12.07.2010
Lifestyle Coaching: Changing Your Path, Stress Management: Maintaining Balance, The Wounded Heart: Heart Disease and You
A recent article summarizes a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology indicating that overall picture of cardiac care has improved overtime in the U.S. This included factors ranging from people becoming more aware of heart attack symptoms, quicker visits to the ER/Hospital, better pharmaceutical care, hospital procedure outcomes, less mortality.
According to the article, Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, a cardiology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, noted, “These findings show the substantial efforts to provide physicians and hospitals with detailed feedback on performance coupled with targeted quality improvement efforts are producing measurable and meaningful benefits to cardiovascular disease patients.”
Article available at: http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=641040
Original study located at: http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/short/56/4/254 (Journal Access Needed)
Dr. Schwartz
San Diego Psychologist
www.integrative-health.net
01.06.2010
Lifestyle Coaching: Changing Your Path, The Heaviness of Weight Management, The Wounded Heart: Heart Disease and You
Although children, adolescents, and sedentary behavior has been a hot topic these days, a new 20 year study indicates that being young (young adults) without exercise can have negative long term effects when it comes to hypertension.
According to the article, “4,618 men and women between 18 and 30 years old were recruited for a long-term study of cardiovascular disease risk factors. Study volunteers completed a treadmill test and a physical activity questionnaire when the study began. In addition, their overall health was assessed at six follow-up appointments over 20 years.”
The article also noted, “If people moved more and were able to increase their fitness level, the researchers estimate that about 34 percent of hypertension cases could be prevented.”
Lead researcher, Dr. Mercedes Carnethon, Ph.D., assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago stated, “Those who were the least physically fit, as determined by the amount of time on a treadmill and self-report, were more likely to develop hypertension.”
Article available at: http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=639705
Original Study Abstract at: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/HYPERTENSIONAHA.109.147603v1?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Mercedes+Carnethon%2C+Ph.D&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT
Dr. Schwartz
San Diego Psychologist
www.integrative-health.net
29.04.2010
The Darkness of Depression, The Wounded Heart: Heart Disease and You
A recent news release from the American Physiological Society indicates that people taking a certain type of anti-depressant called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) [for example, Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa] may actually have a second benefit of reducing potential heart problems.
According to the article, the researchers noted that the medication “may help protect cardiovascular health by slowing the clumping of blood platelets, thus reducing the risk of hardening of the arteries and blood clots that can cause heart attack and stroke.”
Article available at: http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=638424
Dr. Schwartz
San Diego Psychologist
www.integrative-health.net
15.04.2010
Lifestyle Coaching: Changing Your Path, The Heaviness of Weight Management, The Wounded Heart: Heart Disease and You
In the recent annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Toronto, a study suggested that the potential heart healthy benefits of light drinking are eliminated if you drink and smoke. For non-smokers, they found that drinking 3-14 approximate glasses of wine lowered the risk of stroke about 37% as compared to non-drinkers. They did not specify red or white (although many studies point to red wine as being more effective). However, the study showed that these benefits were not found in the participants who also smoked.
Now, I would NOT recommend running out to the liquor store and starting to drink 3-14 glasses of red wine per week (if you don’t smoke) so you can reduce your stroke risk. Also, one of the authors notes in other research, “the protective effect of moderate alcohol consumption was seen among both smokers and nonsmokers.”
Therefore, (and as always) please make sure you talk to your primary care physician or other health care provider(s) about the contents of this blog or the article/study it refers to before making any decisions about your health. Article available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_97536.html.
Dr. Schwartz
San Diego Psychologist
www.integrative-health.net
02.03.2010
Lifestyle Coaching: Changing Your Path, The Wounded Heart: Heart Disease and You
A government-industry collaboration study announces that even as little as a 10% reduction of salt in the U.S. population can very significantly reduce the amount of heart attacks, strokes, etc. per year. Available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_95859.html
Dr. Schwartz
San Diego Psychologist
www.integrative-health.net
22.02.2010
The Darkness of Depression
A Columbia University study shows that happiness can potentially reduce the risk of heart problems. The authors found, “For every point on the happiness scale, people were 22 percent less likely to have a heart problem.” As reported by the San Diego Union Tribune. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/18/happiness-helps-when-it-comes-to-the-heart/
Dr. Schwartz
San Diego Psychologist
www.integrative-health.net
13.01.2010
Services Posts
Biofeedback is one of many tools that Dr. Schwartz utilizes to treat health conditions and improve quality of life. It is a very basic, yet extremely effective physiological monitoring tool. It is a non-invasive “treatment” in which patients are connected to a computer via electrodes to obtain information such as temperature, sweat gland activity, muscle tension, breathing, and heart functioning [NOT for treating or diagnosing heart conditions].
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13.01.2010
Services Posts
Weight management is your ability to sustain or manage a certain weight that you, or one of your resources, has determined for your daily living. Two of the most important factors (aside from how you chose your optimal weight for yourself) are diet and exercise. Although being underweight can have health risks, much of the research focuses on excessive weight and obesity.
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13.01.2010
Services Posts
Stress can be summarized as one word: Strain. As noted above, it can be Mechanical, as in force or load on a system (pounds per square inch (PSI); Physiological, as in a reaction by an organism to a stimulus that destabilizes the balance of the physical functioning of that organism; or Emotional or Cognitive strain, such as a person reacting with anxiety, fear, or other emotional or cognitive distress to a situation he or she is in.
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