Heart Health
Eight Ways to Keep Ticker Shock from Taking a Toll on Your Heart
By
Oct 14, 2008 - 6:24:02 PM

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Are you glued to the ticker on your TV, watching the Dow Jones and NASDAQ numbers plummet one day, then spike the next? Does just thinking about the $700 billion financial bailout bill make your blood boil? Do you obsessively flip from CNN to MSNBC to Fox at night to get details of the latest economic news from every possible perspective?

Worrying and chronic stress have been shown to take a toll on your body in a number of ways, from weight gain, depression, and insomnia to substance abuse and an increase in risk factors for heart disease, including elevated cholesterol, higher blood pressure, and hypertension.

While stressing about the economy--a situation over which you have no control--is bad for your health, being optimistic might give your heart a boost. A recent 15-year surveillance study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, found that optimistic people had three times lower incidence of death from heart attacks and strokes than their pessimistic counterparts.

Besides being optimistic, watching your diet, and exercising regularly, one of the beat ways you can benefit heart health is by reducing the amount of stress in your life and how you respond to stressors. So do your heart--and the rest of your body--a favor and try some of my favorite everyday techniques for reducing stress.

Unplug. Turn off the TV news and the radio news in your car. In fact, try unplugging for a whole night. Eat dinner in front of the fire, read to your partner in bed, or play cards with your kids.

Scream in your car. When you're not at a light, try screaming your head off. Wail on your maker or your mate. Don't censor yourself! Aside from being temporarily hoarse, you'll feel better instantly.

Take a bath in the dark. Hot water plus silence and no visual stimulation equals total relaxation. Steam in the tub, breathe deeply, and let worries melt away as your mind wanders.

Use the clicker. Avoid maddening or violent programs at night. Mute the commercials if their increased volume annoys you.

Revise your standards. If you're a perfectionist, allow yourself to do tasks that aren't a matter of life or death to 95 percent. Take pressure off yourself when it won't matter one wink to anyone but you.

Huff and puff. Any activity that makes you temporarily short of breath--like sprinting, biking uphill, or swimming--is a stress buster. If you have no time for an aerobic activity, simply sit and do deep, fast breathing. It oxygenates your brain and blood, and takes away the strain. It's also great for your lungs and heart.

Program your iPod. Music really does relax you. Find a dozen or more songs that make you feel happy and calm. Listen to them whenever you feel most uptight--like at the end of your workday.

Break it down. The reason many of us feel stress is because we're overwhelmed by work, by too many options, and by information; the big picture is simply too big to grasp. Break tasks or problems down into small parts that you can tackle easily.

Jerome E. Granato, MD, FACC, is Medical Director of the Coronary Care Unit of Allegheny General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Drexel College of Medicine. His new book is Living with Coronary Heart Disease (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).

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