THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 13, 1996 TAG: 9605130033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Heart disease traditionally has been considered a physical matter, treated with things of the flesh: medication, exercise, low-fat diet and weight loss.
Now Maryview Medical Center is taking a more holistic approach. When it comes to saving hearts: a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
``People have known for a long time that the body doesn't act alone,'' said Portsmouth cardiologist Dr. Robert J. Accettola. ``The mind plays a significant role in how the body feels, how it acts.''
Tapping into that mind-body connection is a six-week seminar called Healing Heart, which begins May 21. The seminar deals with anger, stress, time urgency, relaxation, assertiveness training - all the mental matters that show up physically.
``For every thought, there's an electrical and chemical event that takes place at the same time,'' said Stonsa Insinna, one of three psychologists with Maryview's Mind Body Health Institute. ``If a person is traumatized in body, mind follows. If a person is traumatized in mind, body follows.''
And, added colleague Michael J. Perkins, ``If a person is traumatized in spirit, both mind and body follow.''
The seminar will be held twice a week for six weeks. It will key on destructive behaviors and thoughts, and ways to overcome them through changes in lifestyle and attitude.
Mind-body healing has a sound scientific basis. A medical study in California, for example, showed that blood moved more easily through the heart and blood vessels of patients who practiced stress management techniques, in addition to following standard recommendations such as exercise, change in diet and no smoking.
``You can take some bad event, like a heart attack, and treat that like a warning to change your lifestyle and change your patterns,'' Accettola said. ``This is like an adjunct to the physical cardiac rehabilitation. It's very individual. Some people can't see this approach at all. Other people have a more open mind about it.''
Maryview started its Mind Body Institute about a year ago. Interest in the field is growing nationwide, with similar centers across the country, and federal research money coming from the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
``The skeptics are seeing, through hard data and research, that the mind and the body do work together,'' said Louise B. Lubin, the third Maryview psychologist. ``I have a desire to help people expose themselves to tools that enable them to tap the power inside.''
Seminar sessions will look at the body's physical response to emotion and behavior; at the role of anger and that pressed-for-time feeling in stress and disease; at relaxation and stress management; at communication skills; and at healthy attitudes, thoughts and behaviors.
Although Maryview is a Catholic hospital, and spirituality plays a role in healing, the seminar is non-denominational, Lubin stressed.
``This is not Eastern religion where you sit and contemplate your navel,'' she said. ``We encourage everyone to operate within their own belief system.''
Humor also plays a role in healing, she said. Studies are underway at one hospital on the role of clowns in reducing pain medication for children.
Likewise, fear plays a part. ``When people have a trauma like a heart attack, they're scared,'' Lubin said. ``And it doesn't happen in isolation.''
Insinna added: ``It causes a shift in the mind and the body and the spirit, in other people as well as the patient. Others feel helpless if it's not happening to them.''
Because of the impact that disease has on family members, the seminar is open to couples as well as individuals.
The six-week course is designed to enhance, not replace, physical rehabilitation such as medication, exercise and diet changes.
``We're trying to add another component to help people create health for themselves,'' Perkins said. ``Health care is really in for a big change. It's happening now. It's starting.'' MEMO: The Healing Heart Program, sponsored by the Mind Body Health Institute
of Maryview Medical Center, runs from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and
Fridays, beginning May 21. Fee: $295 per person or $435 per couple.
ILLUSTRATION: HEALING HEART PROGRAM
Cardiovascular disease - Virginia's No. 1 killer - is the target of
a six-week program by the Mind Body Health Institute at Maryview.
Sessions, twice weekly, begin May 21; call 398-2095.
by CNB