Last year, my mother-in-law had double bypass surgery. As part of her recovery, her health care team prescribed an exercise program, regular checkups, and a boatload of pills. She (and her insurance company) paid thousands and thousands of dollars for this follow-up treatment (not to mention the tens of thousands spent on the operation itself).
Now, new research suggests that she – and millions of other heart patients – might be better off devoting their time and their money to stress management training instead. And, it reinforces the need for all of us to manage stress better, whether our hearts are already showing the effects or not.
Stress management more effective than exercise or medication
A new study in the American Journal of Cardiology compared the effects of stress-management training, regular exercise, and “traditional care” (namely medication and monitoring) on heart patients. Doctors at Duke University Medical Center recruited 94 men with established coronary artery disease and divided them into three groups. The first group received one and a half hours of stress management training each week for 16 weeks. The second group exercised three times a week for the same time period, while the third segment received medication and regular monitoring. All of the men received annual check ups for five years to track their heart health.
By the fifth year, the exercise and the traditional care groups both averaged about 1.3 “cardiac events” per group. But, the group that received stress management training had, on average, only .8 cardiac events over the five-year follow up period.
That’s an impressive difference. And, as an added plus, the stress management approach cost significantly less. On average, stress management training cost about half as much as exercise and about one-fourth as much as “usual care” during the first year. Over the follow-up period, the savings trend continued; average five-year health care costs for the stress management group were more than one-third lower than for the other two groups.
This was not the first study to show that stress management techniques can have a positive effect on heart health. But it was one of the first to show that the benefits can carry over to the long term – and one of the first to spell out the savings dollar for dollar.
Learn how to effectively manage stress without leaving your house
This study compared the three heart-health approaches one-on-one. But common sense tells us that combining two or more of these therapies could have an even more beneficial effect. No matter what your current approach to heart health may be, there’s always room in your regimen for some stress management techniques – especially since they carry no risk of side effects or interactions. And even if you don’t have heart disease, this study demonstrates the importance of effectively managing the stress in your life.
There are a lot of ways to reduce stress. But one of the most successful we’ve found is the Freeze-Frame(R) program, a precise five-step stress reversal or stress reduction technique we first wrote about in the August 1998 issue of the HSI Members Alert newsletter. Research has proven that the Freeze-Frame technique can lower blood pressure, and may reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death. HeartMath, the non-profit educational and research corporation that developed the program, has trained thousands of people, including employees of Fortune 500 companies and members of the U.S. military, on these effective techniques. But you can learn the power of Freeze-Frame right in your own home, through HeartMath’s instructional interactive software / finger sensor program. In addition, HeartMath offers books, audio programs, scientifically designed music, and other educational materials to reverse the effects of stress and improve hormonal, emotional, and immune-system balance. To learn more about Freeze-Frame or to order, call HeartMath at 1-800-450-9111 or visit their website at http://www.hsionline.com/heartmath.html.
You can’t eliminate stress from your life entirely. But all of us could learn to manage it better. This study shows what a huge impact it can have – not just on your life and your health, but on your wallet as well. You probably devote a lot of attention to your health – trying to eat right, exercise, and maintain a comprehensive supplement program. But remember to address your stress management approach as well – as this study shows, it could be one of the most important things you do.
Source: American Journal of Cardiology 2002;89:164-168Copyright 1997-2002 by Institute of Health Sciences, L.L.C.
