At the Center, we think of February not just as a month for cardiac health, but as an exemplary month for Integrated Medicine. With Valentine's Day on the calendar, what other month speaks so well to the physical, hormonal, mental, emotional, sexual and spiritual aspects of heart health? Please enjoy our newsletter, which is ever-growing in popularity. Feel free, too, to forward it to friends who might benefit.

MEDICAL NEWS
Uncover the Signs of Heart Disease Earlier!

With Valentine’s Day approaching, February is filled with images of hearts everywhere. It is only fitting that we focus on heart disease prevention in this month’s e-newsletter. Instead of mending broken hearts, let’s not get our hearts ailing in the first place! I am proud to inform you that we have new equipment at our Center to help uncover signs of heart disease at the earliest stage possible with today’s available technology.

Atherosclerosis, leading to heart attacks, strokes, etc. continues to be the number 1 killer of both men and women in the United States. Statistics show that one American man or woman dies from cardiovascular disease every 33 seconds! All of you are very familiar with the traditional heart risk factors including family history of premature coronary heart disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes and smoking. Other more recently identified risk factors include the inflammatory marker CRP (C-reactive protein), homocysteine and Lp(a). A little recognized but extremely powerful heart risk factor is psychological stress. Alarmingly, psychological stress can potentially increase the risk of a heart attack more than diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and smoking combined! While it is important to understand, detect and control the known cardiac risk factors, these risk factors do not actually help us detect who has the beginnings of cardiovascular disease...just who is at risk for it. In order to actually identify individuals who have entered the fast track of atherosclerosis, we need a cutting edge technology to help us evaluate blood vessels for evidence of one of the earliest abnormality along the spectrum of cardiovascular disease: endothelial dysfunction.

Read more about how the CVProfilor® can help you...

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH NEWS
Mental Health and Your Heart

In January, Dr. Huang and I had the pleasure of speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the American Heart Association on the “Mind / Body Feedback Loop,” a modified version of our talk at the Center’s conference last fall. One of the most compelling statistics cited by Dr. Huang is that smoking, diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia all have adverse affects on cardiovascular health, but the likelihood of developing heart disease is (get this!) 182 times greater if you also experience stress!

At The Center, psychotherapist Lynn Gaylord and I have begun teaching patients Heart Math, a powerful biofeedback tool for reducing stress, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and other health problems that can affect mind / body health in negative ways.

Learn more about heart disease and stress...

EXERCISE NEWS
A Little Effort Means a Lot!

Most people think that an activity must make them huff and puff in order to qualify as exercise. Not so!

Did you know that each set of the following activities burns the same number of calories in fifteen minutes?

• Light housework or sewing / knitting
• Putting away groceries or strolling on the treadmill with no grade at less than 2 m.p.h.
• Cleaning windows or doing water aerobics
• Sexual intercourse or using a rowing machine (50W)
• Raking leaves or playing golf (walking the course, not taking the cart!)
• Mowing the lawn (push mower) or playing badminton
• Walking up stairs or cycling (11 m.p.h.)
• Moving heavy furniture or swimming (backstroke)

The Center will soon announce a new physical therapist who specializes in designing exercise programs for people at risk for cardiac disease. We also plan to have Pilates and other small exercise classes. Please read future issues of the newsletter to find out more about what is new at the Center.

NUTRITIONAL NEWS
Feed Your Heart Wisely

Valentine’s Day reminds us that the heart provides us with the ability to be alive and to love, and to have health and happiness. Unfortunately, heart disease is on the top of the list of major killers for both men and women in this country. Nearly a quarter of the US population has a cardiovascular problem. Now we can decide to either solve the problem or continue to make it worse.

In this article, you'll learn about five ways we hurt our hearts by not taking care of them with nutrition and five things we can do to increase cardiac well-being.

Learn more about feeding your heart...

SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS
A Different Kind of Heart Health

Love is the emotion of the heart, and positive emotions have a definite effect on cardiovascular health (see my other article in this newsletter). But let’s talk about the heart in a different way. The ancients believed that this organ emanated love, which may be why we sometimes detach our thinking from our feelings! Love does have physical underpinnings, but these actually come from chemicals in the brain. Doesn’t sound very romantic, does it? What if I told you, though, that these chemicals form the basis for attachment between parent and child, and later, between mate and mate?

Early ideas about attachment came from psychoanalysis and ethology. Ethology tries to explain how human behaviors are adaptive for survival. Attachment behavior seems to fall into this category. The idea is that human babies and children and their parents do things that strengthen (or potentially weaken) the parent-child bond, including attending to an infant’s needs: nursing, grooming, cuddling, cooing and vocalizing, etc. Such behaviors make the infant feel secure. They also produce chemicals in both parties such as oxytocin (the so-called “bonding chemical”) and dopamine (the reward neurotransmitter). Thus feelings of belonging to another, of healthy dependence, and of safety are created.

Learn more about human love and attachment...

OTHER NEWS

Congratulations to Dr. Buehler!

The Center is proud to announce that Dr. Stephanie Buehler has become a Certified Sex Therapist (CST). Dr. Buehler earned her certification from the American Association of Sexuality Educators and Counselors and Sex Therapists (AASECT). Certification required 120 hours of continuing education, a specialized seminar on human sexuality, 50 hours of case consultation, and 250 hours of case time. Dr. Buehler is able to treat all forms of sexual dysfunction for individuals and couples of all orientations. She is very proud to be part of a very small community of psychotherapists who are specialized in this area.

Comings and Goings

This month we welcome Sue Saechao, the Center's new nurse practitioner. Ms. Saechao has an extensive background in endocrinology nursing practice and research. She was chosen by Dr. Huang for her very warm, approachable manner. We hope you have an opportunity to work with Ms. Saechao in the near future.

It is with mixed feelings that we bid good-bye this month to Megan Adcock, our much-appreciated receptionist, who is due to have a baby girl on March 1. We wish Megan the very, very best of luck and thank her for her wonderful spirit, dedication, and humor. While we are very happy for her, we are also sad to see her go.