BALANCE THE WHOLE PERSON

A person's health results from a complex interaction of physical, mental, emotional, genetic, spiritual, environmental, social, and other factors.

The harmonious functioning of all these aspects is essential to health. Within the body, the different systems are intimately connected, and dynamically balanced.

FACT #1
Disease or imbalance in one part directly affects all other parts of the whole.

FACT #2
There is never a single cause for disease. All the pieces must be integrated in order to create a whole picture of an individual and their situation.

Stress management therapy can then be directed at the underlying as well as immediate causative factors, helping to bring balance to the whole person.



THE MIND/HEART INTERACTION
Scientists have established how stress affects the heart. The mind/heart interaction involves the release of two stress hormones into the bloodstream: corticosteroids and catecholamines.

These hormones set off a cascade of changes in the body including increased platelet aggregation (tendency for blood clotting); increased coronary artery tone; a surge in coronary artery pressure; increased blood pressure, glucose levels, and lipid levels; a more rapid and powerful heart beat; and, paradoxically, a constriction in the coronary arteries. In short, the demands on the heart increase.

With this understanding it is easy to see how individuals who experience stress on a chronic basis are at greater risk for heart disease.

Occupational stress is dramatically illustrated with air traffic controllers, considered to be a very stressful occupation. They have five times the incidence of hypertension as compared to a group of second-class airmen.

Many studies have found that those with Type A behavior are twice as likely as Type Bs to develop coronary heart disease. Other studies emphasize it is not the personality type that is related to coronary difficulties but how one interprets events.

Depression has also been found to affect the heart adversely. Patients with a history of heart disease who were also depressed were eight times as likely to develop ventricular tachycardia (abnormal heart rhythms.) as the patients who were not depressed. Accumulated stress depletes the neurochemical Serotonin. Serotonin depletion affects mood swings and is linked with depression.

Visit heartmath.com for more information related to heart stress.