Five Ways to Defuse
Stress affects heart health. Here are some heart-healthy stress reducers you can start now.
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Poi, Ti Leaves and Positive Thoughts
The Queen’s Medical Center relies on more than machines to treat heart patients
The last place someone facing angioplasty or open-heart surgery needs stress and anxiety is in the hospital. To improve patients’ experiences, Queen’s Heart, the oldest and largest cardiac care unit in Hawaii, recently adopted a mind-body approach to supplement traditional care. “The human body has an innate ability to heal,” says Catherine Young, Queen’s Medical Center’s vice president of patient care. “We wanted an environment that would turn that ability on.”
In addition to state-of-the-art operating and catheterization equipment, Queen’s introduced a slew of less conventional approaches including:
- Guided imagery and meditation before and daily after surgery
- Soothing paintings of landscapes, birds and seascapes in corridors and catheter labs
- Feng shui-inspired room design
- Optional reflexology, lomi lomi massage and music therapy
- Poi with meals on request
- Ti leaves cut from Queen’s landscaping and placed on tables or doors at patients’ request.
The result? Patients report less anxiety and pain after surgery, and patient satisfaction levels are above 90 percent. “It's also been remarkable for outcomes,” says Dr. Joana Magno. “The mortality rate for acute myocardial infarctions (heart attack) is just 2.6%. Coronary angioplasty is down to 0.88% (the national average is 1.1%), and coronary open heart surgery is 1.2% (1.4% nationally).”
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1Exercise.
Shoot for 30 minutes, five days a week. If you can’t, try to make it a point to do some exercise regularly. Making healthy time for yourself builds up your fitness and immune system, which can help you resist ailments, from minor colds to serious chronic conditions.
2Meditate.
Set aside a few minutes each day. Meditation can be as easy as finding a quiet spot and comfortable position and focusing on your breathing or a positive, peaceful mental image. This calms your mind, lowers your blood pressure, and gradually helps you develop a quick way to relax in stressful situations.
3Build a strong social network.
Seek out and surround yourself with supportive, uplifting people to help redirect attention away from your stresses and toward a more positive outlook.
4Get enough sleep.
Seven to eight hours a day is considered normal and healthy for adults. Lack of sleep over time stresses our bodies, making us less able to maintain fitness and healthy immune systems. But people who work usually don’t get enough sleep. A 10- to 20- minute power nap in the afternoon can help replenish the sleep deficit.
5Seek counseling or therapy.
Sometimes the causes of our stress are so deep-rooted that not even daily workouts or meditation can get at them. Your doctor may recommend private counseling or group therapy as a long-term way to effectively deal with this kind of stress.
