5 minute read
THE MIND/BODY CONNECTION
The National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) tells us “up to 65 percent of coronary heart disease patients with a history of heart attack experience various forms of depression. Though such emotions are not unusual, they should be addressed as quickly as possible. Major depression can complicate the recovery process…. Prolonged depression in patients with cardiovascular disease has been shown to contribute to subsequent heart attacks and strokes.”
On the positive side, according to the Cleveland Clinic, the mind/body connection is so strong there are mind-body exercises that have been proven conclusively to improve health. The key is the mind’s inability to distinguish between something imagined and something real. When we remember something frightening, heart rates go up and the palms sweat as if we were really in that situation. But, imagine something pleasant, calming, soothing—and heart rates go down, stress hormones dissipate and we experience peace. Exercise those thought processes, cultivate periods of calm and inner peace and the body will respond by reducing pain and anxiety, enhancing sleep, decreasing the need for pain meds after surgery, reducing recovery times and actually shortening hospital stays.
Even stress. Life today can be a never-ending pressure cooker, with stress at home, on the job and other areas raising blood pressures and creating circulation problems.
According to the American Psychological Association, “how you respond to stress may be a greater risk factor for heart problems than smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.”
Regular visits with a primary care physician can recognize those dangers before they get too serious and give patients the time and tools to correct them.
The Venous Connection
ICE made the connection between vein health and overall health as a natural outgrowth of its cardiovascular focus. Not only do healthy veins play a vital role in the efciency of the circulatory system as a whole. But veins that are unhealthy—which often occurs in the legs—can lead to signi cant health concerns for the entire body.
Even more signicantly, they can lead to serious problems like venous eczema, blood clots, skin ulceration, much more serious vein diseases, and in rare instances, skin cancers. ICE has designated examination rooms, labs, testing and treatment facilities, and a team of medical professionals dedicated to treating venous diseases and abnormalities. Many
Vein Diseases
Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is a condition often associated with varicose veins. According to the Vascular Disease Foundation, upwards of 20 percent of adults suffer from it. Vein blockages, damaged vein walls or valves in the veins that aren’t doing their jobs properly can all cause CVI. Blood pools. Skin becomes discolored. Skin ulcers can form. CVI can degrade the immune system to such an extent that the risks of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and obesity more than double.
The most common vein disorders are spider veins and varicose veins. Spider veins most often appear in the face or legs as a tiny web of red or black threads. They cause cosmetic concerns but spider veins are almost never a serious health issue. Varicose veins are a different story. At the benign end of the scale, they cause no problems other than in appearance. But if left untreated, varicose veins can be a constant source of discomfort.
patients come to ICE with venous complications due to diabetes. The rise of that insidious disease is directly related to the growing epidemic of limb loss in America. Studies show that almost one of every two hundred Americans has had an amputation—97% of those in a lower limb. What is tragic is that many of those amputations could have been averted with the types of treatment ICE Vein Care can provide.
Worse than that, CVI can also cause DVTs to form— deep vein thrombosis—a disease that creates blood clots in the large veins of the legs. DVTs can cause everything from severe discomfort and chronic weakness in the legs—to death. If a piece of a clot were to break off and travel to the brain or lungs it could mean a stroke or a pulmonary embolism. Over 300,000 American die every year from those— and the contributing factor in most cases? Vein disease.
to the ways they impact our overall health… to how what we do can have a major effect on all of it. But perhaps the most important connection we can make today is the one that links our health directly to the facilities and physicians of ICE. Why? Because of the connections within the ICE disciplines of cardiovascular, primary care and vein health. No matter where we rst involve ICE with our health concerns—chest pains, stubborn u, swollen legs and ankles, whatever the problem may be—ICE has the resources to treat both our specic health issues and our overall health at the same time.
inter-connected whole are ending. There’s even a name for it: Integrative Medicine.
Medical schools are offering courses in it. Hospitals are offering new services to their patients to support it. Doctors are widening their treatment protocols to take advantage of it. Now, treatment for a patient who suffers a heart attack may also include sessions with a nutritionist to insure a healthier diet... Anti-depressants prescribed early on to combat a common side-effect of serious heart problems... Stress-reduction techniques to promote healing... Herbal medicine...Exercise recommendations like yoga or tai-chi.
The key is connection and acknowledging that treating a person as a whole instead of focusing on a singular acute or chronic condition can affect a person’s overall health.
Taking The Measure Of Pad
Doctors at ICE discover a correlation between “skinny legs” and PAD and develop an alternative screening method to x-rays that is just as accurate—a measuring tape!
Tissue Loss in PAD Patients Presenting for PTA
Taha Baig: Orlando, Florida // Asad Qamar and Abbas Ali: Ocala, Florida ICE
Background
At ICE, serving 25,000 patients across 10 counties in Central Florida, patients who underwent peripheral interventions (PTA) presented tissue loss. Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) has significant mortality and morbidity. Diagnosis is important to assess for further complications. In our studies patients with skinnier legs had severe bilateral PAD. Currently PAD is assessed initially with ABI but this method is inaccurate in diabetics. We investigate a simpler physical exam method to assess PAD with a measuring tape.
Methods
From patients undergoing PTA, 60 had usable images for analysis. Initial x-rays of maximum soft tissue in pixels were converted to cm and analyzed, calibrated against catheter of known size. Image J software was used for analysis. Patients with severe bilateral PAD had tissue loss of 9-11cm compared to cath lab staff volunteers. To verify the accuracy of these measurements, patients with both x-ray and tape measures were analyzed against controls. Amongst subjects with Xray and tape measurement available, regression analysis showed a very close correlation between circumference measured by either technique.
Results
Conclusion
Patients who presented for PTA to ICE had a significant tissue loss of 11cm on x-ray in comparison to staff volunteers; 4.5cm on tape measurement in comparison with controls. Our data suggests people with an increased risk of PAD can be effectively screened by a simple tape measurement and recommend taking maximum calf circumference of at risk patients, with <34cm as abnormal.
