Transcription:
Reduce Your Stress: Love Your Heart

Melanie Cole (Host): So many of us feel stressed from time to time. But how do you know if the stress that you are feeling is taking a toll on your psychological or your physiological self? Can it actually contribute to heart disease? My guest Dorinda Perez, she is a Registered Nurse and the Program Manager in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Center at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Dorinda, what is stress?

Dorinda Perez, BSN, RC (Guest): Well the definition of stress is the way that you react physically and emotionally or mentally to all the demands that are made on you that require change or adaptation. It is a part of everyday life. The only way that you can avoid stress is really by doing nothing at all. The way that people realize that they are under stress is they do have physical responses. So, your heart rate will increase. Your blood pressure increases. Your muscles tighten. People get headaches, stomach aches. I think we all have to remember that our heart is a muscle as well, so our coronary arteries will tighten which limits blood flow getting to the heart.

Melanie: Is there a healthy response to stress? I mean does our body sometimes respond to certain stressors that it should respond too?

Dorinda: Even positive stress does have a reaction on our body. So, things like getting married or having a baby, buying a new house; those are all positive things, but they all are under that big umbrella of stress. People can react differently to that. The thing that causes the problems with stress is when those stressors are maintained and not solved, or you have a lot of stressors going on at the same time.

Melanie: So, what are some of the negative consequences of stress particularly as it relates to heart disease? You are the program manager for cardiac rehab, so you see a lot of heart disease on the mend. So, where does stress play a role in that?

Dorinda: Well stress unfortunately is one of those things that there is not magic pill for. We know that it does cause some of these physical problems. We do know that some of these stressors actually can cause a condition called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy which is a stress induced heart related problem. Tako means octopus, subo means trap so in heart images; when people are under stress; the lower part of their heart muscle actually balloons out and the image looks like an octopus trap so that’s kind of where that name came from. But this was identified usually people who are undergoing some kind of a very stressful situation; many times, a death in the family, things like that that can cause this stress reaction. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have heart disease like coronary arteries that are blocked. But it does cause a decrease in the way that that heart muscle pumps which can actually lead to heart failure which is the number one reason people are admitted back into the hospital. So, the actual pumping action of that heart decreases. And that’s what causes that heart disease to come on.

Melanie: What are some signs and symptoms of poorly managed stress? How would somebody know? I mean we all have these stressors and as you say there are good ones, positive ones; but they all have an affect on our body. How do we know if it’s starting to have this negative effect? Are there some red flags we should know about?

Dorinda: There are actually some very definite signs of these responses to stress. A lot of people feel very anxious, angry, sometimes fear is involved, they are irritated a lot of the time, they are impatient. They feel things around them are really out of their control. So, a lot of those types of feelings, I think people can recognize as being under stress.

Melanie: What can we do about it Dorinda?

Dorinda: There are some tips to manage your stress. This is a good thing. It doesn’t have to be something where things happen to you and you don’t have control. When people feel they can take control of what’s happening to them; they actually do feel better. So, some of the things that I think are important is to figure out first and foremost, identify what those stressors are. What are those things that are causing you the most stress? Sometimes people like to write them down, so they can refer back to them and work on those as they come along. I think another important thing is to evaluate how you react to stressors. That’s another good way to manage it. Creating a plan to manage those stressors and then circling back and figuring out is your plan working for you? If not, you may need to develop a new plan.

Melanie: What can we do, maybe at home or as far as exercise, nutrition, meditation, yoga? So, you have laid out that it’s really important to identify those triggers and what’s causing your stress and then we can make that attempt to manage it. But some of those management techniques, people don’t always know whether or not meditation or yoga or exercise or any of these things are going to work. So, speak about that for me.

Dorinda: Some of the things that we address are – we call coping strategies. Those things that we can do to manage some of these things that are going on in our lives. One of the things that I think people have to recognize first and foremost is that what people did 20-30 years ago has changed. A lot of what we do as far as our busy lifestyles all contribute to these stressors so figuring out how to manage them is really important. Time management is utmost importance. Making those short-term and long-term lists so that you are not overwhelmed with everything that you have to do. Setting those short-term goals is really important. Keeping a daily planner, I think is important also. Planning ahead. If you are going on a trip, making sure that you have everything in place rather than procrastinating. Communicating with other people, having that support system, somebody else to talk to, sharing thoughts and concerns with that also improves relationships and I always think about establishing that healthy lifestyle. Regular exercise is a great stress management tool. It does release those hormones called endorphins that make people feel good about themselves. You have a better body image when you exercise, you do feel better about yourself, so I think that’s important. Following proper nutrition, eating a healthy diet, eating and drinking in moderation and getting plenty of sleep. So many people get maybe four to five hours of sleep a night. It’s really not enough. You need to recharge at the end of the day so that you have that energy and that positive outlook to carry you to the next day.

Melanie: Well you just got to my next question because I was going to ask you how important sleep is. But what if sleep problems are contributing to their stress? I mean sleep, it can go back and forth, right and sleep is as you said so important.

Dorinda: Sleep is very important. Some people do have problems with sleep apnea. Sometimes that causes a stress reaction and can also lead to some heart problems. Some people have sleep problems because they have too many things going on in their mind at night. Some people exercise at night and that prevents them from sleeping well. So, everyone has different techniques to try and calm themselves down. We do recommend that people don’t watch TV right before they fall asleep. They shouldn’t eat a heavy meal before they fall asleep. That contributes to some of those problems. Maybe drinking some Sleepy Time tea will be helpful for people. So, those are some of the things that I think help people get to sleep because it is an important factor in kind of managing our stress.

Melanie: Dorinda, you work in cardiac rehab, so people have been stressed because they have had a cardiac event of some sort, but it’s a very positive thing cardiac rehab, because it’s them on the mend. So, how do you help your cardiac rehab patients manage their stress as they work to exercise and learn some of these lifestyle modifications you are speaking about?

Dorinda: The beauty of cardiac rehab is that people exercise in a group environment. I personally don’t have heart disease, so I can’t speak to someone and know what they are feeling or what they wen through when they had their heart event. But they are in a class with other people who have had very similar things happen to them and they really bounce ideas off of each other. Somebody may have a new recipe that they can share. Somebody else maybe has had a significant weight loss that someone else recognizes. So, in that aspect, they do become their own support group. We try to be very encouraging and very motivating and very positive in our cardiac rehab center. I try to tell people that heart disease is not a chronic thing. People don’t necessarily have to get worse. If you can get the information and the education to make those small modifications to your lifestyle, you can go on to live a very long and healthy life.

Melanie: So, wrap it up for us with your best advice Dorinda, on stress management and the importance of it to help not only all of the other aspects of our life but also to help keep our bodies from contributing to heart disease by our own stressors.

Dorinda: The really important thing when you first recognize that you are under stress is to do something about it. If you are having difficulty trying to manage those stressors on your own, seek outside help. Because if you don’t manage them, people will fall back on those negative behaviors. We are overworked, with daily activities. People are suffering from fatigue or hostile and irritable so trying to get back into a more manageable balanced lifestyle is really important. Talk to your physician. He or she may be able to refer you to a specialist for some counseling. Researching community programs. Maybe even loading an app on your phone for some five-minute breathing techniques might be helpful for you. And really incorporate some kind of leisure time into your life. People seem to feel that there are so many things going on, the one thing to cut out is leisure time. Being able to enjoy yourself and realizing that you can do those things is really the goal.

Melanie: That certainly is, what great advice Dorinda. Thank you so much for being with us today. you’re listening to It’s Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. For more information, please visit www.henrymayo.com that’s www.henrymayo.com . This is Melanie Cole. Thanks for tuning in.