Relaxation: A Self-Care Healing Modality Reduces Harmful Effects of Anxiety

Anxiety, a state of uneasiness or apprehension toward a vague or nonspecific threat, is prevalent in cardiac patients. Estimates are as high as 70% to 80% during the acute phase,^1,2 and it persists long-term in 20% to 25% of patients. Anxiety inflicts its toll through 3 major pathways. In the physiological pathway, anxiety affects the muscu-loskeletal system by causing muscular tension; the autonomic nervous system by arousing sympathetic responses; and the psychoneuroendocrine system (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis) by triggering secretion of catecholamines and glucocorticoids (see FigureF1). The psychological pathway elevates negative mood states, whereas the social-behavioral pathway promotes disconnection from self and others and stress inhibition with resultant unhealthy lifestyle behaviors.^3,4 The deleterious effects of this psychophysiological stress response are troublesome because anxiety is an independent predictor of arrhythmic/ischemic complications and increased mortality in cardiac patients.^4...