is even
a respiration training device that is approved by the FDA for
reducing blood pressure.
We have been losing too many friends and family members to
heart disease. There is so much that we can do to reduce the
risk factors. We need to fight this disease on all fronts so
that we, our friends, and family members, and clients can enjoy
longer and healthier lives.
II. New Government Website Section
Biofeedback Resources International has added a special section
to the website, http://www.biofeedbackinternational.com , for federal
government customers. Please visit this special section if you
work for the federal government.
III. Upcoming Training
Jul 13-17 - Biofeedback BCIA Certification Training - Hawthorne, NY
Feel free to forward this newsletter to a friend.
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Healthier Hearts
18 June 2007
- a BioFeedBack Resources International email newsletter -
written & edited by Harry L. Campbell, President
technical editing and production by Edwin Johnson
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please go to the end of this email.
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The thing that is of special interest to me here is that all of
the risk factors seem to get lots of attention except stress
and depression. There are ad campaigns that address smoking,
exercise, obesity, healthy diet, diabetes, and most of all
cholesterol. I don't see much at all about stress.
Jul 22 - Introduction to Biofeedback - Fayetteville, NC
Aug 3-6 - Neurofeedback BCIA Certification Training - Hawthorne, NY
Aug 16 - Introduction to Biofeedback - Baja, Mexico
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