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About This Story
Even after the wake up call of multiple major heart surgeries, Bill had repeatedly fallen back into his unhealthy habits. Now, his final chance for survival is not through another high tech procedure, but through immersion in a lifestyle re-education program.
For more information on heart health, visit the American Heart Association.
About the Common Therapies List
The therapies listed in the orange sidebar are not necessarily meant to treat conditions directly. Often they are used to reduce stress, therefore increasing a person’s ability to cope and/or heal.
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Magic Prescription
Bettina Herbert, M.D.
Jefferson Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine
There is a magic prescription: it helps control weight, improves heart
health, increases strength, lowers blood pressure, controls blood
sugar, improves your cholesterol profile, staves off dementia and
improves your mood. A pill? No. Something much more wholesome:
exercise. Not just the 'exercise 'til you hurt' kind. But any
increased activity that you enjoy and can incorporate into your daily
routine: parking at the other end of the lot when shopping, climbing
one flight of stairs instead of taking the elevator, walking the
Stress and the Heart
Mimi Guarneri, MD, FACC
Scripps Integrative Medicine
Excerpted from The New Medicine Interviews
For a long time, we’ve known the mind and the body are connected. It’s just… medicine has always focused on what is the quick drug that we can give to deal with people, and the whole concept of the mind/body connection is much more complex than, “Here’s a medication.”
And so, in Western medicine, particularly in cardiology, physicians sort of put it by the wayside. When you look at cardiology, it’s absolutely mind-boggling the amount of research and literature [that exists about the mind-body]. I mean, the American College of Cardiology put out bulletins within the last couple of months saying, stress is bad for the heart; hostility affects the heart.