LISA CLARK: I'm Lisa Clark. Welcome, and thank you for joining us for this webcast. If you are one of the millions of Americans diagnosed with heart disease, you can turn to your doctors for help, change your diet to help, and take prescription drugs or nutritional supplements to help. But there's one more weapon in your arsenal against heart disease, and it's all in your mind. Learning how to recognize and reduce stress is an important tool in reducing your risk of heart disease. For the next few moments, we'll discuss ways to help you do just that.
Joining us for this discussion, Nate Lebowitz, a cardiologist and assistant clinical professor at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Welcome, Nate. Also joining us, Sam Benjamin. He's the director for the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is also one of the founders of Mariposa, which is a natural supplement company. Thank you, Sam, for joining us.
We all talk about being stressed. But what is it exactly? How is it measured? And what does it do to your heart?
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: There's clear evidence that people who are the so-called Type-A personality, and that's not a general thing. That's not somebody who's just under stress. There are specific indicators of what is a Type-A personality, some of which are perfectionism, time pressure, and a number of other things. But people who are Type-A personality, clearly are at much higher risk of developing coronary heart disease. We've found that the mind plays a powerful role in the coronary arteries, and in the rhythms of the heart as well.
LISA CLARK: There's something that your body releases when you are in a state of stress.
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: It's actually adrenaline, or nor-epinephrine and epinephrine. These are the fight or flight hormones, and they are adaptive for when we had to run away from dinosaurs. Not that we ever coexisted with dinosaurs.
LISA CLARK: You'll be getting calls on that one.
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: Don't call me. But they also speed up the heart rate, increase the blood pressure, constrict the arteries. And, clearly, in animal models, animals that are under chronic physiologic stress develop heart disease.
SAM BENJAMIN, MD: One of the other things that they do is, the effect on the immune system, not just from the adrenal gland, but from many different parts of immunity, that we're now learning are in many different parts of the body. That's really important, because one of the possibilities of some kinds of heart disease, may relate to immune system dysfunction, and even the possibility that certain bacteria increase the amount of disease. So stress can make a difference in an enormous number of different ways.
LISA CLARK: It's also a bit scary to think that you might be contributing to your own illness by virtue of your personality type. What can people do to kind of thwart the Type-A urge, if that's what they've got?
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: It's not easy, but it can be altered. It does take effort, it does take some learning and some training. The concept of "just relax" does not work. You need to learn. Stress reduction classes. Yoga, massage, tai chi, these have been studied and have been shown to have very beneficial effects on the true physiology, the measurable levels of adrenaline, the function of our arteries, and clearly have had health outcome benefits shown.
SAM BENJAMIN, MD: Intentionality. That's a very important issue. Having a positive attitude makes a difference. And when Mommy said, years ago: Don't get upset; it's going to get you sick, she was absolutely right. And that's a very important point.
Physicians who, unfortunately, sometimes make the mistake, for many reasons that are certainly unintentional, when they tell people: You have x-amount of time to live. That's probably one of the serious mistakes that we make as healthcare professionals. We have no idea of how long people will live or the quality of life that they have. And if, as a patient, you're confronted with it, you need to realize that the physician meant well. But, of course, they really have no idea whatsoever.
And the reason I say that is, if we fix something in our mind, we're learning more and more now that there's a physiologic, a biochemical apparatus, that helps us meet the time clock of what we've fixed. Intentionality. Our intentions, our optimism, makes a difference. And there are numerous studies to support that.
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: I would add that social supports have been shown to be very, very beneficial. Humans were made to be social animals.
LISA CLARK: So you're talking about things like group therapy?
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: People that have loving families, friendship networks, even pets, have been shown to do better with exactly the same disease state, than people who are loners, who do not have these social supports.
LISA CLARK: I can't thank you enough for being with us here tonight, Nate Lebowitz and Sam Benjamin. Thank you both so much for your input. And also, thanks to you for joining us for this webcast. I'm Lisa Clark.
Joining us for this discussion, Nate Lebowitz, a cardiologist and assistant clinical professor at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Welcome, Nate. Also joining us, Sam Benjamin. He's the director for the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at State University of New York, Stony Brook. He is also one of the founders of Mariposa, which is a natural supplement company. Thank you, Sam, for joining us.
We all talk about being stressed. But what is it exactly? How is it measured? And what does it do to your heart?
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: There's clear evidence that people who are the so-called Type-A personality, and that's not a general thing. That's not somebody who's just under stress. There are specific indicators of what is a Type-A personality, some of which are perfectionism, time pressure, and a number of other things. But people who are Type-A personality, clearly are at much higher risk of developing coronary heart disease. We've found that the mind plays a powerful role in the coronary arteries, and in the rhythms of the heart as well.
LISA CLARK: There's something that your body releases when you are in a state of stress.
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: It's actually adrenaline, or nor-epinephrine and epinephrine. These are the fight or flight hormones, and they are adaptive for when we had to run away from dinosaurs. Not that we ever coexisted with dinosaurs.
LISA CLARK: You'll be getting calls on that one.
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: Don't call me. But they also speed up the heart rate, increase the blood pressure, constrict the arteries. And, clearly, in animal models, animals that are under chronic physiologic stress develop heart disease.
SAM BENJAMIN, MD: One of the other things that they do is, the effect on the immune system, not just from the adrenal gland, but from many different parts of immunity, that we're now learning are in many different parts of the body. That's really important, because one of the possibilities of some kinds of heart disease, may relate to immune system dysfunction, and even the possibility that certain bacteria increase the amount of disease. So stress can make a difference in an enormous number of different ways.
LISA CLARK: It's also a bit scary to think that you might be contributing to your own illness by virtue of your personality type. What can people do to kind of thwart the Type-A urge, if that's what they've got?
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: It's not easy, but it can be altered. It does take effort, it does take some learning and some training. The concept of "just relax" does not work. You need to learn. Stress reduction classes. Yoga, massage, tai chi, these have been studied and have been shown to have very beneficial effects on the true physiology, the measurable levels of adrenaline, the function of our arteries, and clearly have had health outcome benefits shown.
SAM BENJAMIN, MD: Intentionality. That's a very important issue. Having a positive attitude makes a difference. And when Mommy said, years ago: Don't get upset; it's going to get you sick, she was absolutely right. And that's a very important point.
Physicians who, unfortunately, sometimes make the mistake, for many reasons that are certainly unintentional, when they tell people: You have x-amount of time to live. That's probably one of the serious mistakes that we make as healthcare professionals. We have no idea of how long people will live or the quality of life that they have. And if, as a patient, you're confronted with it, you need to realize that the physician meant well. But, of course, they really have no idea whatsoever.
And the reason I say that is, if we fix something in our mind, we're learning more and more now that there's a physiologic, a biochemical apparatus, that helps us meet the time clock of what we've fixed. Intentionality. Our intentions, our optimism, makes a difference. And there are numerous studies to support that.
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: I would add that social supports have been shown to be very, very beneficial. Humans were made to be social animals.
LISA CLARK: So you're talking about things like group therapy?
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: People that have loving families, friendship networks, even pets, have been shown to do better with exactly the same disease state, than people who are loners, who do not have these social supports.
LISA CLARK: I can't thank you enough for being with us here tonight, Nate Lebowitz and Sam Benjamin. Thank you both so much for your input. And also, thanks to you for joining us for this webcast. I'm Lisa Clark.