Imagine the rich blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea.  The sun is in your face and the sound of gentle waves provide deep relax as you sit on the beach.  It’s a very comforting idea, a Mediterranean paradise.

Did you know that it can be good for your health.  Not just going to the Mediterranean for a vacation, but learning to eat the way people from the Mediterranean region eat.  The Mediterranean Diet has been shown to be extremely beneficial in preventing heart disease.

It has also been shown to be particularly beneficial for women.  The Nurses Health Study looked at 74,886 women from the ages of 38-63 who reported consumption of a higher than normal of foods that are part of the Mediterranean Diet:  vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, legumes, fish, and alcohol. The ratio of monounsaturated to saturated fats was also included. Red meat and processed meat consumption below the median was also included in the diet score.

The women were followed for 20 years.  Amazingly, those women who followed a Mediterranean Diet had a significantly reduced amount of heart disease and strokes.

So what keeps most American’s from adopting such a diet?  What keeps women from Going Mediterranean?

A few months ago, I had a couple in my cardiology office.  They were both middle-aged and the husband and wife both had heart disease.  I had been seeing them for 18months following their heart disease.  I asked them about their diet.  Specifically, I inquired if they were following the Mediterranean Diet that I had given them.  I had outlined for them previously the beneficial effects and why they should follow this diet.

Like many people from the Mid-West they had a strong attachment to the traditional red meat and potatoes (two foods not on the diet).  I asked them the question I posed above- “What was keeping them from adopting the Mediterranean way of eating?”

Jill moderately over weight woman with curly hair said, “It’s hard to break old habits.  We like the foods we eat.  Bob doesn’t like fish or rice.”

So it was just habits and tastes that keep them from eating in a way that could keep them healthy.  I did my best to try to relate this to them but they were a hard sell.  Old habits die hard.  It seems that people would rather die than give up a habit that doesn’t serve them. We are indeed creatures of habit.

What about you?  Are you someone who holds onto eating habits that may be damaging your health.  If you’re a woman and you want to reduce your chances of having heart disease you should consider adopting a Mediterranean Diet.

What are the components of such a diet?

1.  Avoid red meat and markedly increase you consumption of fish.  Eat the white meat of chicken if you don’t like fish.  Add a fish oil supplement 1000 mg to 2000 mg a day.
2.  Increase your consumption of nuts:  walnuts, almonds, pecans, but all are good.
3.  Eat at least 2 tablespoons of uncooked olive oil in your diet.  This can be placed in oatmeal, yogurt, a smoothie, or on a salad.
4.  Dramatically increase your vegetable and fruit consumption.
5.  Avoid white bread- only eat whole grain breads.
6.  increase your consumption of bean, peanuts, and other legumes.

Numerous medical studies have shown the benefits of following a Mediterranean Diet.

If you want to keep from having heart disease its time you consider a new way of eating.  Think of blue water and sunny skies.

Break out of old habits and Go Mediterranean.

America is overweight.  We all know this.  It’s easy enough to see.  Just take a look at the people around you.  Go to the mall, a sporting event, or the movies.  The size of people is astounding.  Obesity is rampant.

As a cardiologist who’s been in practice for over 20 years working with people who have heart disease, I’ve seen a remarkable change in the size of people in America.  In the 1980’s, it was unusual to see someone who weighted over 250 pounds.   By the 1990’s we were up to 300 pounds..   Now its quite common to see people weighing 400+ pounds or even 500+.

If you look at people you’ll also notice that many of them have a particularly large belly.  They may not look that fat in other parts of their body, but their belly is big.

Interestingly, we now know that a just having a large belly can increase your chances of dying.  In a medical article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (2010;170:1293) it was reported that having a large waist circumference made a person twice as likely to die long term.

http://www.cardiosource.org/science-and-quality/journal-scan/2010/08/waist-circumference-and-all-cause-mortality.aspx?WT.nv=RI

Just having a large belly can be hazardous to your health.  In women, having a belly that was larger than 43 inches (110 cm)  doubled your chances of dying prematurely.   In men, a waist size greater than 47 inches (120 cm) doubled your chances of dying.

Now I know it is difficult to lose weight.  People who weight a great deal have difficulty exercising due to joint pain and foot pain.  And as you get older, it seems even more difficult to lose weight.

I can’t tell you how many patients who weigh over 300 pounds tell me that they don’t eat that much.

So what can you do?  How can you get off the unwanted weight and keep it off.

1.  You must reduce your portion size.  This is critical.  If you go to a restaurant share a meal.  At home use smaller sized plates.
2. Eat 3 meals a day.  Many research studies have shown that it’s essential to not skip breakfast.
3.  Eat foods low in glycemic content.  Foods that quickly raise the blood sugar cause a release of insulin.  This is a bodily hormone that cause the body to retain calories in the form of fat.
4. Consider weight lifting.  Adding weight lifting to your lifestyle habits can burn calories and help you increase your muscle mass.  Muscle tissue utilizes more energy than fat tissue and this will help you lose weight.
5. If you can exercise, then ratchet up the intensity.  This more than anything will help you burn calories.
6.  Change your frame of mind.  Without changing how you think about food ie- do you use food for comfort, eat for enjoyment, etc- you won’t be able to reduce that belly.
7.  Measure your belly size.  Knowing how big your belly is will give you motivation to change.

Is you belly large?  If it is then you are someone who can benefit from reducing your waist size.  You can also reduce your chances of dying or suffering serious health problems.

You can reduce your belly.  Start working now!

You want to lose weight.  You want to quit smoking or exercise more, but your habits are keeping you from making these changes.  Is it possible to get different results and not make changes in life style habits.

Albert Einstein said that this is the definition of insanity-”doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You would be surprised to know that many, many people expect just this.  Not long ago, a middle-aged man came into the hospital.  He was suffering from congestive heart failure and a rapid heart beat.  His heart had become weakened.  The heart pumping function had dropped from a normal value of 55% down to 30%.  When I suggested that he would need to be on medications long term and lose weight (he weighed over 400 pounds) to help his heart returned back to normal he said, “Why, I’ve been living this way for many years.  Why should I change?”

I explained that his current habits had created a situation in which his heart was failing.  HIs blood pressure was off the charts.  His legs were massively swollen, retaining fluid.

I asked him, “Do you think you can do the same thing but get different result?”

Amazingly, he had to think for a long, long time.  “I’ve had skipped beats for many years.”

“Yes, you probably have, but now they’ve progressed to an abnormal heart rhythm.  This has caused your heart to weaken.  So it’s not the same,”  I said.

His face scrunched up in a state of disbelief.  I could tell he didn’t want to accept what I was trying to say to him.  He had to know that things were different.  Sure he may have had skipped beats before, but now he was in the hospital and had excessively labored breathing.

I stayed in his room for 10 more minutes, but I couldn’t convince him that he would have to make some major changes in his life.  He said, “I like what I do.  I’d rather die than give up the things I love (eating, smoking)

Later that day I began to ponder what had happened with this patient.  Why was it so difficult for people to accept change, or to recognize that they needed to change their lives?

1.  People are creatures of habit.  They like routine.  It makes them feel safe.
2.  They don’t like stepping out into what they perceive as an unsafe area of their live.
3.  People want it easy.  They are too willing to give up and not do something they may perceive as difficult.

Are you someone like this?  Do you have bad habits that are ruining your health?   If you’re someone who is suffering because of this predicament, I have a few suggestions and thoughts:

1.  Sticking your head in the sand may work for a short period, but eventually life has a way of exposing such wrong headed thinking.
2.  The quicker you wake up and address your problems, the more likely you’ll be to avoid permanent damage to your health.
3.  There are worse things than dying.  If you ignore serious health issues you may not die, but may have to suffer horrible pain or suffering because of your illness.
4. Continue trying to change.  Don’t give up. Even if you fail this day, or this week- try again.  Most people who succeed have failed before.

I hope you find this helpful in your efforts to overcome unwanted lifestyle habits.

Dr. Kirk Laman

Hearts can be broken.  We all know this.  Most of us have had our heart broken by a relationship that has fallen apart.

We know the incredible feeling of despondency, that feeling of being lost, that comes when our heart has been shattered.   Yet, relationships aren’t the only thing that can break a heart.

Our hearts can be broken by illness.  Heart disease is truly one way that our hearts can be broken.  Not long ago, a 50 year-old man, who I’ll call John, came to me with congestive heart failure.  His heart was failing to pump blood effectively.  It was weakened because of blocked heart arteries.  When the blood supply to the heart is cut off, the muscle weakens.

Imagine tying a very tight rubber band around your finger.  If you tied it tight enough your finger would turn red, then white, and finally if you left it on long enough your finger would begin to die.  It would eventually turn black and whither away.  You wouldn’t be able to move your finger.  As the blood flow was diminished it would cease to function.

My patient’s heart was being strangled.   Cholesterol blockages were causing his heart to wither away.

His heart was being broken, literally being physically broken.  And at the same time his heart was being psychologically tormented.  Because his physical heart was being pinched, his emotional heart was also experiencing a feeling of pinching.

As a cardiologist, I have seen that this is a common occurrence.  If a person’s physical heart is damaged, it also affects them emotionally and psychologically.  We cannot separate what happens at the physical level with what happens at the non-physical levels.  Physical symptoms incite feelings.

John was afraid.  When his ability to climb steps manifested and he saw his world shrinking, he became worried.  Anxiety began to come.  Soon he became paralyzed with emotional dysfunction.

His heart began weaken not just physically but also psychologically.   In this state he became too frightened to even seek medical help.  He ignored his illness.  He wrote off his inability to climb steps as being out of shape.  This went on for many months.  Soon his legs begin to swell as he retained water.  He put this off as eating too much salt.  After awhile, his physical symptoms became impossible to ignore.  He collapsed and was rushed to the emergency room

Illness is like this.  We think that illness is something that affects us just physically but our psyches are inexplicably intertwined with our bodies.  We cannot separate the two.

Illness can break the heart on many levels.  It can bring fear and uncertainty into our lives.   It can make us doubt ourselves.  It can paralyze rational thinking.

What to do if your heart is breaking?  If you have the sense that your heart is breaking whether psychologically or just physically- you have to take action.

1.    Don’t stick your head in the sand.  If you think something is wrong seek medical attention.
2.    Recognize that physical illness can create psychologically illness.
3.    Take steps to heal your physical illness.
4.    Seek out ways to minimize your psychological trauma.
5.    Find a counselor.  Take up meditation, yoga, or consider the Sufi Technique of Practicing Remembrance.

You don’t have to let physical illness overwhelm you emotionally.

You can find safe haven even in the midst of stormy weather.

Summer is a time for relaxation.  It is a time for rejuvenation.  Most of us make time for family activities.  We get away for a week or two to the lake or ocean to enjoy life.

Summer is a time for lifting our heart.  Our hearts need to be lifted.  Often modern life is filled with stress.  I know of many people who have extreme stress in their lives.  They run here and there.  Modern life what with a never turned off cell phone leaves little room for down-time.  It’s run, run, run….no wonder so many people are depressed or anxious.

Todays economy can also make a person worry.  Just reading the paper can give you a headache.  Worry has been shown to create heart disease.

When I say lifting the heart what I mean is moving our hearts from a place of constriction to a place of openness.  I mean taking away the closed in feeling of the world and replacing it with a lighter, healthier feeling.

Feelings can create health.  They can also cause illness.  When we have feelings of sadness, anger, or broken heartedness-  this can lead to illness.

Everyone’s heart wants to be lifted.  It wants to be opened.  No-one wants to have a heart that feels like a thousand pound weight is sitting on top of it.

Did you know that it’s possible to get rid of anxiety, or relieve yourself of overwhelming stress?  It is possible.  It is possible to elevate your heart’s consciousness.  You can lift your heart to a place of peace, joy, and feeling of well-being.  Open-heartedness is a state that can be learned.

Steps for Lifting Your Heart

1.  Find a quiet place to be alone.
2.  Make sure you have 15-20 minutes with no distractions.
3.  Sit or lie down to feel very relaxed.
4.  Focus your consciousness on the heart region.
5. Begin breathing deeply watching the breath.
6.  Say “aaahhhh”  through an open mouth.  Let the sound travel to the heart region.
7.  As you say “aaahhh” visualize love, divine energy, or light traveling down into the heart.
8.  After 8-10 breaths, pause and notice your heart.  See what you feel.  Does your heart feel more relaxed and open.
9.  Repeat this process for 15 minutes.
10.  Enjoy the feelings of peace and calmness.

You can indeed lift and open the heart.  You can rid yourself of unwanted, unpleasant emotions and harmful feelings.

Enjoy the warm breezes of Summer.  Let your heart be lifted to a place of health.

An old saying used to be, “No one ever died of a broken heart.”   Now medical science has proven this to be untrue.  You can indeed suffer a serious heart problem because of a broken heart.  In fact, a broken heart can be lethal!

In the last 10 years medical research has discovered a new illness called, “The Broken Heart Syndrome.”  Its a medical condition that generally afflicts middle-aged women who have suffered a severe emotional trauma.  It doesn’t have to to be a relationship that has gone sour.

No, when we say a “broken heart”  I’m not just talking about relationships.  A heart can be broken from many things.  Severe sadness of any variety can “break” the heart.  Grief, anxiety, depression, loss of a loved one, losing a job, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and any severe emotional trauma can damage our hearts.  They can all lead to such such a severe release of hormones within the body that it can cause real damage.  http://abcnews.go.com/WN/broken-heart-syndrome-emotional-stress-heart-problem-middle/story?id=9798271

The heart can suddenly become weakened and be unable to pump blood effectively.  It may even present similar to a heart attack.

About a year ago, a patient of mine presented after having her father pass away.  She had lost her mother the year before and then her father had become ill.  Just a week after he died, she found herself feeling very anxious.  Soon breathlessness gripped her lungs.  Finally, a feeling of being suffocated was enough to send her to the emergency room.

Her EKG was abnormal.  And because of this we performed a cardiac catheterization (passing a plastic tube inside the arteries of the heart to see if there were heart blockages.)  Her heart arteries were clean, but the heart muscle was damaged.

Luckily, the woman made a complete recovery.

So you may be asking yourself, “Am I at risk of dying because of a broken heart?”   It’s a question that should be asked more often.  Answer the following questions to see if you are at great risk.

1.  First, do you frequently feel overwhelmed to the point of not feeling you can cope with life?

2.  Would you say you suffer from depression or are treated for depression or anxiety?

3.  Have you recently suffered the loss of a dear loved one?

4.  Are you “stressed out” on a frequent basis?  To the point of needing to be off work?

5.  What about your cardiac risk factors?  Do you have three or more of the following:  smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, age for males over 55 years old, woman over 65 years old, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, known heart disease,  or family history of heart disease.

If you have any of the first 4 things above, then you may be at risk for developing heart disease.  If you have 2 or more traditional risk factors on top of this- then you’d better walk cautiously.

You could be at particular risk for dying from a Broken Heart.

Don’t despair!  You can change your life.  With the proper treatment you can heal your emotional, psychological, and even physical risk factors that may be putting you at risk.

If you want to know more about this subject, consider signing up to receive my free special report, “A Broken Heart Can Be Lethal.”  www.ABrokenHeartCanKillYou.com

Don’t let heart-ache get the best of you.  Take action to keep your heart safe and healthy.

What motivates you? I know what motivates me. And sometimes its easy to be motivated to make changes in your health lifestyle. Other times it is difficult.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about doing the things your body needs to be healthy. Why is it so difficult to make changes that stick?

You know what I mean. You set a New Years resolution to avoid sweets and drop 15 pounds and then within 24 hours you find yourself reaching for foods you know you shouldn’t be eating. When it comes to exercising, eating the right foods, and letting go of harmful stress- why does it so often seem like an uphill battle?

Not long ago, I saw a young man in his late thirties who was seeing me because of congestive heart failure. The man was over 400 pounds and the cause of the dramatic swelling in his legs related to his obesity. Now this man had already developed heart weakening because of his weight. He was well on the road to having a permanent disability.

You would think that he of all people would be motivated to make dramatic lifestyle changes to reverse this unfortunate situation. Yet, he wasn’t. For some reason he couldn’t stop eating. He couldn’t force himself to exercise.

“I try,” he said, “but I just can’t make the changes stick.”

It’s a battle that many people struggle through in their lives. How do we stay motivated? How do we make the difficult choices that we know we need to make for our health? If you look around America you realize that there’s not a lot of people making healthy choices in their lifestyles.

Now, I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I’d like to offer some simple rule that have worked for many people in making changes stick.

1. Find your Why! In order to make a change stick in your life you have to have a very strong reason to change. You have to have a “Why.” Your why can’t be something abstract. It must be linked to something deeply emotional, something that really moves you. Fear is a great motivator. Fear of dying, fear of a heart attack, fear of disability- these are some motivational “whys” that I have seen work in my patients. What is your “why?” What will give you the ooomph you need to change?

2. Set Goals. No change will ever happen without a road map. You can’t get where you want to go unless you know where you are headed. Sit down with a piece of paper and spend some time thinking hard about what it is you want to achieve. Outline specific steps for achieving that goal. Keep them posted where you can see them daily.

3. Take Action. Taking action is critical. After you’ve found your “why”, set your goals, and outlined your action steps- then do it. Begin to take action that day. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Take one step forward, even if its a very small step.

5. Don’t give up. Not giving up is the most important part of making lifestyle changes stick. Keep not giving up. If you fall off the wagon, pick yourself up and try again tomorrow. This is the only way to truly succeed.

All of us fail. We all eat the wrong things, fail to exercise, or get overcome by stress. Yet, if we don’t give up. We eventually succeed.

I hope I’ve motivated you. I hope you’ve made up your mind to change your life in a positive direction.

Follow these steps and you’ll make the changes in your life truly stick.

Vertigo.  A spinning sensation has been troubling me for 3 weeks.  I woke up in the middle of the night and it was like someone had placed me on a merry-go-round.  I had an acute viral vestibulitis.  My inner ear had become inflamed, and it was affecting my balance.

I couldn’t walk.  I still can’t roll over in bed without getting a very strange sense of disorientation.

Illness is funny.  When you feel well, you don’t think about being sick.  Yet, once you are afflicted by something your whole perspective shifts.

You develop more empathy and compassion for people.  You cherish life more.

The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has made me very conscious of the precariousness of our existence.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill-2010_n_558287.html

“Life is short, sweet for certain”- Dave Matthews Band.

We think we will live forever.  Yet, when we become ill we have to reassess our lives.

Have you reassessed your health lately?  Have you thought about how the sweetness of life?

Here’s an idea-

• Get up 30 minutes early once this week
• Sit quietly and focus on your breathing- in an out, in and out
• Bring your attention to your heart and just listen
• Give thanks for everything good in your life.

It could be the best time you spend this week-  a moment for returning to the heart.

If we can learn to live more from the heart and touch into the wisdom that our heart has to offer, we’ll feel better.

We will also be healthier.

Just saw the movie, Death at a Funeral, with Chris Rock.  http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/deathatafuneral/    It was quite the enjoyable experience.

I haven’t laughed so hard in years.  One scene in particular that has to do with a toilet left me laughing, laughing, and laughing.

Before I went into the movie I felt tired.  It had been a difficult week.  My stress level had been high.  After the movie my entire body chemistry had changed.  The fatigue had disappeared.  My spirit was brighter. Laughter had improved my health.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Indeed if you don’t know it laughter may can protect you from a heart attack.

“Laughter, along with an active sense of humor, may help protect you against a heart attack, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. The study, which is the first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.”

“The old saying that ‘laughter is the best medicine,’ definitely appears to be true when it comes to protecting your heart,” says Michael Miller, M.D., director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “We don’t know yet why laughing protects the heart, but we know that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This can cause a series of inflammatory reactions that lead to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries and ultimately to a heart attack.”

In the study, researchers compared the humor responses of 300 people. Half of the participants had either suffered a heart attack or undergone coronary artery bypass surgery. The other 150 did not have heart disease. One questionnaire had a series of multiple-choice answers to find out how much or how little people laughed in certain situations, and the second one used true or false answers to measure anger and hostility.

Miller said that the most significant study finding was that “people with heart disease responded less humorously to everyday life situations.” They generally laughed less, even in positive situations, and they displayed more anger and hostility.” Michelle W. Murray (from University of Maryland website:  (http://www.umm.edu/features/laughter.htm)

I know that the laughter had worked its charm on me.  I felt better after getting out of the movie.  I hope that my endothelium, the lining my blood vessels, had taken in a big dose of the laughter medicine.

If you’ve been feeling down lately and need a pick me up, consider checking out a movie that makes you laugh.  You might want to pick up a joke book or find something else that makes you laughs.

Laughter is indeed a healer of the heart.

A viral vertigo struck me this week.

I’ve never had such an inner ear infection.  I woke up early Thursday morning with the strangest sensation.  The whole room was spinning violently.  I had been deep asleep.

The first thing I noticed was that I was awake and possessed an odd feeling of nausea.  As I came more to consciousness, I realized that my whole world was swimming.  It was like I had been pitched into a violent sea, and I was being pummeled by the waves.

If I turned my head left, the world would spin unmercifully.  If I turned my head to the right, it was the same.  Only if I keep my head level and straight would the violent churning stop. By 7:00AM, I knew I couldn’t go to work.  Just trying to get out of bed was an exercise in futility.  I could not stand, only fall to one side or the other when I rose up out of bed.

Not going to work is unusual for me.  As a cardiologist, I haven’t missed more than a few day of work in 20 years.  Laying in bed watching my life spin was a frightening experience.  I knew too much.  I had fears of a stroke.  I checked my arms and legs for weakness, and found none.  I examined my vision.  It was fine.  After 6 hours, I was fairly certain it was a viral illness- an inner ear infection.  Most of  my terror of being permanently disabled dimmed.

Luckily, my wife went to the pharmacy and obtained some Antivert (R), a medicine for controlling inner ear vertigo.  The medicine helped some, making me more confident in my diagnosis of an inner ear infection.

Day #2 was much the same.  I awoke and found I could not stand up.  Once again, I had to call in sick at work.  By mid afternoon, I began having a strange sensation.  I discovered that not only was my head spinning, but sometimes it felt like my body, particularly my heart was also spinning.

It was a weird sensation, to feel your heart rotating, undulating and not be able to do much about it.  The best way I can describe this unusual experience was like my heart was drifiting on the sea of life.    I began to wonder why this was happening to me.  As someone who follows a path of Mystical Sufism, I have the belief that nothing is random.  Everything emanates from the hand of the divine.  So why was I ill?

I am sure that every patient who has ever been stricken with a incapacitating illness has asked the same question.

The immediate answer that came to me as I thought about it was:  “I need to rest.”  As someone who pushes himself rest isn’t always number one on my “to do” list.  I am not someone who usually drifts. I am always headed somewhere.

Now I had no choice.  My head was spinning.  My heart was rolling.  And the vertigo, like a giant sea, would catapult me on unexpected waves of nausea and disorientation.  I was forced to drift, to let go, and submit to a force greater than myself.

We in the Western world often have trouble with this concept- the idea of surrendering, submitting to something outside ourselves is sometimes difficult to grasp. But we are not God.  We are human.  Illness is a powerful re-aligner of priorities.  The Sufi’s say that illness is really a form of deep cleansing of the soul.  It is a wiping away of mistakes.  It is not something bad, but a blessing.

Sunday, I spent an hour doing remembrance, a form of deep prayer that is a powerful healer of the heart.  In the midst of the remembrance my heart stopped its rolling.  Love seemed to come into calm the waves.

Ah, if we could only embrace illness, look past the strange sensations to find the blessing that lies deep within the churning waters.

My vertigo isn’t gone.  I still cannot look down and turn my head without falling.

Yet, I am not concerned.  I know that this illness is a teaching for me.

My heart has been drifting on the sea of life.  Yet, it isn’t random.  No the hand of some benevolent force has been guiding me.

-Rest

-Look within

-Connect more deeply with the heart.

This is what I have found after a few days of travel on the sea of life.