Heart Health

Heart health is predominantly a matter of how we live our lives, as opposed to being determined by the miracles of Medicine, spectacular though they are. The central message from the biofeedback perspective is to make people aware of how much control they can in fact exercise over their own heart function. It is not just a matter of diet, exercise, weight loss, and if necessary, medical management of cholesterol and of high blood pressure, with perhaps a baby aspirin thrown in for good measure.

We can also influence our heart function immediately and directly, both through our control of the breath and through the management of our emotional state. Simply by attending to our own breath, by moving it toward calmer and slower rhythms and by shifting toward abdominal breathing, we can alter the state of our physiology profoundly in the moment. Extended practice, conducted at moments of opportunity, can promote healthier habits over the long term. Similarly, attending to the extremes of our emotions can also be very helpful. The stealth killer in heart disease is uncontrolled anger. But unrelieved grief can also lead quite literally to a "broken heart."

The most straight-forward intervention is training toward healthy heart dynamics, a technique now known as Heart Rate Variability (HRV) training. Ideally the heart exhibits healthy variation from moment to moment in its function, as it responds to the external and internal environment. When it ceases to be able to do that, cardiologists look upon this as the best predictor of cardiac mortality. It was shown in Russian research that this measure is directly trainable, and it appears that people are better off for having made the effort. No long-term outcome data are available yet, as this technique is relatively new in the United States.

With general Neurofeedback training, the whole enterprise of improved regulation can be significantly helped. The body will gravitate toward calmer and more stable regulation, and the person may no longer be in the grip of extreme emotions. Neurofeedback does not erase either anger or grief, but it can help to tame the experience and moderate the physiological excursions.

Neurofeedback can also help by allowing people to function with lower levels of those medications that may influence the heart unintentionally. This includes some of the medications for the ADHD spectrum, such as the stimulants and Clonidine. People at risk of cardiac events should consider a combination of HRV and Neurofeedback training to gain a higher level of mastery over their condition.

Heart emergencies may be attributed to arterial occlusion, but such occlusion most likely did not have sudden onset. The immediate emergency was likely caused by the disregulation of heart rhythms. The deliberate training of heart rhythms makes sense as a contributory preventative measure.