Teeth have a mysterious effect on your heart, especially when you make them shine by smiling a dozen times a day.
This is just one element of cardiologist Dr. Anand Chokkalingam's personal and professional philosophy of achieving better heart health at all ages.
Chockalingam also specializes in cardiometabolic diseases, advanced diastolic heart failure, echocardiography, and nuclear cardiology at CAMC Memorial. He has been on staff at the center since December and has begun incorporating some new (and some old) strategies to improve the heart and overall health of the CAMC Diastolic Heart Failure Care Center. Ta.
Chokkalingam's health mission is based on her early experiences in West Virginia. “I've been working at the University of Missouri for the past 18 years, but before that, my first job as a cardiologist was in West Virginia, where I worked here in the South Charleston cardiology department for two years. ”
Chokkalingam wants people to assess their heart health and commit to lifestyle changes before they develop a serious illness or condition. “My interest is in making heart patients healthier,” he explained. “Obviously, that's something that everyone is interested in, but my focus is on early-onset heart failure, which has been occurring very frequently in recent years for several reasons.
“The heart should beat effortlessly until we are 100 years old. That's the way nature designed it for us. Unfortunately, as we suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, heart failure, kidney failure, etc. It becomes hard by the age of 60 to 70. This is called diastolic heart failure.
“We don't need balloons or stents or heart transplants, but we can't help patients with any procedure. That's another way of looking at it.”
CAMC launched the Diastolic Heart Failure Care Center last month. “Most cardiologists don't know what they can do, so we don't know how many other centers around the world are doing work like ours. People think it's just aging or other medicine. …We don't have a drug yet to reverse it. It's not just one condition. A lot of things can happen.”
Chokkalingam's research on diastolic heart failure showed that diastolic heart failure can occur in people under 40.
He believes that the main causes of this condition are mental stress and excess weight. “For 20 years, we have implemented protocols to assess these complex situations and assess how much this stiffness can be improved by changing the way they think and by changing their diet and lifestyle. .
“CAMC is a very unique place in this day and age,” added Chokkalingam. “Because we have one of the largest heart centers in the country. We see more patients than almost anywhere else in the country, so you get the most cutting-edge care. And CAMC's cardiologists… We recognize the need to provide evidence-based care and develop more integrated solutions to improve patient care.
“This kind of approach aligns very well with my own personal philosophy, and that's actually what got me here,” he said of his recent return to the Mountain State. “I had a feeling earlier on, having worked here for two years, that there was a lot of work to do. I felt early in my career that what I learned would be useful, but I wanted to make people healthier. I realized that I needed to try harder.
“My work here in West Virginia really shaped the grants I wrote after I moved to Missouri.” I was able to work with doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists. It's called siddha.”
“A heartful life”
Chokkalingam is also the author of Seeking HUNGER: How Food Shapes Our Thinking Health & Destiny, the first of his books, HiLife: Heartful Living through Self- Investigation.
His HiLifeJourney series combines mindfulness, Siddha yoga, positive psychology and the latest cardiology research to achieve holistic health. Nine years ago, Chokkalingam drew on his own research in stress cardiomyopathy, mental health and heart failure to create Heartful Living, a self-inquiry-based program for heart patients.
“The Heartful Living program started in 2015 because I wanted to contribute myself to the community,” Chokkalingam said. Every Friday at noon, he spends eight hours of personal time with 10 veterans and their spouses at the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans Affairs Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, sharing his “whole health” approach and Techniques were introduced, taught, and practiced.
“Thanks to the VA, we were able to get the community involved there,” he said. “Doctors, administrators, anyone who wants to learn about this approach to health comes. This has given me a better understanding of how we can empower individuals.”
To our surprise, the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly strengthened this fledgling program. “With the onset of the pandemic, we suddenly couldn't meet 25 people in one room, so we had to move online. Instead of 25 people sitting together in one room, we had 200 people on Zoom. People could participate. The personal touch was lost because you couldn't see if people understood or how they were responding, but people still wanted to spend 30 minutes. I’ll come. I’ll show you the materials and answer your questions.”
The final 15 minutes will be spent on mindful practices, including fun exercises that participants can practice at home. “Over the course of eight weeks, they would have tried 20 to 40 different things in their own homes with their families to connect with themselves on a deeper level,” Chokkalingam said.
funny result
The Indian-born cardiologist says research on improving heart health backs up his advice and encourages people to laugh at least 20 times a day. (He said that when you maintain an attitude of gratitude, your heart and overall health also tend to improve.)
“We need to involve families and help them understand these simple concepts so their children can do better,” he said.
“Children are heart disease patients and are often at three to seven times higher risk for heart disease than the general population. Research on optimistic teens shows that only about 5%. 95% of them are in the real world,” Chokkalingam said with a laugh.
Although these findings were documented over 20 years ago, they remain essentially the same among subjects contacted every few years about their current mindset and outlook on life.
“Five percent of them are optimistic and say, “I have great friends,'' “I like going to school,'' and “I believe I have a good future.'' Their positive attitude is associated with a 70% to 75% reduction in the risk of heart attack over a lifetime.
“I think this shows that people can learn these things at any age and it can be a beautiful legacy to leave to the next generation as they live more holistic lives. believe.”
Introduction of new clinic
Chokkalingam said the new clinic being developed at CAMC Memorial is designed to address challenges faced by residents of Charleston and surrounding areas.
“In the few weeks I've been here, we're already seeing a lot of the premature heart failure that I mentioned earlier. Many people have had breathing problems for five, 10, even 15 years. They think it's simply due to lack of exercise, lymphedema, smoking habits, or weight. In reality, their heart is harder, which contributes to their breathing difficulties. It is.
“So we're putting together protocols that allow us to assess this. Sometimes it's non-invasive, sometimes it's using a cardiac catheter, sometimes it involves exercise and blood tests.” If we can measure and show people how much heart involvement they have, people are interested.When we show them the results we've made over the last 10 years, people say, “Sir, 10 years old.'' 'What do I need to do to look 15 years younger?'” Chokkalingam said.
He said if people are motivated by the possibility, they can receive helpful materials, including online videos, from the CAMC Dilated Heart Failure Care Center.
“Within a few months, we will have data on things like how to measure blood pressure at home, how your diet changes, how you think, how to reduce stress, etc.,” Chokkalingam said. . “We call them micro-interventions.
“At CAMC, we feel that with the support of our leadership, we can reach far more people than we have done in the past five years because we have system support in Charleston.
“If we want to make a difference at the local level, we need more technology and we need to train other primary and mid-level primary care providers, specialists and other professionals,” Chokka said. Lingam said. This is a journey that takes a long time to become established in the community and build confidence.
“We have already started this work and can’t wait to see how much we can achieve over the next year or so.
“For the next few months I'm going to focus on what we're doing here, but our goal and hope for the last 10 years is to reach the whole world. My hope is that over the next two to five years and to bring the programs we've developed over the past decade to more people around the world.
“We're making our hearts 10 to 20 years younger. … We want people to be motivated to improve their health and their heart ages. That's one aspect of the Cardiometabolic Center of Excellence we're building here from the ground up. It's helping our community become younger, happier, and healthier. ”
For more information, visit www.camc.org or call the CAMC clinic at 3200 MacCorkle Ave., SE, Charleston, 304-388-8928.
