I had a lovely 62 year old patient of mine who I saw for stress cardiomyopathy. In a nutshell, the heart changes shape in response to severe stress ( emotional or mental) and pumps poorly, yet can recover when the stress is removed and healing does occur with medications and other means. She did not have any coronary artery disease to have caused her heart attack that led to this diagnosis. So with great difficulty she had to remove both of her greatest stresses from the home that were most likely the cause for 2 of her heart attacks, namely 2 of her closest family members.
I had optimized all her medications and finally got her heart function to come back to normal. And so she asked a very poignant question “ am i going to be stuck with all these meds for the rest of my life?”
To which I responded “ Not necessarily. you removed the primary stressors, we used the meds as we needed to, now let’s try stopping them and see how you do but…..”
I paused. “ Let us do more than just removing stressors and meds. Let us work on rebuilding your heart “
“ How ?” She wondered.
“I am going to give you a regime of meditation practices, yoga stretching, and basic exercises to build your core and most importantly to deal with all the stress and emotions a few breath work practices to rebalance your nervous system. These will get your heart strong “
“ you are like a holistic cardiologist “ she replied as she started to leave at the end of the visit.
“ Like?” I smiled. “ I am”
………………..
I love you
Thank you.