What do heart attack patients have in common with war-weary soldiers, disaster victims and trauma survivors? There’s more to heart attack (known as MI or myocardial infarction) than meets the eye.
Ground-breaking research published in The Public Library of Science Journal, shows up to 1 in 8 who suffer a heart attack go on to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Sadly, this can set up a vicious circle, doubling the rate of lethal repeat heart attack chances within three years.
What is PTSD?
PTSD consists of varying degrees of depression, flashbacks, poor sleep with fatigue, low mood with unhappiness and manifests following trauma. It can be experienced by anyone who has had a brush with death, or a threat to their mortality from an incident. What happens is that the body’s auto-pilot emergency response is switched to a high gear in response to threat or danger. Sufferers report feeling on a knife-edge, helpless or out of control.
For cardiac patients it seems that PTSD also increases the inflammation response which exacerbates artery clogging, a significant factor in heart disease.
Signs to look out for include sleep disturbances, nightmares, irritability, thoughts of death and dying, and not surprisingly, lowered sex drive.
For many of my clients, becoming a ‘patient’ in hospital may be sudden and unwelcome, and scary in itself. Fear of having another, fatal, heart attack and being labelled as a ‘coronary patient,’ having to make adjustments in diet, exercise and lifestyle doesn’t always sit easily, either. Mindfulness hypnotherapy offers real and lasting mindset change.
Mind Change Works
According to Dr Donald Edmondson, Associate Professor of Behavioural Medicine at Columbia University Medical Centre, the cohesive findings of these 24 separate studies – involving some 2, 300 people – are particularly significant. They give a clear picture of the emotional impact of heart attack in the recovery and long-term well-being of survivors. Cardiologists, he says, are now becoming more aware of the need for patients to address this emotional component of their condition and to be aware of it’s long-term benefits. He also mentions that there’s no link between severity of the attack, and the onset of PTSD. The patient’s own experience and mindset play an important role.
Dr Henry Benson, eminent cardiologist whose career has spanned four decades, of Boston’s Benson Henry Institute of Mind Body Medicine, explores the beneficial effects of mindfulness, meditation and hypnosis on heart health and function. He says, ‘The mind can change the function of the body.’ Mindfulness Hypnotherapy recruits the Relaxation Response which Dr Benson discovered is the diametric opposite of the familiar Fright/Flight response that sets pulses racing. Such relaxation is world’s apart from a Homer Simpson type of sofa surfing and is a measurable mind state.
This translates into lowered blood pressure, increased cardiac function, better mood and wellness with increased motivation to make useful health choices and get the most from Cardiac Rehab programs.
Image Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos
