Over the past week, I’ve suffered with major nasal congestion along with my sinus infection. The doctor gave me a nasal spray, Nasonex, but every time I pumped the spray in my nostrils, I’d sneeze and all the medication would end up in the Kleenex.All the nasal decongestant and antihistamines packaging warns that persons with heart disease should not take these products, so what is a person with heart disease suppose to do when they can’t breath?It’s time to go back to unconventional treatments for the common cold. Actually, I do subscribe to homemade chicken soup and hot tea. Not only can we hold our face over the hot liquid and allow the steam to permeate our nasal passages, but we can also use the hot bowl or cup as a compress against our swollen sinuses. Chicken soup with veggies and noodles provides us with a nutritious meal and hot tea and lots of water keeps us hydrated.But, in additional to hot tea and chicken soup, I’ve recently come across an article on WebMD that discusses another alternative. Warm and cold showers.Colds and Flu: Time Is The Only Sure Cure“It’s not chicken soup. Believe it or not, a much more unorthodox therapy of warm-and-cold showers has recently been proposed — though not proven — for the prevention of the common cold. Shower therapy joins an ever-growing spectrum of suggested preventers and treatments for the common cold — among them, hand washing, vitamin C, interferon, seclusion, and various over-the-counter cough and cold medications.‘An efficient, practical and inexpensive prophylaxis (preventive measure) against one of the most frequent (and ‘expensive’) diseases has been identified at last,’ claims water therapy researcher Edzard Ernst, M.D., in the April 1990 issue of Physiotherapy. Though some may doubt his shower theory, Ernst is right about one thing — the common cold is a frequent and expensive disease, striking some people as many as 12 times a year and leading to some 15 million days lost from work annually in the United States. Influenza, or flu, likewise, is a frequent and expensive disease, reaching epidemic levels in the United States each year.”To read the entire article, click on this link: Colds & Flu: Time is the Only Sure CureIt’s taken five days for my antibiotic to kick in. I can finally breathe air into my lungs and diaphragm. I can use my breath to stay calm and not worry about all the change happening around me that’s increasing my stress level. My energy is coming back. I’m ready to go back to yoga. Maybe in another day I’ll be strong enough to take a brisk walk.This sinus infection has taught me the importance of my breath. It reminded me that this automatic bodily function we take for granted has the ability to calm the mind and heal the body.

Posted: September 6th, 2007 under heart disease.
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The Health Section in The San Diego Union Tribune for August 14, 2007 had a very good article about blood pressure entitled Winning Numbers.Winning Numbers Article about Blood PressureI don’t know how long this link will be available, so if it doesn’t work a few days from now, and you are interested in looking at several of the links they included, click on these separate links. Many of these sites have much more information about heart disease than just blood pressure.ABC-of-Yoga.com Describes yoga poses to help lower your blood pressure. American Society of Hypertension, Click on “ASH Pamphlet” to download a PDF file.International Society on Hypertension in BlacksMayo Clinic Quiz to assess your risk for high blood pressure.The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s “Your Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure” Has a separate section on Issues for Women.

Posted: August 16th, 2007 under heart disease.
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It’s summer and that means it’s hot outside. I live in sunny Southern California. I am fair-skinned and have a history of heat stroke, so I’m always on the lookout for good articles about taking care of myself. I came across this article from the American Heart Association that I’d like to share with you. One item they mention that piqued my interest was weighing yourself each morning to see if you are dehydrated. I always wondered why my weight fluctuated so much, now I have a clue. Drink lots of water!Enjoy the article.SandyHot Weather and Cardiovascular DiseaseHow does hot weather affect the heart?Extremely hot weather causes dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. These risks increase when the humidity is above 70 percent and the temperature is above 70 degrees F. Heat and humidity interfere with the body’s natural cooling process.Exercising outside in hot and humid conditions can be hard on your heart. This is true even for athletes who haven’t yet adapted to the heat. The problem is made worse because the heart is trying to deliver blood and oxygen to your working muscles while your body is trying to cool off by sweating. If you sweat too much, you lose fluid. This decreases your total blood volume. That means your heart has to pump even harder to get the smaller volume of blood to your working muscles, skin and the other body parts. When you lose too much fluid, your body temperature rises and your nervous system doesn’t work properly. Extreme fluid loss can lead to brain and heart damage.A good way to monitor your body fluid level is to weigh every morning after using the bathroom. If you weigh two pounds less than normal in the morning, you’re probably dehydrated and need to drink more water before doing any vigorous physical activity. (You may have lost weight as water but not as fat.)If you plan to exercise outside in hot and humid weather, wear very light, comfortable clothing and work out in the early morning or late evening, if possible. Know the symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. If any symptoms appear, stop exercising and cool down immediately by dousing yourself with cold water. You may need to get medical attention. Heat exhaustion can progress quickly to heat stroke, which can kill you.What are the symptoms of heat exhaustion?heavy sweatingcold, clammy skindizziness or fainting (syncope)a weak and rapid pulsemuscle crampsfast, shallow breathingnausea, vomiting or bothWhat are the symptoms of heat stroke?warm, dry skin with no sweatingstrong and rapid pulseconfusion and/or unconsciousnesshigh feverthrobbing headachesnausea, vomiting or both

Posted: July 20th, 2007 under heart disease.
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If you look back on your life, you will soon come to realize that you are not alone in this world. Teachers, in one form or another, are there to guide you. When you were first born, your parents were your teachers. As you reached the age of five, you were sent to school and were assigned teachers who taught you how to read, write, add, subtract, multiply, and divide. You learned geography, history, and art. Most of you managed to graduate from high school. Some have gone off to college and graduate school and expanded your education in other subjects.But education isn’t always formal schooling. Throughout our lives, no matter what our age, we continue to learn to live in this world and we continue to meet teachers along the way. This is especially true when we’ve faced heart disease or some other major illness. In order to survive, we must learn new skills, eliminate bad habits, and move forward. Sometimes our teachers are not even aware that they are teaching us new skills.Yesterday was my the year anniversary of my heart attack. This wasn’t a special day of celebration for me. It was filled with lots of daily routine stuff. I practiced yoga, took my mother’s cat to the vet, picked up cat supplies from the store, removed nail polish from my mother’s fingernails, delivered medications to the nurse, visited with a friend, and attended a pot luck dinner. But with each of these activities, I learned something along the way.Before my yoga practice, I was reminded about how easily I could fall back into a stressful lifestyle simply by thinking about something. The topic of my thoughts ran along the lines of: How would I be able to tell my mother she couldn’t keep her cat anymore.Over the past several months, I’ve learned that she was feeding her cat chocolate chip cookies. That may sound harmless, but she was making the cat sick. The cat has an allergic reaction to cookies and breaks out in sores all around his face. Since my mother has Alzheimer’s she either denies or can’t remember ever feeding the cat cookies. I know she loves her cat and it would be traumatic for her to give up the cat, so I started worrying about “What if” before I even met with the vet to discuss the situation.My husband reminded me to do my yoga practice. During my practice, I reminded myself that stress doesn’t need to be a major player in my life. I can control it by breathing slowly and evenly, and focusing on the present moment instead of worrying about what might happen in the future.At the vet, I learned that the allergic reaction might be caused from something else in the cat’s environment. The cat was given a shot and medication. The vet, a dear friend of mine, said that if or when the time came for my mother to give up her cat, he would help me find a good home for her beloved pet, but he didn’t think we needed to remove the cat at this time. Ahh.Visiting my mother, I learned patience. Explaining the health issues of her cat was a delicate balance between laying out the facts, reminding her not to feed the cat human food of any kind, and keeping my tone of voice kind and caring so as not to agitate her.My dear friend taught me the importance of taking time to share your life with others. Taking time to relax, put your feet up, drink a cup of tea, and smile.My Scripps friends at the pot luck dinner were teachers, too. We share a special bond. These are the men and women who attended the lifestyle change program with me. We’ve become very close, sharing our most heart wrenching secrets through group support during the program and now keeping one another informed about or lives during our monthly pot lucks. They helped me celebrate my one year anniversary and reminded me of the courage and determination it takes to pull yourself out of the depths of despair and to learn to be healthy, happy and peaceful.With heartfelt gratitude to all my teachers, family and friends. Thank you.

Posted: July 18th, 2007 under heart disease, present moment, yoga.
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I forgot to add my Healthy Heart Numbers Chart to my list of medical forms that I talked about in my blog entry “Partnering With Your Doctor”. I’ve since updated my webpage.I created the Heart Healthy Numbers Chart when I was going through my rehab program to see how I’ve progressed over the 12 week period, but you can keep track of these numbers over any time frame. The information is similar to what the “Go Red for Women Campaign” has on their website but with a few additions.So, If you want a form that keeps track of blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, BMI, and more, here’s the link to my Medical Forms webpage.

Posted: July 17th, 2007 under heart disease.
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My trip to the doctor yesterday reminded me of the importance of partnering with your doctor on your medical care. I recently read an article that reported a study done on how little time the doctor has during your eight minute appointment to assess your condition, order tests and treatments, and prescribe medications. I don’t know about you, but I want to make the most of my time and get the best quality care at the same time.For a number of years, I’d been keeping track of my 85 year-old mother’s medical records. She has multiple medical conditions and sees a primary care physician, neurologist, cardiologist, ophthalmologist, pulmonologist, psychiatrist, podiatrist, dentist, and orthopedic surgeon. With so many doctors and multiple appointments throughout the year, I found it necessary to get organized. So I created a medical binder with divider tabs for personal information, financial information, health & medical information, care log, medication log, appointment log, calendar, and lab results. At the end of the first year, I filled a 2” binder. Putting a medical binder together may sound like a lot of work, but I soon found that having the binder made my life a whole lot easier.It was only after my heart attack that I realized it was just as important for me to start my own medical binder. Of course, my binder is not as extensive as my mother’s, but is just as valuable when it comes to talking with my doctor.If you find yourself stressing out every time you have a doctor’s appointment, or can’t remember all the medications you are currently taking – including all your vitamins and supplements, you might want to consider creating a medical binder for yourself. I’ve created a number of templates and have placed them on my webpage in pdf format in case you are interested in downloading the forms and putting a binder together for yourself. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the files. They can be downloaded at:Medical FormsHere’s a description of my medical binder.My binder has five tabs: Personal Information, Medicines, Doctor Appointments, Test Results, and Labs Reports.Personal Information:Section 1: Personal Information: name, address, home phone no., cell phone no., work phone no., social security no., health insurance company and policy no., medicare no. (if applicable), medical record number (some clinics provide this to all their patients), and pharmacy name and phone number.Section 2: Emergency Contacts: three family member’s names, addresses and phone numbers (I include my husband’s name and work address and phone no. here), four neighbor’s or friend’s names, addresses and phone numbers.Section 3: Health and Medical Information: name, address, phone no., and fax no. of each of your doctors; your preferred hospital name, address, and phone no; photocopies of your health insurance cards (including medicare card, if applicable). In addition, you may want to include: a copy of your living will or advance health directive (if you have one); list of drug and food allergies; list of medical problems or physical disabilities you have (include if you wear dentures or have a removable partial or wear contacts); list of past surgeries (including the type of surgery and date)Before I go on, let me explain why it is important to have all the information in one place. Say you are home and fall. You can reach the phone and call someone, but when help arrives, you need to be taken to the emergency room. If you have all this information in one place, that person can grab your binder, drive you to the hospital, have all the information needed to admit you, and can call any close relative or friend to either update them on your condition or ask them to feed the cat, water the plants, or whatever little tasks may need to be done in your absence.MedicinesUnder the medicine tab, I include a list of current medications, dosage, date the medication was started, and an explanation of what the medication if for.Whenever I discontinue a medication or am prescribed a new one, I update this list. I also carry a copy of this list in my wallet, right behind my driver’s license in case I am in an accident.I also include a history of my heart medications. On this list I include the medication, dosage, dated started or stopped and the side effects or reason for stopping the medication.This history of medications can be helpful if you are seeing a doctor other than your normal physician who does not have your complete chart in front of him or her.I also keep photocopies of all the prescriptions I receive from my doctor as a cross-reference for how many refills were issued and as a reminder to call the doctor if I need a new script.AppointmentsWhenever I have an appointment with any of my physicians, I take an appointment log form with me to the appointment. I complete the following information before seeing the doctor: my name, appointment date, appointment time, doctor’s name, Top 4 concerns I want to address. The form also includes a section for notes, follow up instructions, and return appointment date and time. I write all my notes on this log form during the appointment then place it in my binder when I return home.These logs are invaluable. It helps me remember names of over-the-counter medications my doctor may have mentioned; helps me keep track of my pulse, blood pressure and weight over time; and has even helped trigger other questions I need to ask.Test ResultsIt is very important, especially for someone with heart disease, to keep a file of your test results. You may need them if you are out of town and go to a different hospital for treatment, or you may want to take copies if you travel out of the country in case of an emergency.What I include under this tab are any test results that are not lab reports: doctor’s progress notes from a previous visit, EKGs, echocardiogram, mammogram report, colonoscopy report, etc.Lab ReportsUnder this tab I include the results of all my lab work. This way I can keep track of my cholesterol, white and red blood count, and the dozens of other indicators the doctors look at to determine your overall health.May you stay healthy and informed about your health.

Posted: July 12th, 2007 under heart disease.
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I read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell some time ago, but his message still resonates with me. The premise of the book is that little changes can produce big effects once it reaches a certain point.I can relate to The Tipping Point when it comes to sliding back into my old habit of doing too much. Before my heart attack, I would fill my day with work, family responsibilities, and lots of other things. I know I’m not alone in doing too much. Otherwise, Anne Wilson Schaef’s book Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much, and dozens of other books on addictive behaviors wouldn’t be so popular. I’ve spent the last year, changing my lifestyle to reduce my stress and to find peace. I think I’ve been pretty successful, but there are times that I wonder.What is the tipping point of doing too much? The point where we lose track of our new way of living and slide back into our old habits. Is it when we schedule so much in our day that we couldn’t possibly complete everything in a 24 hour period? Is it when we wake up early to exercise and try to exist on less sleep than we need? Or maybe it’s when we try to juggle other family responsibilities and push taking care of ourselves down to the bottom of the to do list?I know that there is a point in everyone’s life that puts him or her over the edge. Is it when your partner asks you to take the car in for service because he has an early morning meeting and the rattle under the hood is getting worse? Is it when you’ve finished your own errands and you finally have fifteen minutes of quiet time for a cup of tea and the doctor calls you to discuss the results of your recent tests? Stress is a part of our lives. Some of it can be good stress to help motivate you to get things done during the day, but the bad stress is what we need to watch. When we move away from being centered and peaceful, that’s when we need to pull ourselves back from the brink of no return.But in a society that prides itself on getting things done, how is one person going to make a difference? That’s where we go back to The Tipping Point. When we start behaving differently, then those around us start changing too. Can we actually cause our society to slow down?I’ve noticed some interesting changes in my own life. Once I started following a mostly vegetarian diet, exercising, and practicing yoga, I noticed my husband and friends doing the same.But even when we focus on a healthier lifestyle, we can still fall back into the old pattern of doing too much. Here’s a good example: I’ve slowed down the pace of my life by spending more time at home reading, writing and creating stained glass. The phone rings. A friend asks me to meet her for coffee. I agree because I haven’t seen her in a while and it would be nice to catch up. At least I’m sitting down. I get home, put my feet up, and get another call, this time from another friend who wants to go for a walk. I think, well I need to exercise, so I agree to meet her instead of listening to my body. I overdo the exercise and start gasping for breath up the hill. Pain starts radiating down my arm and into my chest. I’m back in the emergency room.The key to not doing too much is finding the right balance. The right amount of activities and the right amount of rest. And, there is only one way to find balance. Be aware of every moment of the day. Be present to what is happening. Know when to say no. Only then can we accomplish what we need to do in life without reaching the tipping point of doing too much.Have you reached your tipping point today?

Posted: July 9th, 2007 under healthy eating, heart disease, present moment.
Comments: 2

Since my heart attack, I’ve shifted a lot of my thinking. I used to live each day by what I thought is right or wrong or by what is good or bad. Judgments and guilt played a heavy toll.Religions have their commandments, bylaws, or rules to follow. But I’ve come to the conclusion that good vs. bad or right vs. wrong isn’t the best way to keep humans on the straight and narrow. I believe that everyone in this world is good. Maybe our actions aren’t always what others might think are good, so they label a person bad. But being bad or wrong carries so much judgment and guilt, that it’s time to rethink how we perceive ourselves and others.I’d like to propose a change to: Is it right or is it easy?If you’re human and have love in your heart, it’s probably not hard to do good things for yourself, your family, and your friends. It’s equally probable that you’re not going to spend your day intentionally hurting others. But when it comes to our actions, it’s much harder to make the distinction between doing something that is right and something that is easy. You can think about asking this question with everything in your life.Say, for example that you are trying to watch your weight, and keep your cholesterol and blood pressure low. You’re under a lot of stress at work. It’s noon, and your hungry. You forgot to pack a lunch and have only 30 minutes to eat, swing by the cleaners, pick up your child from kindergarten and take her to the sitter. Do you skip lunch? Maybe you swing by McDonalds or Burger King and order a burger, fries and soft drink and tell yourself you’ll eat a light dinner. You need to nourish your body. But you also have all these other responsibilities. What do you do?Here’s another example: You just got back the results of your bone scan. You have osteoporosis. You need to strengthen your bones. You’re already on Fosomax, so the only thing left to do is weight bearing exercise – every day. You start out with good intentions – planning to walk 30 minutes after you drop your son off at school. The first week you get into a routine and everything seems to be working on schedule. Then your son gets sick. You stay home and don’t exercise for a day or two. Your son recovers and returns to school, but instead of walking, other things creep into your schedule. You tell yourself you’ll exercise later, but later never comes. You fall back into your old habits. Most of us don’t think about the consequences of our actions until it’s too late.It’s easy to blame ourselves and others for situations in our life, but ultimately we are responsible for our own actions, so the next time you have to make a choice, do you choose what is easy or what is right?

Posted: July 2nd, 2007 under heart disease.
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It’s our 24th wedding anniversary, and my husband and I have come back to nature, to the mountains and tress of the high Sierras. Twenty-four years ago, we vowed to love and cherish one another against the backdrop of Yosemite Falls. This anniversary, we’re hiking Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park and hiking up to Tokopoh Falls.It’s beautiful up here, surrounded by nature. Much different than the spectacular rock formations of Yosemite, but Sequoia & Kings Canyon offer other treasures. There is the Forest of Giants (General Sherman being the name of the largest Sequoia tree in the world), Kings Canyon and it’s raging river, dozens of hiking trails, lots of fresh air, black bears, deer and other animals, and delicate wildflowers.I learn so much from nature. Being among the granite and marble peaks and forest filled with Sequoia, incense cedar and Ponderosa pines, I’m reminded of God’s greatness. Mother earth offers us an abundance of beauty. As I walk along the trail to the top of the falls, I notice tiny white and pink flowers, no larger than a quarter-inch in diameter, soaking up the sunshine. I see small lizards cross our path, hear birds singing in the trees, feel a soft breeze against my cheek.I’m careful in my steps. It’s a gravel path. I look down at my hiking shoes, the pair I bought for our hike into the Grand Canyon – the trip that was cancelled because of my heart attack. We’ve been on a few vacations since that fateful day, but this is the first time I tied on these shoes and ventured on a 3 1/2 mile hike into the wilderness. Surprisingly, I’m calm and not worried about my heart going into a spasm.Nearly a year ago, I would have been filled with fear about walking one mile along the flat beach, fearing my arteries would spasm and I’d have to rush to the hospital. But a lot has changed since then. I no longer fear exercise or traveling into the wilderness. I’ve learned to release my fear with two little words: I CAN. I repeat this mantra as I hike to the top of the waterfall, even though I stop along the way and walk slowly up the 500 foot elevation. I repeat I CAN whenever I begin to tire.We came to these national parks to celebrate our anniversary, but we also came here to celebrate life. I CAN live a full life with heart disease.

Posted: July 1st, 2007 under heart disease, mindfulness, present moment.
Comments: 3

I’ve been reading comments on another blog and talking to others about their cardiac rehab and I am amazed at the differences in responses. I’d have to organize them in three distinct categories: None, Exercise Only, and Complete Makeover.None.It surprises me to hear that some doctors do not prescribe at least some kind of exercise after a cardiac event. It surprises me even more that as women we don’t insist on rehab, in whatever form is available locally. I am not a doctor, but whatever problems we have with our heart, I believe, stem from either a physical, mental, or spiritual imbalance. It takes some effort to bring your life back together and for me, that effort is called rehab. So if you are one of those individuals who was not prescribed rehab, I encourage you to ask your doctor.Exercise Only.It seems the majority of men and women who have some kind of heart problem are encouraged to go to some type of physical therapy in the form of aerobic exercise like walking on a treadmill. Better yet, your doctor encourages you to enroll in a cardiac rehab program that also monitors your pulse and blood pressure before and after your exercise. Even better is when you slap on those wonderfully sticky leads hooked to a portable heart monitor that transmits your vital signs to a computer in a steady stream as you either walk on a treadmill or ride a stationary bicycle. The bottom line is you will probably get different levels of care for different levels of insurance coverage.Unfortunately, I am sure there are some women who don’t have insurance and may not be able to afford a formal cardiac rehab program. With your doctor’s permission, you can still get out and walk around the neighborhood. That’s the beauty about our bodies, they were designed to heal themselves. All they need is a little encouragement . We don’t really need fancy exercise equipment. But we do need to be vigilant and exercise in the parameters set by our doctor.Now for the third category: Complete MakeoverI feel more confident talking about a complete makeover, because that was my chosen path to recovery from my heart attack. Before you start Googling “Complete Makeover for cardiac patients,” let me say that my program is called a Lifestyle Change Program (formally called Healing Hearts) offered by Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine.Here is the URL if any of you are curious: http://www.scripps.org/Services.asp?ID=211I’ve heard that this type of program is quite unique and I’ll explain why in a moment. The hospital where I had my procedure does offer the exercise only rehab too, but I was fortunate that my primary care physician suggested I enroll in the Lifestyle Change Program and this is why: I needed lots of help. I not only needed to heal my body, but I needed to heal my mind and to heal my spirit. Okay, I was a complete mess. But rather than go into what my life was like before my heart attack and why I truly believe it was my lifestyle that contributed to my heart finally shouting “Enough Already,” here is a glimpse into my complete makeover.I attended the program three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) for twelve weeks. I’d be at Scripps three to four hours each day. Okay, I can already hear you say, “I don’t have that kind of time to spend on rehab.” I guess I went into the program with a different attitude. “This is my life. I want to be happy and live a healthy lifestyle.” Back to the program.Each day of the week there were different classes. On Monday there was aerobic exercise, music therapy, and vegetarian cooking classes. Wednesday started with an hour of lecture, aerobic exercise, group support, and stress management (yoga). Friday was yoga, aerobic exercise, spirituality class, and another yoga practice.The aerobic exercise portion was comparable to other exercise only rehab programs. Each day I would clean my skin with an alcohol swab, slap on four leads pads and hook a portable heart monitor around my waist. Before and after exercise, they wrote down our pulse and blood pressure and on Wednesdays we had to get on the scale. Yes, they monitored our weight the entire time. There were others in the program that also suffered from diabetes, so those individuals also monitored their own glucose levels.In conjunction with the exercise, we also underwent a battery of blood tests before, at the midpoint, and at the end of the program, so we had all kinds of medical professions overseeing our care: cardiologist, physiologist, nutritionist, counselor, spiritual advisor, yoga instructor, and music therapist. It was like being cradled in warm nurturing arms. Okay, I’m digressing. Back to the program.There is a series of twelve lectures each dealing with a different topic of health and well being: cancer care, lifelong wellness, herbal and dietary supplements, exercise, nutrition, emotions and your health, heart disease and prevention, pain management, self-healing through healing touch, weight management, spirituality, and transforming stress. The wonderful part of this program is that you can buy vouchers and attend any of these classes (except the monitored exercise portion) any time after you complete the program. People who have not gone through the entire program can also take individual classes.The music therapy classes are very energizing and relaxing. Some of my favorites were a drum circle; humming and toning; marimbas, slit drums and bells; crystal bowls; and music to heal your body, mind and spirit.I never was much of a tofu person, and some of the tofu recipes we received in the cooking classes did surprise me. They were much tastier than I had expected. We tried a variety of different recipes in class: soups, stews, salads, beans, grains, Mediterranean and spa cuisines and even some quick desserts. My nutritionist recommended a Mediterranean diet for me which includes fish, chicken and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s really an easy, healthy way to eat, although I know that other cardiac programs recommend other types of diets. The bottom line for me was to eat healthy foods in moderation. I lost ten pounds during the twelve week program without even trying.The stress management (yoga and meditation) was beyond relaxing. I never knew I could get so many good stretches from laying on my back on a two-inch thick mat. When it comes to reducing stress, getting the right instructor (one with a soft, soothing voice) makes all the difference.If you haven’t figured it out yet, I absolutely loved this lifestyle change program. Although I officially graduated the program in December, 2006, I still stay connected by taking an occasional yoga class, attending a lecture every now and then, and by attending group support meetings. For anyone who has made a drastic change in their life, staying connected and continuing to follow the program during your normal life is the key to lasting change.For those of you who do not have a similar holistic program in your area, first check with your doctor. Then sign up for a gentle yoga class; start listening to some calm, soothing music; sign up for a vegetarian cooking class at your local community college; find other women in your area and form your own support group; slip on those walking shoes and walk to the park; watch what you feed your body and your mind because in reality you are also feeding your heart.I’d love to hear about other rehab programs and how you have managed to continue taking care of your own precious heart.

Posted: June 27th, 2007 under heart disease.
Comments: 7