Hi Everyone!

Thanks to many of you, we had a very successful Heart Month!  We raised over $2700 for the American Heart Association with McKinley’s corporate match of $1000!!  Thanks to all who participated in Monday Jean Day and National Wear Red Day.  Your efforts in raising awareness and financial contributions are making a difference!

Acrisure sent out an article during Heart Month about the connection between our heart and brain.  I wanted to share part of it with you because I think it’s important to understand how stress directly affects our heart.

 “Even though the brain and the heart are located far from one another in the body, they are intrinsically connected and have a significant impact on how each other functions.

The two organs communicate via the muscular walls around the heart, which are connected to the brain in the circulatory system. As the brain releases hormones telling the body what to do, receptor cells in your blood vessels pick up these messages. In addition, there are nerve endings that travel from the brain to the muscular walls of the heart. These nerves send messages to the muscle tissue to either relax or contract.

Since these two organs communicate, mental health can have a dramatic effect on heart health and vice versa.

Stress

The mind’s response to a perceived or actual threatening situation is known as stress. The body responds to the stress by increasing:

·  Blood pressure

·  Respiratory rate

·  Heart rate

·  Oxygen consumption

·  Blood flow to skeletal muscles

·  Perspiration

·  Muscle tone

When you experience these responses on a regular basis as a result of stress, you are putting your body at an increased risk of heart disease”.

One of the best ways to reduce stress is through exercise. Many of you have experienced the stress relieving benefits first hand!  I want to share an excerpt from “Fit For Duty” which is a fitness manual for law enforcement in training (who most definitely have some experience with feeling stressed J).

“Physical activity is a stressor in itself. By definition, it stresses the body. By building up adaptation to physical activity, you can increase your adaptation and resistance to other stressors. Exercise is an effective way to reduce the negative aspects of stress. Exercise can be an effective stress management tool in six primary ways:

• Exercise can serve as a release. It can release tension and anxiety and, in many respects, can substitute for the fight-or-flight mechanism.
• Exercise can be a method of relaxation. Regular exercise can be a diversion from day-to-day stress and can provide a sedative effect through natural physical movement.
• Exercise can increase energy and fatigue tolerance. A major effect of stress over time is that it uses up energy and leads to fatigue. By maintaining your energy, you heighten your tolerance for stress.
• Exercise can aid in maintaining muscle elasticity and minimize the muscle-shortening effect of inactivity.
• Exercise can increase physiological control. By following a regular exercise program, you can gain control over your body. That “tones” up the body’s stress reaction (adrenal glands) by helping to normalize heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension.
• Exercising on a regular basis increases emotional well-being. Studies have shown that self-esteem and self-confidence are increased and that officers with high self-esteem have fewer stress-related problems. Fit individuals who exercise regularly appear more relaxed and less anxious and depressed. Active individuals report less stress in their lives. One study found that exercise was significantly more effective than tranquilizers for reducing anxiety associated with prolonged stress.

Perhaps one of the most interesting effects of exercise is that it alters the perception of stress. We have implemented fitness programs as stress management programs where the causes of stress did not change but the perception of it decreased.”

 

Yours in Health and Wellness,

Meredith