Is all that day-to-day stress getting to you? Job pressures? Family or financial problems piling up? The time to do something about learning to manage the stress monster in your life is before it builds up to the point where it damages your health.
A recent study headed by a Duke University Medical Center professor of medical psychology found that a stress management program helped heart patients reduce their risk of heart attacks or the need for surgery by a staggering 74 percent. (The 74 percent risk reduction was calculated after controlling for age, gender, and severity of initial heart disease.)
The 107 patients in the study wore heart monitors and all suffered from impaired blood flow to the heart (ischemia) during mental stress or normal daily activities. Of the estimated 11 million Americans with heart disease, 50-60 percent of them are believed to develop ischemia under mental stress and 40-50 percent during normal daily activities.
In the study, researchers divided the patients into three groups. One took a four month stress management course; one underwent four months of monitored exercise; and the third received usual heart care from their regular physicians.
Over the next three years, only three of the 33 people in the stress-management group suffered “cardiac events,” (e.g., a fatal or nonfatal heart attack or angioplasty or bypass surgery) compared to seven of the 34 people in the exercise group and 12 of the 40 in the usual care group.
The stress management group had weekly one and a half hour sessions that included classroom instruction along with training in stress reduction skills.
Red Oak patients have the opportunity to “Learn to Laugh Your Way Through Stress...” by attending a session with humor therapist and licensed professional counselor Marion Pietz. She has a knack for blending all that “serious stuff” with the right amount of humor and laughter to really get her point across. Marion presents her workshops and seminars for corporations, area churches, service groups, school districts, and various groups throughout the Southwestern U.S. and helps folks look at the lighter side of life and capture the physiological and therapeutic benefits of laughter.
Contact Marion through our Community Relations group, 1-888-5-HEART-5