Health Check
Preventing a heart attack in your brain:
A stroke ... just saying the phrase is scary.
It's
basically 'brain attack', like a heart attack in your brain, where blood
flow is interrupted to your head.
Even scarier is that there are three ways in which you could cause
your own stroke. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found
that if you let three emotions get out of control it sends your risk of
stroke through the roof.
The study looked at more than 6,700 people and found that:
-Feeling depressed increases your stroke risk by 86 percent.
-If you are continually stressed out, your stroke risk climbs by 59
percent.
-Experiencing prolonged hostility doubles your chance of stroke ... a
100 percent increase.
Studies show losing your cool and getting extremely angry also raises
your chance of a heart attack by 500 percent.
"There's such a focus on traditional risk factors - cholesterol
levels, blood pressure, smoking and so forth - and those are all very
important, but studies like this one show that psychological
characteristics are equally important," says researcher Susan
Everson-Rose.
So if you can find ways to defuse your hostility, depression and
stress, you may be able to lower your chances of a stroke.
Mainstream medicine has a tough time with this because drugs often
don't work, and that's all they really offer. "One thing we didn't
assess is coping strategies," Everson-Rose says. "If someone is
experiencing depressive symptoms or feeling a lot of stress or
hostility, we don't know how they manage those, so it's possible that
positive coping strategies could ameliorate some of these associations
or effects. We did not inquire about coping."
What can you do to change your thought patters, avoid anger and
depression, and stop a skyrocketing risk for stroke? Dr. Michael Cutler
says that trick is to recognize that anger and anxiety are about fear.
Your fear consists of merely false expectations appearing real. Yet
here are infinite possibilities and plenty of good ones.
So if you simply take a deep breath and consciously focus on the
possibility (probability) that things will work out just fine, the focus
on good possibilities can bring you peaceful feelings.
Each fearful thought must be replaced with "good news" thoughts.
These good news thoughts bring good feelings into your body. Good
feelings cause you to heal inside your body.
There are neurochemicals of healing that are produced in your body,
as well as endorphins that reduce physical pain.
If you let yourself laugh at your circumstances, you may notice that
fear and even depression disappears.
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