Go Red

As I sit here today, wearing red, for "God Red for Women Heart Healthy Day," I felt it was imperitive I remind you of how important it is to take care of our hearts, women and men. From a yoga/holistic standout, we can think about how our heart is in the 4th chakra, represented by the color green, it symbolizes Air, Social Identity, Oriented to Self-Acceptance. This chakra is called the heart chakra and is the middle chakra in a system of seven. It is related to love and is the integrator of opposites in the psyche: mind and body, male and female, persona and shadow, ego and unity. A healthy fourth chakra allows us to love deeply, feel compassion, and have a deep sense of peace and centeredness. From a more scientific stance, KU MED (which many of you work for!) sent out a news letter sharing information about heart health. A few points I'd like to highlight: "Although you may think heart disease affects mostly men, the disease doesn't play favorites whe it comes to gender. In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the US (I read 1 in 4 women get heart disease). Prevention is an important part of heart health. A new study from Yale University shows that doing yoga three times a week can lower your risk of getting heart disease. Moreover, yoga improves heart health in both healthy individuals and those with diagnosed heart disease, says Satish Sivasankaran, MD, who conducted the study while training at Yale. He says that volunteers taking a six-week yoga-meditation program improved blood vessel function by 17 percent. Blood vessel function, also called endothelial function, is the way vessels contract and expand to aid blood flow and is a measure of healthy vessel function. However, study participants who had heart disease had close to a 70 percent improvement in endothelial function. Stress is known to increase the risk of coronary events. Both anxiety and type A behavior have been associated with coronary diseases. Yoga and meditation, on the other hand, are often recommended as a way to relieve stress. More reasons to take up yoga! -em