“A record of our emotional life is
written on our hearts.”
This definitive observation was
recently made by the highly respected Indian-born American cardiologist and
accomplished author, Dr. Sandeep Jauhar while
exploring the many mysterious ways that a person’s emotions can physically
impact the health of the heart, and induce serious, life-threatening disease.
The condition, although previously talked about by Clinicians and others, was
only recently confirmed by Japanese researchers who were able to demonstrate
the effect of unresolved emotional stress directly causing serious damage to the
heart’s appearance and function. The name they chose for what had long been
described as the “Broken Heart” was the “Takotsudo Heart” because of its
classic enlarged pear-shaped appearance. They
stressed the urgent need for everyone to pay particular attention to this
finding, since the only way to prevent its development is by dealing with the
underlying emotional episodes before they go out of control.
Up until this development, Physicians
and Psychologists had believed that the emotions were essentially mental
expressions generated by the brain that impacted the workings of the body’s systems
but did not do serous damage to the various organs. But this view is now
changing, and these emotional upheavals are being recognized to have as much
physical effect on the heart and the body as they do with the psychological state.
In fact there is increasing general agreement that the examination of any
emotional response can only be fully explained by looking at the brain, body
and heart acting in concert. Professor
Matthew Berg, PhD, an American physiologist at Yale School of Medicine
reinforced this observation further when he wrote:
“The general results of studies are
that, for the most part we believe depression is a risk factor for the
development of heart disease.”
And
Professor Dean Ornish, an American
cardiologist and authority on preventative medicine, unequivocally confirmed
this fact, and even went further when he observed:
“Study after study has shown that
people who feel lonely, depressed, and isolated are many times more likely to
get sick and die prematurely, not only from heart diseases but virtually all
causes, than those who have a sense of love, connection, and community.”
This presumption is not really
difficult to understand since the heart in many ways, is in constant two-way
dialogue with the brain so that as the emotions change so too are the biological
and chemical stimulation received. These chemicals, in the form of stress
hormones like cortisol, and adrenaline are triggered by the brain and induce significant
changes in cardiac and pulmonary function that lead to long-term irreversible
damage. The risk for developing serious heart disease is significantly
increased in those people who experience constant stressful emotional responses
especially if they remain unresolved. They tend to create a chain reaction in
the body which overwhelms its defense and immune systems, causing serious
damage to health and function.
Happily, many of these changes, if
dealt with early and effectively enough, can be reversed, at least to some
extent. This is especially so when they learn to avoid or to shift out of the
stress into more meaningful situations. In fact, in the right setting and with
the right effort in improving the individual’s coping skills, there can be profoundly
positive effects on the cardiovascular system and the overall health of the
individual.
The over-riding approach for success is
not only to help the individual to manage the difficult situations and the
painful feelings, but to guide them to avoid continuation of emotional stress. Brian Tracy, the well known Canadian motivational
speaker and prolific author very wisely reminded us that:
“Stress comes from within; it is your
reaction to circumstances, not the circumstances themselves.”
-This indeed is the real lesson that everyone must learn
in order to prevent a broken heart. It is never what happens to a person that
really matters, it is always how he reacts that does the harm!
<
>
No comments:
Post a Comment