Presentation by

Leonard “Lennie” Mees, MD

6202 SE 60th Avenue

Portland, OR 97206

503-236-8978

LRMees@aol.com

www.healthinnovators.org

Story of Stress

Stress: the Cocaine of Modern America

How you can beat the addiction with knowledge and empowerment

Preservation of Human Capital

Pay it ForwardStarring

Helen Hunt and

Kevin Spacy

Do the right thing for only one reason -

It’s the right thing to do!!!

What Causes Illness and Death?

80% results from American’s living unhealthy lifestyles

20% other things (including environmental exposures)

Willie Sutton Principle

Go where the money is!!

Opportunity!!!

Cost of Poor Health

• 1.6 trillion dollars - 2004

• 1/7 of GNP

• 2.6 trillion dollars - 2010

• 1/5 GNP

• 1 million lives to vascular disease - 35,000 more women

than men

• 80% potentially unnecessary

Stress and Your Heart• Stress releases adrenaline and cortisol

• These chemicals effect tiny micro-infarcts

• 100 x a day, 365 days, 20 to 30 years …. Or

• Chronic smoldering stress• “Swiss-cheese” heart!!!• Pump failure

• Irritable heart - Lethal arrhythmias

Cocaine and Your Heart

• Cocaine releases adrenaline

• Cocaine causes micro-infarcts ….

• Cocaine causes “Swiss-cheese” heart!!!

• Pump failure

• Lethal arrhythmias

• Just like stress!!!

You Can’t Tell Them Apart!!!

• Both are addictive• Both are lethal• Yet, on one hand, we accept

stress as part of our American landscape ….

• But, on the other hand, we (rightfully) malign cocaine abuse

• When will we learn?????

Are you a “Hot Reactor”

• BP elevates

• HR elevates

• 17% of total population

• 35% of professionals

• Combine with “anger-in” …high risk of sudden death

What we’ll talk about ...

• What is stress?

• Personalize it

• Flameout and burnout

• Prevention of stress

• Principles of stress management

• Stress management techniques

• My challenge to you ….

What is Stress?It’s not the large things thatsend a man to themadhouse …. No, it’s the

continuing series ofsmall tragedies that send the man to the

madhouse …not the death of his lovebut a shoelace that snapswith no time left …...

Perils of Peak Performance

Peak Performance

P

e

r Optimal Performance

f Flameout

o

r

m Burnout

a

n

c

e

Stress

Top Stressors?

• Job insecurity

• Doing more with less

• Time

• Not having a voice

• Employee relations

• Communication difficulties

• Family – balance with work

• Feeling trapped and/or static

• Change

Mindfulness MeditationLearn to live in the “Precious Present.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.

If we are mindful, we will make good choices in food, friends, family, and finances

If we are mindful, we can accomplish goals we never thought possible

Think

• Derek Bok burned out at Harvard

• Took a teaching position at Stanford

• Started each day with one hour of

Thinking• Blank paper, pencil or pen and

• Think about your life

• Commit ideas to paper ….

An Idea not Committed to Paper Remains Simply a Wish

Robert G. Allen, author

Exercise

• A great stress preventer

• A superb stress manager

• Perhaps the best depression manager and preventer

• How good do you feel after a brisk walk?

Nutrition

• Do this experiment ….

• Eat a McDonald’s “Heart Attack in a Sack”

• Eat a self-selected and self-prepared meal of fruit, vegetable, and low-fat protein source

• How do you feel after each? Honestly!

Journaling

• A double benefit ….

• The emotional release of writing - what you did, what bugged you, what you loved

• The position of objective observer - seeing your life and problems, then solving them

ListenWhen I ask you to listen and you start giving advice,

you have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why

I should feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings,

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do

something to solve my problems,you have failed me, strange

as that may seem

Perhaps that is why prayer works for some people,

Because

God is mute and He doesn’t offer advice or try to fix things, He just listens and trusts you to work it out yourself.

So please just listen and hear me. And if you want to talkwait a few minutes for your turn and I promise I’ll

listen to you.

Create Rituals

Power of Prayer

• Foundation

• Community

• Trust

• Hope

• Always available

Three Flavors of Communication

• Passive - Guess what I want?

• Aggressive - alienates everyone concerned

• Assertive - considers both sides, win-win, thoughtful, loving,

vulnerable - but oh, so worth the effort!!!

Love

• It makes the world go around• It prevents stress• It prevents depression• It can reverse coronary artery disease• How do you love? By your simple choice

Awareness

“A problem, once recognized, is half solved.”

George Washington

Perception

Stress is perception

not events

Choice

“Beyond that glorious

five-second rage,

Everything is choice.”

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, MD

Joseph

Where do you speak from?

• Throat or your core, your heart

• Voice has a different register

• Clarity

• Beauty

• Vulnerability

• Love

Responsibility

As participants in an organized society,

We have the responsibility to make good choices

Go with the Forces of Nature

• Cope

• Bend

• Blend

Frog Asks for a Loan

• It’s a nik-nack, Patty Wak

• Give the frog a loan

• His old man is a Rolling Stone

Work Stress?

Keep an up-to-date resumeKnow five people whom you can call,

today, if you decide to switch jobs

(write their names down)

Balance Sheet Technique good bad• Healthy• Happy• Fine family• Good dog• Kids doing well • Two cars• Good vacations• Parents OK• Well liked by peers

• Money• Marriage• Job

The Six Months to Live Game

Divide all the “things” in your life into:

•What you think you should do

•What you absolutely must do

•What you want to do

Wouldn’t it be a shame, tragic, nearly criminal, if you died and didn’t do what you

want to do?

Play

• Charles Whitman and the Texas Tower

• Kevin Carroll of Nike

• Pete Carroll of USC

• What’s your play? (Chubby Bunny?)

• www.instituteforplay.com

Pay Attention

• To your colors

• To your clothes

• To your surroundings

• To your schedule

• To ….. ???

Use a Talisman

Ignore the Jerks

Follow the Lead of Leonardo Da Vinci

“Every now and then, go away, take a little relaxation, because when you come back to your work, your judgment will be surer. To remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgment. Go some distance away, because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony or proportion is more readily seen.”

Leonardo

My Challenge to You

• You most likely won’t change

• But, you can

• Control

• Education

• Your keys to success

Earliest CAD Diagnosis

• EBCT

• Fast Spiral CT

• Cost about $400

• Available at major centers

• Could be the best moneyyou ever spent

“I Feel Better”

• I lost weight

• I started to exercise

• I learned to meditate

• I’m eating better

Your Doggie Bag

• What’s possible