SOUTH SHORE FAMILY CHIROPRACTIC
Monthly News - June 2006

Dreams Are Suspect of A Heart Attack Role
First it was stress, then it was cholesterol, now we cannot even go to sleep without worrying whether we are going to have a heart attack before the alarm goes off in the morning. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine "found that during most stages of sleep the heart rate and blood pressure fell."

However, during the "rapid eye movement sleep" (that is the period in which dreams occur), the heart rate and blood pressure rose and the sympathetic nervous system worked at a waking rate causing the release of stress hormones. It is believed that this could precipitate heart attacks in people with heart problems. Well it stands to reason. We like butter on our bread and they say that causes heart attacks. We like nice, thick, juicy, medium rare steak and they tell us that that will clog our arteries.

Now dreaming is going to get us. Well, we can skip the butter, and avoid the red meats but how do you stop dreaming short of avoiding sleep? Depriving yourself from sleep would do it but not sleeping would be detrimental to your health as well. The worst part is that if we worry about all these things, the worry itself could cause a heart attack. One of the great things about a health approach to life rather than a disease approach is the freedom from fear that it brings.

If you are doing those things necessary to maintain your health, things like eating right, exercising regularly, getting the proper rest, keeping your nervous system free of vertebral subluxations and maintaining good, positive-mental attitudes, you do not have to worry about disease. Working at health is not easy. It takes some effort to regularly exercise, rest, and go to the chiropractor.

The chiropractic approach to health is one of using common sense about every aspect of your life, primarily in keeping your nerve free of interference. The chiropractor will make your visit as quick and effortless as possible. But it does take time, But then, working at preventing disease is not easy either.

It robs you of some of the pleasures of life, focuses your attention on the negatives of disease and sickness and still does not remove the worry. It seems to me that the health approach, using common sense and then sitting back, relaxing and enjoying life is much better that the stress of worrying about a disease "getting you." Pleasant dreams!

-Dr. Bill