The Hindu Business Line : Take heart

When Sandeep, 37, experienced a heavy squeezing in his chest, he thought that his time had come. It hadn't, of course. "Angina," his doctor said. Not reassured, Sandeep wondered fearfully if it was a heart attack. No, angina is not a heart attack. Its squeeze shows that the heart's arteries are partially plugged by fat-cholesterol debris. When the blood tries to force its normal way through these narrowed channels, we feel their resistance as pain. The clog accumulates from years of high-fat ingesting. Until, "Just one overly fatty, salty meal raises the blood pressure suddenly to cause angina," says Dr George Beller, Head, cardiology division, Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville in the US.

So can intense stress — for example, a furious spat with your spouse — cause angina? "The adrenal glands secrete the fight-or-flight response hormone that increases the heart rate, blood pressure and, hence, the heart's workload. The arteries spasm, bringing on angina or pain," explains Dr James L. Levenson, associate professor, psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond.

However, angina is reversible. "Clean living is important," stresses Dr Sidney C. Smith Jr, Director, cardiology, Sharp Memorial Hospital, San Diego, California. Clean living is beautifully evocative. We want a clean environment, administration and law-and-order system. Why not a clean pipeline to our very own heart? With a strong desire to be healthier, we can immediately organise a lifestyle clean-up campaign.

The first thing the doctor told Sandeep: Quit smoking. The reason: The heart is already starving for oxygen due to the poor blood-flow. Then, smoke pumps carbon monoxide and lowers the blood's oxygen content.

Further, nicotine-smoke thickens blood platelets and adds to the arterial gunk. Psychologist Dr G. Alan Marlatt, co-editor, Relapse Prevention, compares the urge to smoke to an ocean wave. "You, the surfer, must be ready with some alternative plans to ride it out," he says. Some no-puff plans:

Take up activities such as gardening or polishing shoes. These keep your hands busy.

Hold water in your mouth as long as you can.

Perform this respiratory acu-massage: Area: Back of left hand. Location: Massage with right thumb, the bone below index finger knuckle on the web between index finger and thumb. Repeat on the back of right hand with left thumb. Your lungs open up allowing your heart to access clean air. Clean foods are: vegetables, fruits, grains and pulses cooked without fat, sugar and with minimum salt. "No added fats are better than any fats," write Jon N. Leonard, J.L. Hofer, N. Pritkin in Live Longer Now, a book based on The Longevity Foundation of America's research.

Here are some clean cooking tips:

Dry-sauté vegetables.

Sweeten foods with sweet spices/ripe fruits.

Thicken curries with low-fat curd/poppy seeds/boiled pulses instead of coconut. The idea is not to add more clog to the arteries. Clean living includes regular aerobic training.

"There is evidence that exercise increases the diameter of the heart's arteries and therefore the myocardial blood-flow," says Dr Bruce Davies of The American College of Sports Medicine. It has been estimated that just two months of walking three times per week reduces arterial clog substantially. Exercise also helps make new blood-supply routes to the heart. To prevent an angina-episode during a walk, Dr Beller suggests taking a stress test "to know what your limit is and to gain confidence."

Or experiment gently. Say, if you walk for 15 minutes and develop neither pressure in the chest nor feel breathless, stop right there on the first day. On the second day, try 20 minutes. If there's the slightest discomfort, cut back to 15 minutes on the third day for a week. Keep at it. A few months down the line, you'd have walked into freedom from angina. To clean your lifestyle further, do away with marital stress. "Work on resolving your conflicts and you can do as much to improve your angina as if you just took more drugs," says Dr Beller.

Even cold science is beginning to acknowledge the warmth of love in the heart's journey to health. "Although diet, blood pressure and the like are the chief causes for angina and heart disease, these risky forces can be significantly moderated by a loving spouse," writes cardiologist Dr Dean Ornish in Love & Survival, a book worth reading. When you adopt the life-is-too-short-to-fritter-on-nitpicking philosophy, accept your spouse unconditionally — warts and all — there is a beautiful lightening of mind and heart. And when you vow never to stress each other and constantly shower affection, courtesy, concern, you experience the peaceful miracle of being alive.

The writer is co-author of the book, Fitness for Life.

Picture by G.R.N. Somashekar

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