Heart Disease
Coronary artery disease is the most common cause of death in America for both men and women and is largely modifiable through changing lifestyle habits and patterns. Research has shown that relaxation and guided imagery can help with many forms of heart disease in many ways, by reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, helping people stop smoking, helping them lose weight, and even having a direct effect on heart function. Heart disease is serious and the best way to learn to use imagery to help yourself with it is to use our "Guided Imagery for Self-Healing" book and 4 CD set that will teach you the nine essential skills of using guided imagery to help stimulate healing from within. The book will explain the process, review the science behind it, and coach you through the common questions that people have, while the CD set guides you through the 9 essential guided imagery skills taught in the book. These skills can be used for all the above-mentioned purposes. A quicker introduction, especially for people that don't prefer to read, is to use "Self Healing with Guided Imagery", a 2 CD set featuring Dr. Andrew Weil. The first CD explains mind/body healing and guided imagery while the second teaches you the three most fundamental self-healing skills. You can also start with "Stress Relief", or "Relaxing into Healing" if you just want to get a taste of what guided imagery has to offer.
RESEARCH
Guided Imagery for Coronary Artery Disease
NOVEMBER, 2005
About CAD
According to the American Heart Association (pg. 11; 2002), as of 1999, 12.6 million Americans had CHD, and the direct and indirect costs of CHD to the U.S. economy exceed $129.9 billion annually (pg. 4). Medicare alone spends more than $10.6 billion annually in its treatment(AHA, 2001). CHD is the most common form of heart disease and is the leading cause of death in Americans, both male and female -- over 500,000 deaths annually (National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute.
Medical Treatment
Treatment for CHD depends on many factors, including the severity of the disease and any comorbid conditions. The medication and surgical choices are vast, and are outside the scope of this paper. Recommended lifestyle changes include quitting smoking, maintaining correct weight, regular exercise, and following a diet low in fat and cholesterol (Bass, 2001).
Lifestyle Changes, Emotions, and Well-Being
The results of Dean Ornish and associates' landmark 1998 study demonstrated that lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, relaxation, and social support) can dramatically reverse CHD. Other studies have shown that emotions can play a major role in CHD, with fear, grief, and anxiety capable of triggering cardiac events (Ornish, 1998a; Verrier & Mittelman, 1997; Williams, Kiecolt-Glaser, Legato, Ornish et al, 1999). Anger can also be a trigger (Boltwood, Taylor, Burke, et al., 1993; Ironson, Taylor & Boltwood, et al, 1993; Mittleman, Maclure, Sherwood, et al,.1995; Verrier, Hagestad & Lown, 1987; Verrier & Miittelman, 1997), and depression can affect the outcome of long-term survival (Barefoot, Brummett, Helms, Mark, Siegler, Williams, 2000). Stress also plays a role in the development and progression of CHD both in men and women (Allison, Williams, Miller, Patten, Bailey et al., 1995; Bairey, Krantz & Rozanski, 1990; Nordstrom, Dwyer, Merz, Shircore, Dwyer, 2001; Orth-Gomer, Wamala, Horsten, Schenck-Gustafsson et al., 2000; Sheps, McMahon, Becker, Carney, Freedland, et al, 2002).
Guided Imagery and other Mind-Body Approaches
Anger and other possibly harmful emotional states can be meliorated by the inner-focused, relaxed state induced by guided imagery and other mind-body modalities. A sense of emotional well-being can be improved by the use of these mind-body techniques. Guided imagery and relaxation can reduce stress, and lower heart rate and blood pressure (Crowther,1983; Pender, 1985; Sharpley, 1994). Meditation produces similar physiological results (Castillo-Richmond, Schneider, Alexander, Cook, et al., 2000; Zamarra, Schneider, Besseghini, Robinson & Salerno,1996). Yoga that combined both postures and yogic breathing produced significant positive levels of blood lipids in those patients who participated in the program (Bijlani,Vempati, Yadav, Ray, & Gupta, 2005).
Authors of a review of 23 major heart disease studies concluded that when psychosocial approaches were added to standard medical treatments, not only survival but further cardiac event rates improved significantly (Linden, Stossel, Maurice, 1996). Complementary approaches like relaxation training and imagery are so effective that they are routinely done at major medical facilities such as Columbia Presbyterian Hospital’s Department of Surgery (Oz MC, Lemole, Oz, LL, Whitworth & Lemole, 1996). Relaxation, imagery, and education are important parts of Stanford’s Chronic Disease Self-Management Program.
According to one lifestyle study, 80% of people who used complementary approaches avoided cardiac surgery – a savings of almost $30,000 per patient (Ornish, 1998c). Self-management of chronic conditions including CHD improves symptom management and reduces medical costs (Loring, Sobe, Stewart, Brown et al., 1999)
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