National Heart Month: Looking beyond Valentine’s Day ❤️

Every February, the UK marks National Heart Month, which is a good opportunity to look at our hearts and our habits.

The encouraging news is that even small changes can make a real difference to heart health, at any age.

Want to join me for a drive?

The body as a high-performance vehicle

I like the idea of comparing the body to a high-performance vehicle.

And yes, sometimes I wonder if some people take better care of their cars than of themselves, well, that might be my German experience. Germans do love their cars … even though I don’t own one anymore.

To keep an engine running smoothly, you need:

• clean fuel

• a clear exhaust system

• regular movement and maintenance

The same applies to our bodies.

Fuel: food that truly nourishes

Most of us know the basics of healthy eating:

• Fresh, seasonal, ideally organic and local food

• Plenty of vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and fruit (you may have heard of the idea of eating 30 different plant foods a week)

• Enough fibre (have you listened to the recent BBC series on fibre, yet?)

• Protein and healthy fats
  

In short: real food.

Not something manufactured in a factory with a long list of 'weird' ingredients.

If you’d like to explore diet and health more deeply, I can also support you as a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) nutritionist.

TCM nutrition isn’t about calories, restriction or starvation — it focuses on the energetic quality of food and how it supports balance in the body to let the Qi (life energy) flow.

Smoking: non-negotiable

Smoking, and that includes vaping, which might even be worse, is one of the most damaging things you can do to your heart.

It chemically damages the lining of the arteries, makes it easier for fat to stick to them and reduces oxygen in the blood. As a result, the heart has to work harder and faster.

Movement: not just cardio

Let's move on (is that a pun?) to exercising – the general recommendations are often listed as:

• 150 minutes of moderate activity per week (such as brisk walking) or

• 75 minutes of vigorous activity
  

This strengthens the heart's ability to pump blood with less effort and improves circulation.

Apart from aerobic (cardio) exercises, strength training matters too.

Muscle tissue is metabolically active and helps regulate blood sugar, a major risk factor for heart disease.

And even if you exercise regularly, sitting for eight hours or more a day is still harmful.

A simple rule: try to stand up or move for five minutes every hour.

All this makes total sense and I want to add another factor:

Stress: the silent strain on the heart

Stress is often dismissed:

• It’s part of life.

• It can’t be avoided.

• It’s not that bad.

Yet biologically, stress is anything but vague.

It’s a chemical chain reaction in the body and quite often the source of health issues.

When we’re stressed, the brain’s amygdala (our alarm system) releases cortisol and adrenaline.

That’s helpful and very clever if we need to escape danger.

But when stress becomes chronic, it’s deeply harmful.

Or back to the car analogy:

Think of it like driving a car while ignoring every warning light, never changing the oil and driving on a flat tyre ...

Stress hormones raise blood pressure instantly, creating a 'pressure cooker' effect.

Persistently raised blood pressure - hypertension is the proper medical term - forces the heart to work harder than it should, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney problems.

According to NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), around one in four adults in England has hypertension, slightly more men than women.

It's a very common condition.

This reminds me …

I once heard Dr Gabor Maté explain the word hypertension beautifully:

• hyper = excessive

• tension = tension

Simply put: Too much tension.

Of course that made me think of TRE as it can release tension.

Before going further, let me be very clear:

If you have concerns about your blood pressure, please consult your GP first. As always, I am not claiming that TRE treats or cures high blood pressure, not at all.

What I am exploring is how TRE can be a supportive practice to address stress and its symptoms, which are known contributors to hypertension and many other health issues.

If your blood pressure is borderline and you’re not on medication, it may be worth addressing the factors that are within your reach.

Stress affects far more than the heart

Chronic stress doesn’t stop at the cardiovascular system.

It can:

• trigger inflammation and plaque build-up in arteries

• suppress the immune system (which is why people often get ill after stressful periods)

• disrupt digestion, leading to bloating, a nervous tummy or IBS

• change gut bacteria, hence affecting mood (gut–brain axis)

• increase cravings for sugar and fat

• encourage fat storage around the middle (visceral fat) as a survival reserve

When our system is dysregulated, we often reach for external regulators like sweets, crisps, alcohol … trying to cope with these external regulators.

All of this creates a perfect storm for heart disease.

How TRE can help

This brings us back to TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises).

By practising TRE, we give the body the opportunity to discharge excess stress hormones and release deeply held tension.

And we do that in the most innate and natural way: by shaking it off.

When the nervous system down-regulates, we feel calmer, more resilient and less overwhelmed - something I hear again and again from clients.

Many describe a deep sense of relaxation, similar to what you might feel after a relaxing spa treatment.

Improved sleep is another common benefit.

“I didn’t realise how much tension I was holding until I tried TRE.

After a few sessions,

I feel calmer, sleep better and

my nervous system isn’t running on overdrive anymore.”

Simon

And sleep is crucial for heart health.

Without a good rest, the body stays in a state of high sympathetic tone, keeping blood pressure elevated even overnight.

One of my recent clients found it deeper than meditation.

"I follow a committed meditation practice,

but the feeling I get after TRE

feels even deeper than after meditation."

Shara

Let’s return to the car analogy and compare stress with a traffic jam.

Practising TRE is like opening the lanes and letting everything move again.

Sometimes, the most powerful support doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from allowing the body to do what it already knows how to do best.

And if you'd like to discuss anything or want to explore how TRE can support your health and well-being, I'm here for you.

Natural. Innate. TREmendous.