From the category archives:
J Consult Clin Psychol. 2003 Jun;71(3):613-8. The association between emotional upset and cardiac arrhythmia during daily life. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2003 Jun;71(3):613-8. Carels RA, Cacciapaglia H, Pérez-Benítez CI, Douglass O, Christie S, O’Brien WH. Abstract Ventricular arrhythmia exhibits considerable within-subject variability that cannot be attributed to clinical status alone. This investigation examined the extent [...]
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[The critical component is "adherence" -- most of us know what to do be be healthy, we just don't do it. It is the psychology of adherence that deserves much study and much more prominence] from the article: All 4 low-risk lifestyle factors were significantly and independently associated with a lower risk of SCD Adherence [...]
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[This is one reason why gratefulness -- rather than entitlement -- is so important...] from the article: Konrath and her team found that people who scored higher on the exploitative aspects of narcissism showed higher levels of cortisol, while those who scored higher on the more positive aspects of narcissism did not. And the trend [...]
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Although keeping a food journal is most likely an effective strategy to lose weight, the problem with the research cited below is that there is no control or differentiation over who keeps a food diary and who doesn’t. Of course anyone who has the focus and discipline to keep a food diary is going to [...]
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“A person who has not passed through the inferno of their passions has never overcome them.” C.G. Jung (Blogger author’s note: Heart conditions are good training for the inferno.) One of the more difficult aspects of having a heart condition is the anxiety that goes with it — while many diseases and medical problems are [...]
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A previous post suggested that IPhone users (3% of the population) are daydreaming 47% of the time, and that they were happiest when they were living in the present. (Duh, give up the IPhone.) Now, with modern technology, one can go a step further now, and get a scarf that vibrates when you are not [...]
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This article suggests an interesting variable in the research about depression, happiness and heart disease — that it is the expression of the happiness, and not just an internal feeling of happiness, that it is the critical variable. It makes me wonder whether this also applies to depression — if one actually expresses the depression [...]
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One always has to be skeptical of research. This research suggests that people’s minds are wandering 47% of the time. (It also may be more characteristics of people who carry Iphones, who I suspect actually like multi-tasking) It continues to suggest how important the mind is in one’s feeling of well-being; learning how to focus [...]
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I confess, I don’t like being told what to do. If someone says to me, “Smile”, it is about the last thing I want to do. These people are not accepting my dark side and think I should be different than I am. (My dark side, in fact, would like to take the smile off [...]
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This research suggests that red and pink pills are most effective. Do you suppose the pink Plavix pill pushers took this into account? Note that this research was done in India: the psychological effects of color are different in different cultures. Personally — and fitting in with this research – I prefer red pills. I [...]
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Several years ago, I was listening to a tape about Naikan Therapy; one exercise it suggested was spending the day being grateful for everything that was part of one’s day — “thank you toothbrush, thank you tires, thank you computer, thank you air, etc… It was a peak experience, with even an all too brief [...]
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My belief is that we are going to eventually discover that the most dramatic health benefits of humor are not in laughter, but in the cognitive and emotional management that humorous experiences provide. The experience of humor relieves emotional distress and assists in changing negative thinking patterns……Steven M. Sultanoff, Ph.D Humor Reduces the Risk of [...]
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L Uh Oh. I Am Dreaming of Sarah Palin. Can Carl Jung Save Me
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The term cardiology is derived from the Greek word καρδιά (transliterated as kardia and meaning heart or inner self). I was not aware of just how little attention cardiologists paid to emotions until I became a heart patient myself ten years ago… I have been amazed — perhaps “aghast” describes it better — how much [...]
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Continuing on the theme of using will-power as a strategy for behavioral change — I grew up on the Little Engine that Could. Perhaps it helps children climb mountains and surmount obstacles. This article suggests, however, that if you attempt to do more than is reasonable, if you think you can avoid temptation all the [...]
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Walnuts’ Potential New Link to Heart Health Reported Walnuts, already shown in some studies to reduce “bad” (LDL) cholesterol, may have yet another way of enhancing cardiovascular health. University of California-Davis (UC-Davis) scientists and their Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and University of Padova (Italy) co-investigators have found that laboratory hamsters that ate feed containing walnuts [...]
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Years ago, California had a 1-800 hotline you could call if you were trying to quit smoking. They asked the callers if they could check back on them to see what strategies of quitting smoking worked. It turned out that a large variety of strategies worked, except for the strategy of using willpower. The problem [...]
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The theme of the last posts has been while we all know what we should do, it is a whole other matter to actually consistent do it. Frankly, I get tired of lists of things to do to diet right, exercise, sleep, etc. Most are so obvious that they put the mind to sleep. Appealing [...]
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This article suggests that it “may be” beneficial to assess a patient’s psychological health… Three percent of cardiac rehabilitation programs employ psychologists… The “medical model” is just that, a biased theoretical model for illness that ignores the psyche… Maybe that is why this doctor is so tired…. What will it take for cardiology to start [...]
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The Mystery of everything is life, which is water; for water dissolves the body into spirit… (C. G. Jung) The Red Sea is an ideal symbol… for the elixir or the tincture of transformation. Sea water… is regarded as the baptismal water, which purifies and cleanses, preparing the stage of albedo or whitening.Source Red Tears, [...]
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The processes in alchemy are a projection of processes within the Psyche. There are different ways of systematizing the process of alchemy — there can be four stages, seven stages, twelve stages, etc. The “Nigredo” stage (yesterday’s post) is reached both through “Calcinatio” and “Putrefecatio”: The phase of Blackening which usually marked the beginning of [...]
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As mentioned in yesterday’s post about the adaptive strategy of depression, the Jungian metaphor for the journey is that of the “nigredo”, the first stage of alchemy. Although the excerpt below is primarily about the encounter with the psychological shadow that needs to be dealt with, it is also descriptive of the encounter with mortality, [...]
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Edvard Munch Anxiety 1893 From the Havard Heart Letter (no date given) BOSTON, MA – Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) isn’t limited to soldiers or witnesses of a horrifying event. It can also appear after a heart attack, a stroke, or heart surgery. Not only does PTSD cause emotional and psychological distress, it may also slow [...]
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PTSD isn’t just something that happens to Veterans — physical trauma, such as the experience of a heart attack or bypass surgery — can also trigger PTSD. Medical Marijuana for PTSD Psychcentral Rick Naubert, Ph.D. November 5, 2009 Medical Marijuana for PTSD ?A new study carried out by Dr. Irit Akirav and research student Eti [...]
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Although this is interesting research with interesting implications, there is no way that watching a graphic video of a car crash is the same as having PTSD. Anyone going through a PTSD type experience is not going to have any interest in playing Tetris… And I really like Tetris.. I can see it now, when [...]
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This post continues with the theme of why it can be so difficult to get over a heart attack. Although research has suggested that about 15% of folks who go through a heart attack can be diagnosed with PTSD, I think that this is an under-estimate. Research with brain scans is showing structural changes after [...]
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George Stubbs Horse Frightened by a Lion (exhibited 1763) Amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and hippocampal function in PTSD. Shin LM, Rauch S Pitman RK. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006 Jul;1071:67-79. One of the problems with treating PTSD is that it is a very-strongly conditioned fear response that becomes “hard-wired” into the system. Stimuli associated [...]
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309.81 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (7) sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span) Three months after the heart attack, I went to Home Depot to buy something for the house. I walked inside, saw the plethora of nice things to make a nice [...]
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As mentioned in previous posts, heart attacks are almost always traumatic (whether they meet the full criteria for PTSD or not). Art therapy is one way to approach the trauma in way without making it worse (which talking about the trauma can do.) The statement in the following article that “art therapy has been understudied [...]
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For me, one of the best metaphors for PTSD is the astronomical findings of “black holes” — they are so powerful that they suck up the light around them, so one can only infer their existence. For the most part, talk therapy is not effective with PTSD. The traumatized person much prefers to avoid talking [...]
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I would suggest that the alleged 15% risk of developing PTSD after a heart attack is a bit low and a blt misleading. Trauma essentially runs on a continuum, and heart attacks can run from mild to severe (and 50% of folks don’t even survive them.) Even a “mild” heart attack is traumatizing. Just because [...]
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Early life stress could be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in adulthood, researchers report. “We think early life stress increases sensitivity to a hormone known to increase your blood pressure and increases your cardiovascular risk in adult life,” said Dr. Jennifer Pollock, biochemist in the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia [...]
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