Men's Health: Getting to the Heart of Heart Health - STRESS
June 26, 2021
As we come to the end of June, I wanted to highlight a small edition focused on Men’s Health, and more specifically Heart Health.
Heart Disease is the #1 Leading Cause of Death in the United States
1 in 4 deaths are attributed to Heart Disease
So, what is it exactly ? 🤔 💭
Coronary Artery Disease
Congestive Heart Failure
Atherosclerosis
Heart Attack
Peripheral Artery Disease
Heart Arrhythmia
Cardiac Arrest
Stroke
More than likely you know at least one person (or perhaps even yourself) who has experienced some level of heart health complications like those mentioned above. Primary risk factors often related to heart health as early signs of potential concerns down the road include high blood pressure, stress, poor sleep, and poor diet quality.
Every 36 seconds someone dies of Heart Disease in the US alone
If the above list feels a bit daunting, my hope is not to scare you but to help us face our facts, and empower ourselves forward in this journey of health and wellness.
Don’t be scared, be excited to know that we can take simple steps each day to reduce our risks for heart disease and improve our long-term outcomes. Each day, each step we take is powerfully important, so don’t lose hope, don’t get stuck in a rut,
don’t give up on yourself because I GUARANTEE your loved ones won’t give up on you and certainly don’t want you to just turn your cheek and look the other way to ignore your stress and let it stay stored inside, bubbling up like a quivery volcano. 🌋
One of the MOST overlooked areas of heart health from a lifestyle medicine and root-cause approach is STRESS - in all respects - mental stress, emotional stress, physiological stress, even childhood trauma can be stored as stressful tension we bottle up deep inside. Some of us would do well to spend more time for us to heal our hearts and guard our hearts.
Little did we know that stress could impact the heart in a negative way (well we used to from ancient medicine and just deeply entrenched cultural wisdom intuition).
Changes in the Sympathetic Nervous System spark us into that oh, so common Fight or Flight experience, sending a surge of cascading signals such as adrenaline to help us survive something endangering our life
This surge of response systems also related to stress provoke changes in electrolyte balance in the body, most notably changing the hearts required biological balance between calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and other nutrients needed to maintain a healthy heart’s bloodflow and muscle contraction.
Blood Supply: Furthermore, changes in blood flow and nutrient balance also include changes in oxygen levels and nitric oxide - often associated with healthy blood supply and blood flow benefits with ample supply and distribution of nitric oxide production in the body (more on this below)
Energy Supply: Last point I’ll take note of here specifically looks at the actual metabolism of the heart, or what kind of ATP production your heart is going to utilize at any given time. As you may know, when we are poked into an acute stress response, our blood sugar spikes so our muscles (and yes including the heart) can use an acute surge of glucose to fuel muscle movement. However, as you also may know, prolonged dependency on high blood glucose can cause damage to blood vessels and primary tissues.
In other words, high stress sends us into a cascading stress response that changes our calcium balance and muscle contraction of the heart, as well as adjusts the nitric oxide supply to the heart and finally sends our heart into a dependency relationship for glucose rather than other fuel sources such as from fatty acids or ketones.
So, more concisely stress sends your heart into a panic mode response. And chronic stress causes chronic and persistent damaging effects to your heart. But, the good news is we can definitely take steps to improve this and work to actively prevent heart disease.
Let’s dive into some helpful strategies for heart health improvements. ❤️
Nasal Breathing - Believe it or not, but there are actually specific breathing techniques linked to specific biophysiological effects in the body, such as 1) alternating nostril breathing or 2) box breathing or the credible 4-7-8 breath technique.
The important thing to recognize with nasal breathing is that it IS NOT MOUTH BREATHING. Imagine you’re sprinting during the last mile of a race or you’re frantically searching for your keys as you realize you are already running late for work in the morning… it’s likely you’ll be mouth breathing, also communicating to the body in a STRESS RESPONSE sending surge of energy dependency on glucose and acute stimuli communication that you are in a state of stressful existence for survival.
BUT, when we watch a calm baby sleep on their back, how to they breathe? Their belly rises and falls ever so gently as they breathe through their nose. That’s how I want to breathe. That’s how I want to be, deeply rested and strangely calm sleeping like a log or “sleeping like a baby” 😴Exercising the Vagus Nerve - imagine a major cord running from your brain through your spine, innervating your GUT in a major way and this cord has profound super powers to help us calm down?
That’s the vagus nerve! It’s become pretty famous in recent years with help of more research understanding how this primary and powerful major nerve really works. Stress inhibits its calming abilities like kryptonite for superman. Stimulating or exercising the vagus nerve can help us strengthen the body’s abilities to get used to calm and restfulness. I freaking love this kind of stuff, to better understand how to live in peace and calm in a constantly crazy anxious world.
Check out this awesome post from my friends and family over at Parsley Health for some additional tips around supporting the Vagus Nerve. My favorite is humming and singing, I also recommend layering those with dance or walking meditations in nature 🌱Support Your Sleep - You HAVE TO honor your biology and recognize that we do best with 7+ hours of sleep each night, high quality deep sleep as well, much more and much better sleep than what most of get on a regular basis with very shallow sleep and too few hours
Increase Nitric Oxide supply - As we talked about NO2 earlier, I’ll briefly highlight a few ways to support our bodies own production of nitric oxide as well as foods and activities to include in your week for additional routine help.
- Beet Greens, Beets, Pomegranates, Exercise, Heat exposure and Sauna❤️
Additionally, there are other lifestyle tips we can think about to improve our holistic health as we take a focus lens on the heart.
Spending Time in Nature - consider walking in the sun in the morning, hiking with a friend in nature, practicing breathing techniques while you support your heart health in more ways than one and connect to the beautiful creation all around us
Daily Journaling - try out bullet journaling if you’re analytical and short on time, gratitude journaling if you’re in need of daily reminders for positivity and hope for tomorrow or would like to find deeper connection to self or even freehand styles if you’re a little more creative
Moving More - to actually exercise and strengthen our heart as a muscle and help it practice & prepare for whatever life may throw at us - even simple at-home workouts can help in the long-term lifestyle support
Human Connection - it’s no secret that we humans are in desperate need for physical touch, hugs, handshakes, smiles and waves in person - and no form of Zoom discussion will ever fully suffice - so do the best you can do to find someone in your life you can routinely connect with
And as it relates to Men’s Heart Health and Stress, I can’t leave without making note to say that it is absolutely okay and strongly encouraged for you and every single one of us to feel comfortable asking for help in all of this.
Most men have a tendency to believe the cultural normalcy paradigm that suggests asking for help = weakness. I beg to differ. Asking for help leads to greater success, expedites learning curves, and improves potential growth patterns for the future. Knowledge and wisdom can expand upon a multiplicative if we simply seek support and are open to asking for help.
Yet, men are often thrown into self-isolation culture of burying thoughts, doubts, emotions, and diving into alcohol, anger, aggression, and exercise as brutal acts of external warfare that only scratch the surface for the inner warfare that may be going on inside their hearts. Mentally, Emotionally, Socially - men are often very slow to ask for help, let alone read the directions with any new product or appliance, ammirite? 🤣
And obviously I’m not pointing fingers with judgement, I’m taking the place of a loving, kind and compassion friend wanting to embrace my fellow brothers (and sisters) in areas of health and wellness, life and business which may often be overlooked and misunderstood. Am I my brother’s keeper, perhaps. I believe we can all get father in life when we live life together rather than separate and apart.
So with that being said, I do encourage you to think about how transparent you allow yourself to live, to feel, and to share yourself openly with the world around you, the people you say you love, and even yourself. Maybe we don’t need to punch holes in walls when are angry and perhaps we can sit with our emotions and ask for a friend to go on a walk n’ talk to vent, express your worries and dispel your fears.
If it’s true that we only think, feel, and act based on two distinct qualities of emotion either love or fear, I encourage you to truly dig deep and consider how much of your life and your decisions are driven by fear or by love.
For example, are you a penny-pinching 💰 🤏 saver because you love being able to support your friends, family, and neighbors in need or because you’re in fear of financial failure and living life in debt or financial deficits.
There are infinite areas of our heart we could explore to see just exactly who we are:
You can be yourself - your greatest self - when you live your life authentically.
Spend time with yourself.
Learn more about your values. 🤔
Spend time with others.
Write, Work, Win. ✍️ 🏆
Shut off the noise. 📺
Find your tribe.
Listen to your heart. ❤️ 💙 💛
And as we finish out this month of June and jump into July, I want to celebrate your first steps into Summer and celebrate the steps you’re taking today and each day in all areas of health and wellness to improve your today and also your tomorrow. 👏 🙏
Take time for yourself, get out there and enjoy each day with the lust for life you used to have a child exploring the unknown. Improve and impress your heart with a world of unknown warmth, peace, and supportive lifestyle of health and happiness. 😊
What I’m Writing and Publishing
Featured in my latest article via Medium I talk about the benefit of Diet Diversity 🌈 for health, Bad Bugs 🦠 like C.diff and H. Pylori, and some helpful tips to remind us how to eat more plants & enjoy more colors! 🍎 🌱
You can read the whole post here
Summary:
The premise here lies in the factor of diversity — presumably the more diversity in the diet, the more capable we are at promoting a healthy balance of microbiota inside our guts without overwhelming their feeding cycles with too much of one kind of food that only a subset of bacteria will enjoy and grow out of balance.
So, by feeding our gut with a plethora of plentiful plants, flavorful herbs and spices, and beneficial fiber, we truly can support our trillions of cells inside who work to keep us well when we work to keep them well!
Take Care of Your Heart, Men
and Take Care of Yourselves so You Can Take Care of Others. 💙 🙏
Stay Well and in Good Health,
- Jonathan