Tweet This
We know from research that mindfulness and meditation have many benefits, including reducing stress and anxiety, increasing focus and boosting your overall sense of happiness. Mindfulness can also help you let go of negative thought patterns. I was intrigued when I received the following email:
I met with my cardiologist today and she wants me to do meditation (which I started while reading your book) as means to reverse coronary artery disease. She says there are four things that have scientifically been shown to reduce the risk of a heart attack in patients with mild to moderate coronary artery disease and they include – reduced stress (use meditation to do so), diet, exercise and love.
Mindfulness is the simple act of paying attention to the moment-by-moment experiences. It's about being here. For example, you're eating lunch but are completely lost in thought. You look down to realize that you've finished your food but didn't really pay attention to the experience of eating.
Research indicates that we are spending about 47% of our waking moments thinking about something other than what we are doing in that moment. This constant mind wandering can lead to unnecessary stress and anxiety.
Meditation is the formal tool we use to practice mindfulness.
I reached out to Dr. Joon Sup Lee, co-director of the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute and chief of the Division of Cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, to get the scoop on how mindfulness and meditation may benefit patients with coronary artery disease.
Jeena Cho: In what cases is suggestion of mindfulness and meditation practices appropriate for patients with coronary artery disease?
Joon Sup Lee: Given the proven role of stress in heart attacks and coronary artery disease, effective meditation would be appropriate for almost all patients with coronary artery disease.
Cho: What type of feedback are you getting from your patients who have been encouraged to add mindfulness and meditation as part of their treatment plan?
Lee: Unfortunately, the success rate is quite variable. There are patients who have made concerted effort to incorporate meditation into their lives and have derived considerable benefit, but majority of patients find it challenging to make such lifestyle changes. Those who are able to stick with it in general seem to perceive a significant benefit. However, studies that can quantitate the magnitude of these benefits have not been done to a sufficient degree to make a definitive conclusion.
Cho: How does the practice of mindfulness/meditation help patients with high stress?
Lee: There are well documented studies that show meditation reverses the physiologic manifestations of stress such as elevated blood pressure and heart rate. In addition, there is now more gathering evidence that stress can have harmful effects on the functioning of our immune system. An abnormally activated immune system may actually trigger heart attacks and worsen coronary artery disease.
Cho: What's the relationship between chronic stress and coronary artery disease?
Lee: The link between chronic stress and progression of coronary artery disease is now well accepted by a large majority of cardiologists. Although elimination of stress is impossible as long as we are alive, a reduction of stress and more adaptive response to stress should be an important part of any cardiovascular health regimen.
Cho: Given all the benefits of mindfulness and meditation, do you incorporate it into your daily life?
Lee: I would rate myself as a somewhat sporadic practitioner of mindful meditation and relaxation techniques. Not quite as rigorous as it would be ideally. It sounds obvious, but we must keep in mind that it is not the stress in our life, but the reaction to stress that is so potentially harmful to our health, including cardiovascular health. Hence, being in a potentially very stressful profession, meditation and relaxation techniques are extremely important and useful to minimize these unhealthy reactions to stress.
Do you practice mindfulness and meditation to reduce stress? If so, has it been helpful? Leave me a comment below or let me know over on Twitter.
