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BERWICK AREA HEART SUPPORT GROUP
MAY 2005 NEWSLETTER
Next meeting May 4th at the Day Hospital Berwick Infirmary 7pm – 9pm Guest Speaker. Dr. Mike Lavender, Director of Public Health for Northumberland Dr Lavender has worked in Northumberland since 2000, and was appointed as Director of Public Health when the Care Trust was established in 2002. His main responsibilities are co-ordinating services for heart disease, stroke and diabetes and leads on drug and alcohol issues for the Care Trust.
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Wrist Bands
All us grand parents have heard our grandchildren talking about the “latest craze” collecting all the different coloured wrist bands for different charities, the BHF wrist band is available at their charity shop in Berwick cost £1.
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Border Marches
The Border Marches take place on Sunday 15th May 2005. and some of the employees of General Mills Berwick “ Jus Rol “ are looking for sponsorship to raise funds for us the Berwick Area Heart Support Group, I included sponsorship forms with last months newsletter.
In the past we’ve had quite generous annual grants which have covered most of our costs of the newsletters, leaflets stationary ect. This year the grants have dried up and we are having to find our own funding so any help you can give in raising sponsorship, (however little) would be appreciated. Please make cheques payable to Berwick Area Heart Support Group
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At our meeting on 6th.April our speaker was Dr. Graeme Gillespie, a Clinical Psychologist, based at North Tyneside Hospital, and having responsibility for patients in Northumberland NHS. He was assisted by Doctor Jennifer Gracie.
That sounds like a double act on television, Paul Daniels assisted by Debbie McGee, only Graeme did not cut Jennifer in half.
Graeme was with us in March 2004 when he talked about stress, and it how affected medical complaints, especially heart related complaints. This year his plan for the evening concentrated more on relaxation as a way to help avoid stress.
We also had open group discussion on the following subjects.
- Stress, what is it?
- Stress and Heart disease, is it a risk factor?
- Coping with stress
- Relaxation, what does it mean?
- Group relaxation.
So what is stress?
Just to remind ourselves what stress is, I’ll copy a paragraph from last year’s news letter.
Stress
To help understand stress, we have to remember that our bodies were designed 1000s of years ago, when our ancestors live 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, and the boost of energy was to give him the strength to either run away, or the stay and fight, and possibly have the predator for his tea. It is called the “fight or flight syndrome”, but when the danger was past, our caveman could relax, and contemplate his actions.
The trouble arises when, for one reason or another we cannot do either and the adrenaline keeps our
body keyed up, which is very likely in our modern world.
Today, stress it is more likely to be: “An emotional or physical strain caused by our response to pressure from the outside world”. But make no mistake it has the same effect as meeting a sabre tooth tiger in Morrison’s car park.
We all need a degree of stress in our lives, it would be impossible to live without it; it gives life some spice and excitement. It’s when it gets too much and out of control that it may harm our health, our relationships and our enjoyment of life.
Signs of stress getting out of control
- Increased irritability
- Difficulty getting to sleep, and early morning waking
- Increased use of alcohol or cigarettes.
- Variety of physical systems, including, headache, fast heartbeat, indigestion, and other aches and pains.
- Loss of concentration
- Feeling low or depressed.
Stress and the heart, what do you think?
- Do you think there is a link between stress and heart disease?
- Can stress cause a heart attack or angina?
- Does heart disease cause stress
Stress affects different people in different ways.
Effects on most people
- Trying to take in complex information to try and understand the condition.
- Symptoms to interpret and live with
- Adjusting to a potentially life threatening condition/event
- Its stressful for family not just the patient
Behaviour changes to make (stopping smoking, taking more exercise, changing diet and taking medicines daily)
Effects on some people.
- Anxious wait for heart investigations and procedures
- Loss of previous role, job, self image.
- Traumatic experiences
- Dealing with setbacks.
- Past difficulties resurfacing
- Fears a bout exercise/returning to work
Relaxation: What does it mean?
Graeme asked the question, and invited replies. Here is a list of various way in which fellow members relax, and I bet there a few no one is going to admit to.
Hobbies, non competitive sport, golf, fishing, etc. reading, crosswords, relaxation exercises /tapes, reiki, music, peace and quiet, work, keeping busy, being at home, computer, focus attention on something external, walking, baking, doing something useful or productive, slow breathing exercises/techniques and a lot of people suggested a warm relaxing bath.
It’s accepted that all these don’t work for everyone, and that there are others, it really is finding some for yourself, which works for you, which in itself is another way of relaxing.
Graeme did break relaxation into two categories; those listed above, describing them as, things people enjoy. The other category is “Therapeutic Relaxation” Examples of these methods are:
Physical Methods
Psychological Methods
We did have examples of these; both Graeme and Jennifer read relaxing stories where we had to imagine ourselves in the stories. (Honestly, for those that know me I didn’t go to sleep, so any snoring was not me). These stories are very similar to the relaxation tape we get with the Heart Manual. We have written copies of these but they would need transferring to tape for them to work, reading them to yourself doesn’t seem to have the same effect.
Stress can be reduced by having regular breaks. Not the quick ‘pop outside for a quick puff’ type of break, you have to be able to relax, be comfortable, quiet and maybe listen to some relaxing music, which is referred to as Your protected time, and remember, although for many of us this next bit of advice will be hard to accept after a working lifetime of being told just the opposite.
‘It is not lazy to relax’.
Graeme did recap of some of the facts surrounding . Heart Disease. Some reasons for heart disease cannot be changed like
- Increasing age
- Gender, male sex
- Heredity (Including race)
But others can like
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Obesity
- Smoking
- Physical inactivity
- Diabetes
Treatment and risk factor changes in England and Wales show.
- 68,230 fewer heart related deaths in 2000 compared with 1981.
- 42% (26,000) of the mortality decrease was due to medical and surgical treatments.
- Most substantial contributions came from secondary prevention medications and heart failure treatments.
- 58% (36,000) was due to change in risk factors
- Largest proportion from a fall in smoking
- Revascularisation from coronary bypass surgery and angioplasty together accounted for only 4% of the total decrease.
Some other facts worth noting,
- By reducing the average cholesterol levels in the UK from 5.8 to 5.2 mmol/l, as already achieved in Sweden, Finland, the US and Australia, would prevent approximately 25,000 fewer deaths each year.
- Simply reducing smoking levels to that of the Americans would result in 17,000 fewer deaths each year.
Wally
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Sleep
Graeme mention sleep (take a power nap for 10 min) as a good form of relaxation and also to relieve stress, so if a short nap does you good a full nights sleep must be even more important.
When we are asleep, our heart is in its most relaxed state, our heart rate slows down, our blood pressure is lower, our heart is relaxed, and our body can restore itself. Problems with sleep can lead to fatigue, which can then lead to stress and depression so you end up in a “cycle of helplessness” These are things you can do to help you sleep better and break this cycle.
- Get a comfortable bed that allows you to move easily and supports your body well.
- Find a comfortable sleeping position. Try using small pillows to help.
- Keep your bedroom at a warm temperature.
- Use a vaporizer if the air is dry; warm and moist air makes breathing easier.
- Keep a lamp and telephone beside your bed.
Things to Avoid Before Bedtime
- Eating. Digesting food takes energy and means that your body will not have the energy resources to restore itself.
- Alcohol. Alcohol leads to a shallow sleep and means that you will wake up several times during the night.
- Caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant and can keep you awake, Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, colas and other soft drinks and also in chocolate.
- Food with MSG. (monosodium glutamate). Chinese food and pre-packaged meals often contain MSG which can act as a stimulant.
- Smoking. Nicotine in cigarettes is a stimulant.
Develop a Routine
- Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time. If you need to, take a nap in the afternoon. Stay awake after your evening meal until you are ready for bed.
- If you want to get back to a normal pattern of sleep ( for example, if you are going to bed at 3 a.m. and sleeping until midday) you will need to reset your sleep clock. Try going to bed 1 hour earlier or later each day until you get to the pattern you want
- Regular exercise can help you sleep well.
- Get out into the fresh air for a hour or so every day.
- Get used to doing the same thing every evening before you go to bed. A ‘time-to-get-ready-for-bed’ routine helps your body and mind to relax.
Other Tips
- If you get into bed and can’t fall asleep, get up and go into another room until you are sleepy.
- To take your mind of worries, try a distraction technique such as counting backwards from 500 by 3’s or naming a country for every letter of the alphabet
- Don’t worry about not getting enough sleep, it stops you sleeping.
Terry
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Wally’s Yarn
Something I heard.
A nun, Sister Anna, joined a silent order nunnery. After the first year of silence, as a special treat, on one evening of the year each nun was allowed to utter two words.
On the appointed day, after their evening meal, The Mother Superior went around the table asking each nun in turn what their two words were.
To make her words count Sister Anna had thought hard about what she wanted to say, so when Mother Superior asked Anna what she would like to say she said “Hard bed” She thanked her and moved on to the next nun.
The next year Mother Superior again asked Sister Anna for her two words, and she replied, “Cold porridge”. Mother Superior thanked her and moved on.
The next year when asked, Sister Anna said, “Damp Room”. Again Mother Superior thanked her and moved on.
When asked the following year, Sister Anna replied, “I quit”.
Before moving on Mother Superior said, “Thank goodness, you’ve done nothing but moan since you got here
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