|
Berwick area heart support group February 2007 newsletter
Next meeting February 7that the day Hospital, Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm Guest speaker Dr Mike Lavender.
Dr Mike Lavender is Director of Public Health with the NHS Northumberland Care Trust, and is based at Morpeth. One of his big interests is smoking cessation. That is, he wants to persuade all of us, collectively and individually, to stop smoking for our own health and for the sake of others. You can learn at his talk just how important that is for heart disease and other arterial problems. Health promotion generally and an overall reduction in risks to health must be of interest when we know that the vast majority of our serious illness and disability in middle age could be prevented, if we started early enough. Prospects for a disability-free old age could be much improved as well! Interestingly, also, occurrence of different health problems varies very considerably across both the County and the Borough. Mike Lavender gave a well-attended talk to our Group a while ago and it is great to welcome him back. The Group welcomes anybody interested in health promotion who wants to attend.
*****
January Meeting Report
At our meeting on the 10th January Dr. Graeme Gillespie, a Clinical Psychologist, based at North Tyneside Hospital, and having responsibility for patients in the Northumberland NHS area, gave us a talk, and some good advice on some of the psychological problems associated with heart problems Dr. Gillespie made a change his talk on this occasion and whilst it made it easier and more entertaining to listen to, to write it all out would take a good few sheets of paper, as much of it was contained on slides.He commenced his talk by asking, “Heart problems; where’s the need for psychology?” Basically heart problems are ‘plumbing problems’, which a Cardiologist deals with, right? He reminded us, that Angina is a narrowing of the blood vessels, usually by a build up of plaque, (containing Cholesterol) in the vessels, which supply the heart muscles, so that when the heart has to work harder for any reason and the blood vessels cannot supply sufficient oxygen we get a pain. A heart attack is when that same plaque on the artery walls erupts or leaks, causing a clot that blocks the blood vessel causing oxygen starvation in the heart muscle supplied by those vessels.
By its very nature heart problems bring big changes to our lifestyle, and doubt for the future. This can include, not working, unable to return to previous job, reduction in income, restricting activities, loss of confidence and frustration. All magnified because of medical investigations, treatments, assessments, travelling and waiting times, with thoughts of possible operation, and doubts about the vulnerability of your heart.
All this can be the starting point for many of the psychological problems associated with heart problems. Dr. Gillespie said he treated people with heart problems, not people with problem hearts. As a result of heart problems each of the following interact with each other
Physical
Emotions Social Context Behaviour
Thoughts
Social Context in the middle includes the effect on family and partners, because it’s not just ourselves that our heart problem concerns.
All this combines to produce STRESS, that merry-go-round, that just seems to go faster and faster.
To help understand stress, we have to remember that our bodies were designed 1000s of years ago, when our ancestors lived in caves, (When according to cartoonists, sexual foreplay consisted of a bump over the head with a club, and then being dragged by the hair to the nearest cave)
Stress starts as some form of threat, in reply to which our bodies release a hormone called adrenaline. This gives our bodies an immediate boost of power or energy. Threats to our early ancestor usually came in the form of another predatory animal, which would like to eat him, and the boost of energy was to give him the strength to either run away or to stay and fight, and possibly have the predator for his tea instead. It is called the fight or flight syndrome, but when the danger was past, our caveman could relax, and contemplate his actions.
Today we get stressed for different reasons, (allthe dinosaurs and sabre tooth tigers have gone), but when we do, the same changes occur in our bodies, just as the caveman. We breathe harder, to give the muscles more oxygen. (If we breathe too heavy, we breathe in more oxygen than we breathe out, and we hyperventilate). Our heart beats harder, to get the oxygen in the blood to the big muscles. Our muscles tense up, because of all the extra blood, ready for this sudden burst of power. We begin to sweat,(ladies perspireelegantly) this is to cool our bodies, and our blood. Eyes focus more intently, and because all this extra blood is needed in the big muscles, the lesser ones become depleted and we get this feeling of ‘butterflies in the stomach’. Do you recognise these feelings?
These are some of the major changes to our body, but meantime the brain is also in overdrive, thinking of the best moves to solve the problem.
Our cave man only had to decide whether to run or fight, and even if he chose to fight and things got too much, he could maybe still angle an escape.
Our problems are not so black and white, regardless of what decision we make it does not happen straight away. It can take days, weeks and months to get resolved, especially when medical treatment is involved, during which time our thoughts take over, and especially when the negative thoughts creep in. This can, and often does send our bodies into another stressful if not a panic situation. Then what happens? Yes you’ve guessed it, we produce more adrenaline, and again we can’t use it up, it does all the same things it is meant to do, fight or flight remember, and all these things are happening to our bodies, sometimes the feeling gets that bad that it’s difficult to tell the difference between the effects of the adrenaline or the feelings of another heart attack, i.e. raised heart beat, heavy breathing, pumped up muscles, chest pain, and sweating. So what does our body do this time it’s under stress? Of course it does, it produces even more adrenaline and round and round we go, in a vicious circle of going nowhere, apart from felling very unwell, and feeling very down and very soon depression can soon set in.
Down thoughts, or depression, tell you to do the wrong things. It will make you feel you can’t be bothered, don’t want to go out, don’t want to meet people, don’t want to do things, and soon you become socially isolated. Again this can be another destructive cycle
Fortunately there are ways to break these vicious cycles. By interrupting the effects adrenaline has on our bodies, we can feel a lot better.
Breathing If we can concentrate on our breathing in a relaxed, focused way, this will help slow our heartbeat. The heart manual gives advise on breathing exercises.
Focus our minds Try thinking of more pleasant things such as nice places to be, or your favourite holiday, or your favourite place, (spend the lottery jackpot for the umpteenth time) anything to get rid of the ‘What if’ feeling.
Change your thoughts, think positive, do a crossword, join outside groups, start doing some of the things you used to do, rekindle some old friendships that may have dwindled because of previous negative attitude, even if it means making an effort initially, it does get easier.
Relaxation Exercises
All covered in the heart manual, but anything to get rid of the tense feeling.
Exercise
As I’ve said several times adrenaline produces the fight or flight syndrome, we don’t have the facilities to literally do either of these, unless you join a recognised club, but exercise in any form burns up this excess. Exercise is highly recommended for cardiac rehab. The rehab classes at the Sports Centre is a good place to start, and when ready continue with the Fit 4 Life classes also at the Sports Centre. Walking is another good form of exercise. There are several venues for this advertised elsewhere in this newsletter.
All the above is the down side; on the up side is the fact that we have an inbuilt resilience, a determination to get on with life, a sense of humour. Some of us cope with stress better than others but most of us cope in a way that suits us, being positive and being able to stay positive and being able to take some sort of control of our lives helps
Wally’s Yarn
Two subjects Graeme did not mention are laughter and sex. I think they play a great part in our attitude to life
I can remember Bob Monkhouse saying in one of his last TV shows, that at 75 he was still enjoying a very active, satisfying and meaningful sex life. The fact that he lived at No. 74 meant the walk home was not too taxing either.
As for the power of laughter; it keeps you young, and keeps troubles at bay, and does all the things that exercise does for you. It’s a great healer, and it has helped lots of people through troubled times.
Britain has had many problems throughout its long history, but its people have always been able to raise a laugh, and see a funny side. It doesn’t matter which political party is in power, they have not been able to stop the British public from having a good laugh. Mind you, they did get very close with the Poll Tax.
I do apologise to those that have heard them before.
Wally.
*****
For Sustained Weight Loss, Here Are Secrets of the Formerly Fat
Borrowed from: New York Times Syndicate
16 January 2007. As anyone who has done the yo-yo thing will tell you, the only thing harder than losing weight is keeping it off.
But the pattern of loss followed by gain is hardly inevitable, says obesity researcher James O. Hill, co-founder of a national registry (USA) of more than 6,000 people who have lost an average of 70 pounds (5 stone) and kept it off an average of six years.
"There is little similarity in how they lost weight, but great similarity in how they are maintaining their weight," says Hill, who is director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, USA.
These successful losers, most of them middle-aged white women, tend to share several patterns of behavior:
1. They eat breakfast. Unlike fat people, who typically skip breakfast but do have lunch and then eat virtually non-stop from about 4 p.m. until they go to bed, "these people almost never skip breakfast," Hill reports. "We think maybe that calories ingested in the morning have a greater satiating effect than calories eaten later in the day."
2. They monitor their weight. "These people use scales a lot," Hill says. "Almost all of them use a scale weekly, and some use it daily." Such regular checks enable them to catch weight regain early on, he says, so they can take action to get back on track as soon as they see their target number go up more than two or three pounds.
3. They get a lot of exercise. "Walking is huge"; Hill reports. A survey of participants in the registry found that on average, they get 60 minutes of physical activity per day, with 28 percent mostly walking, 49 percent combining walking with cycling, aerobics or lifestyle changes such as parking farther away, and 14 percent mainly doing activities other than walking. Meanwhile, 9 percent "do nothing" -- i.e. they control their weight through diet alone.
4. They watch what they eat. Most successful losers report consuming fewer calories per day over the long term, with only about 25 percent of the total derived from fat, compared to 30 percent or more in the typical American diet. In addition, their eating habits are consistent from day to day -- they don't take "holidays" when anything goes.
5. They stay away from the television. The formerly fat "watch much less TV than the national average" -- about 10 hours a week, or less than half of the typical 28 hours or so. Presumably, they're less likely to be snacking and more likely to be physically active during the non-watching hours.
Hill says that many people who regain weight had tended to ignore one factor -- the "energy gap" that a large weight loss creates.
"When you lose weight, your energy requirement goes down," he explains. "If you are a 220-pound person (15st10lb) and you drop to 180 pounds (12st12lbs), for example, your body needs 320 fewer calories per day.
That's a lot less. You just can't go back to the lifestyle you lived before."
To burn 320 calories by walking, Hill notes, a person must take 6,400 steps. Interestingly, that is almost exactly the difference between the 11,000 steps taken each day by the average member of the weight-loss registry and the 5,300 steps taken by the average person who comes to Hill's weight-loss clinic for treatment.
The U.S. National Weight Control Registry established in 1993, is open to individuals 18 and older who have lost at least 30 pounds and maintained that loss for at least one year. Signups are free, and names are kept confidential.
Besides similar weight-control strategies, Hill says, many of the registrants have similar backgrounds. Two-thirds were overweight as children, and about the same number had at least one parent who was overweight.
"What's amazing," he observes, "is how many of these people change careers to reflect their new interest in food and nutrition.
They become dietitians. They become personal trainers. They change their friends and their social lives. To sustain weight loss requires large behavioral changes. They've essentially changed their environment."
Phil adds:I was interested in the above because I have done, and still do, almost exactly the same as most of these Americans, and my background as a child was also similar. Although I am not a ‘dietician’ or ‘personal trainer’ I did become and still am a health freak. (I manage to keep a few friends however). I started by going on a ‘whole food’ plant-based diet and taking daily exercise whatever my work or home commitments, ‘rain or shine’. I felt so much better, and could enjoy exercise as if I was young again, and this gave me a continual ‘high’. I called it the physiology of optimism. I eat even less fat and oil than these people and if I over eat at all it is only on fresh fruit and green vegetables and salads. One key for me, as for the above, is not to make ‘meals out’ or special occasions an excuse for changing my daily habits. I like it that way. Otherwise, Wally’s recipe for resilience (see above) seems about right, even without joining a Boxing Club!
|
