Problems with the heart - and what does the soul do?
A kiss of the loved one - the heart leaps with joy. Waiting on the dentist's chair - the heart is throbbing with fear. Quarrel with the boss - the heart pounding furiously. Separation after 20 years - the heart stops in shock. Our heart is more than the pump that supplies our body with blood. The heart is a seismograph of our soul. No organ in our body reacts so sensitively to our sensations.
Strong emotions can get it completely out of its rhythm, feelings of happiness as well as anger, grief and disappointment. Emotional stress can harm him in the long term as well as physical. Especially women's hearts are prone to it, as the doctors know. Even if organic causes are behind the heart complaints, the psyche contributes significantly to whether (over) life succeeds. A sick heart is never just a problem of the body, the soul always has its share in it.
Herzstolpern
Our heart is not a rhythm machine, constantly beating at the same pace. It knocks faster, sometimes slower, its rhythm is lively and varied depending on the requirements. "Heart rate variability" is what doctors call it, an important sign that we are healthy and nothing to worry about. Only when the work of the heart and the normal stroke are impaired, is there a cardiac arrhythmia, an arrhythmia. The heart stumbles, rages, taps "down to the neck", stops briefly, makes extra beats. The performance of the heart is limited, chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, even fainting can be the consequences. In the worst case, the heart just stops. Sudden cardiac death.
These disorders of the heart rhythm may be due to organic causes such as congenital heart defects. Often high blood pressure and dangerous deposits in the vessels weaken the heart muscle and reduce the malleability and vibrancy of the heart. The "coronary heart disease" (CHD) can lead to an infarct. Around 25,000 women (and just under 31,000 men) die every year in Germany. In the case of survivors, the performance of the heart muscle is permanently impaired.
heart pain
The heart can also stumble for other reasons. "For more than half of all heart complaints there is no physical cause, much of it is due to mental illness," says Professor Christoph Herrmann-Lingen, psycho-cardiologist at the Heart Center of the University of Göttingen. Stress in the job, in the family, in the partnership affects the autonomic nervous system, blood pressure and heart rate rise, inflammatory activity and coagulation of the blood are increased.
Unresolved conflicts, unfulfilled desires, fears, depressions - strong emotional arousal can, as cardiologists know, cause life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. Flooding the body with stress hormones can acutely weaken the heart muscle, "break" the heart, affected by this "broken heart syndrome" (stress cardiomyopathy) are women in nine out of ten cases. Even chronic emotional stress can damage the heart organically. "Psychosocial stress is one of the main risk factors for the heart worldwide," says Christoph Herrmann-Lingen.
heart afraid
Once complaints are present, fear of renewed attacks is added. Fear for the own heart, not infrequently fear of death. Heart fear. A heart attack can be experienced as a trauma. "The heart is our life engine, it is sick, it concerns us as a whole person," says psycho-cardiologist Herrmann-Lingen. "A heart attack was therefore also referred to as a heart attack." Every fifth patient develops depression afterwards. Fatal, because these negative emotions make the heart stumble and hurt again and inflict damage on it again. In the long term, this can even become life-threatening. Depressed heart patients die earlier.
Thus, the "heart-brain connection" - as the well-known physiology professor Johann Caspar Rüegg calls her in his new book - is a highly risky vicious circle. He urgently needs to be involved and broken down by doctors when treating heart problems. Especially in women. For heart diseases are still more likely than men's suffering. As drug reports by health insurers show, men are prescribed more than twice as many cardiovascular medications than women, while these leave the practices two to three times as often with prescriptions for psychotropic drugs. Organic problems are often overlooked or recognized and treated far too late. For example, the risk for women under the age of 60 to have a heart attack has continued to rise in recent years, even though the number of heart attacks has fallen significantly in Germany as a whole.
So the heart stays healthy
Psychic cardiac arrhythmias can be prevented, says dr. Despina Muth-Seidel.The Clinical Neuropsychologist and Head of Research and Development at Novego AG recommends three exercises.
1. heart blood
Take ten minutes once a week to think about your everyday life. Do you live the way you want it to be 70 percent right now? If not, how could you get closer to this 70 percent quality of life? What can you change in your life, where do you need help for that? Finish the sentence "I feel my situation ..." and let the result guide you.
2. warmth of heart
Revisit your contacts with the people in your life three or four times a year. Who is doing you good? Who demands too much from you? Who exerts a negative influence on you and consumes it? Get rid of relationships that are not good for you, and find contacts that will enrich your life.
3. heart-joy
Make your heart's desire come true from time to time. Do not push important decisions, but make them and act accordingly. Watch out for little moments of happiness in everyday life and enjoy them. Ask yourself every day what has done you good and, if possible, treat yourself to more.
heartbreak
Even though heart problems have "only" emotional causes, medications - whether psychotropic or cardiac - alone are not enough to prevent long-term damage. A holistic diagnosis and therapy are necessary from the beginning. "For a doctor, both the physical and the mental and emotional levels always have to play a role in the treatment of heart disease," says dr. Andreas Fried, internist and head of the Department of Cardiology at the Havelhöhe Community Hospital in Berlin. It is therefore important to first clarify the symptoms.
Affected persons should first visit the family doctor; He should inquire in a detailed conversation the exact symptoms and clarify other possible reasons, such as a pinched nerve on the chest, as well as the current stress and life situation. If, for example, the heart beats faster or faster or only in certain situations such as queuing at the supermarket checkout, there are probably psychological reasons behind it. On the other hand, an immediate, fast pulse and physical discomfort tend to indicate organic causes. An ECG and a long-term ECG over one to three days can give important clues about disorders.
cardiac echo
If there is still uncertainty, a visit to the specialist is necessary. A cardiologist can use ultrasound, stress testing and, if necessary, with a cardiac catheterization to detect organic problems and initiate therapies. "Anyone who has unexplained heart problems should by no means conduct self-diagnostics," warns Christoph Herrmann-Lingen. "In the worst case, a life-threatening illness is overlooked, but on the other hand, you may think for years that you have heart disease, although you have an anxiety disorder."
In case of acute complaints the emergency doctor should be called immediately. Severe chest pain, fear of death, cold sweats, nausea and vomiting can be signs of a heart attack. Women often feel atypical symptoms, fatigue and pain throughout the upper body, shoulders, back and stomach. Nevertheless, they have to go to a hospital as soon as possible. Too long to wait can be deadly. About one third of all infarct patients die before they reach a clinic.
Herzenswünsche
However, far more common than such drastic events and severe organic damage are cardiac arrhythmias that occur during a particular phase of life. "Especially in women in their late thirties and early thirties, the heart often races and reveals unfulfilled wishes for the heart," says psychologist Dr. med. Despina Muth-Seidel, who has been working with heart patients for years. This may be a long-cherished desire for career change or more loving recognition in the family or partnership, a desire that has been suppressed so far.
Often the doctors find a slight, but by no means dangerous organic preload. A simmering stress element, a conflict in the job, a relationship that demands more than it gives, fears can aggravate the disorder and bring it to an outbreak. The heart gets out of control, can no longer be controlled, the fear grows. "The feeling of loss of control is typical," says Despina Muth-Seidel. "Cardiac patients are strong women who perform and master a lot, but often lose sight of themselves."
The important thing is to get to the bottom of the question: what really bothers me? And how can I change my life through small steps so that I regain control over it? Helpful in this is psychocardiological counseling, which is based on behavioral and systemic elements; it can change the view of existing problems. Usually already bring six, seven sessions a significant improvement. An online support program that Despina Muth-Seidel has developed can also alleviate symptoms, as a first study shows."The feeling that I decide on my own life again is crucial for the recovery process," says the Clinical Neuropsychologist.
Until then, she recommends a counting exercise in case of sudden heartbeat: open a book somewhere, count the words in the bottom line from right to left, then count and add the words of the penultimate line, continue until 15 minutes are up. Emerging fear can be so effectively throttled, the heart can calm down.
heart school
Those who no longer want to feel alone with their complaints and want to find a new balance in life together with others, can join a group for heart disease. An example of this are the heart schools. The Berlin cardiologist Andreas Fried was the first to offer this holistic program in Germany in 1996 with his team at the Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Havelhöhe. It combines the proven concept of American cardiac specialist Dean Ornish with elements from European conventional medicine and anthroposophic medicine.
In the meantime, more than 300 patients and relatives have found understanding and encouragement in annual courses and learned a lot about a healthy lifestyle. Diet, exercise and relaxation training are just as much part of it as eurhythmy, creativity and mindfulness exercises, preoccupation with one's own biography and conversations to open one's heart to other people. The goal is to activate the self-healing powers and to strengthen the heart.
"It's good to do acute medicine, play firefighters," says Andreas Fried. "But just as important is the gardener's side: nurturing, grooming, watering, planting, it's slower, but more sustainable, and the source for this gardener's soul lies within us, it's about finding it." The heart schools help to bring body, mind and soul into harmony and to give the everyday life a healthy rhythm, so that the heart rhythm can normalize again.
Anyone who listens to his heart can detect and correct diseased dysbalances in one's own life. In this sense, heart problems can actually become a guidepost. Then the heart is indeed the - as Andreas Fried calls it - the "compass for a successful life".
Good to know
Psychokardiologische programs find infarction patients in rehabilitation clinics. Many medical centers have psychosomatic offers. People suffering from heart disease, even without a previous infarction, receive in-patient psycho-cardiological treatment at the Herzzentrum Göttingen.
Heart schools exist in Berlin (www.herzschule.de), Hamburg (www.herzschule-hamburg.de and herzschule-mittelweg.de/), Munich (www.herzschule-muenchen.de) and Herdecke (www.gemeinschaftskrankenhaus.de) ,
A psychocardiological on-line support program with a term of twelve weeks offers the Novego AG (costs depending upon achievement range 59 and / or 119 euro per month). More information and addresses of self-help groups is offered by the association Deutsche Herzstiftung e.V. under www.herzstiftung.de.
To read more: "Strengthen the heart" by Annette Bopp, Thomas Breitkreuz, Andreas Fried and Jakob Gruber (128 p., Gräfe und Unzer, 2011) "Life with arrhythmia" by Despina Muth-Seidel, Klaus Langes, Anna Stretz and Christoph Herrmann-Lingen (192 pp., Borgmann Media, 2013) "The Havelhöher Heart School" by Annette Bopp, Andreas Fried, Ursula Friedenstab (267 p., Freie Geistesleben, 2009) "Your heart: another story" by Dietrich Grönemeyer (384 p., Fischer, 2012) "The Heart-Brain Connection" by Johann Caspar Rüegg (189 p., Schattauer, 2013) "Gourmet kitchen for the heart" by Annette Bopp, Corinna Handt and Susanne Reiner-Leiß (263 p., Freie Geistesleben, 2012)
