Taking care of yourself is also healthy for your work.
by Bob Kronemyer
Christopher Jones, owner of Schoop's Hamburgers in Hammond, celebrated in November the heart attack he suffered last April, by eating the restaurant's signature Mickey burger: a half-pound of ground beef with two pieces of cheese.
“My doctors told me that eating an occasional burger is not going to kill me,” says the 43-year-old Jones, who has owned the casual-dining franchise spot for the past six years.
The week before his heart attack, Jones had shortness of breath. At that time, the doctor told him he had diabetes and put him on medicine. Then after his heart attack, the doctors attributed it to his having had diabetes for nearly two years. “But I also feel stress played a role, by the need to run my business in today's challenging economic climate,” Jones recalls.
Before his heart attack, Jones was working on average 50 hours a week, but he has since reduced that to about 30 hours. “However, I'm working smarter,” he says. “I've also passed off a lot of my responsibilities to my employees.”
In addition, Jones no longer micromanages his job. “When someone doesn't show up, it is not the end of the world. We will figure it out,” he asserts. “I now have a new mental state and am much less stressed.” Besides having a great staff, Jones says it is important that executives have a contingency plan for their business if they are temporarily out of commission. “It is amazing that when you give people responsibility, most of them rise to the occasion,” he says.
Jones also now cooks more at home and watches what he eats. “I eat more chicken and other white foods,” he explains. He also adheres to a more diabetic menu, “which is low in salt and fat, which is good for your heart.”
Furthermore, three months of cardiac rehab, starting with walking on a treadmill, has blossomed to the gym four times a week (about 45 minutes per session). Jones also tries to walk or partake of some other physical activity daily.
Jones recommends that executives schedule yearly physical check-ups to minimize the risk of a heart attack or stroke. “And listen to your body if you are not feeling well,” he says. “I didn't feel good for a couple months before my heart attack.”
Jones is also careful about balancing his work and family with serving on the board of directors of four local organizations: the South Shore Convention and Visitors Association, Halo of Hope children's charity, Hammond Historic Commission and Montessori Children's Schoolhouse.
Those are exactly the steps any stressed-out business executive should take, whether they've had a heart attack or not, says Eias Jweied, a cardiologist and surgeon with Franciscan Alliance hospitals in Crown Point and Michigan City.
“Regular exercise, especially cardio work is important,” says Jweied. “It ought to be two or three times a week, either running, on a treadmill or swimming.”
Jweied says executives should meet with their family doctor before starting an exercise regimen, and then schedule annual checkups.
“You also need to control cholesterol by watching what you eat,” says Jweied. “Control your sugar intake, too, and eliminate smoking at all costs.”
On the job, people tend to snack (Jweied admits he does, too) but to be careful about how much you eat. “It's very insidious and we don't even notice we're doing it,” he says.
In any stressful occupation, Jweied says it's important to find a way to relieve stress through physical activity and to eliminate saturated fats. “Try to eat vegan as must as possible. That doesn't mean becoming a vegetarian, but if you eliminate meat as much as possible and eat vegetables and fruit, it's much better for your body.”
Andre Artis, a cardiologist at Gary-based Methodist Hospitals, offered much the same advice. “One of the risk factors for developing heart attack and stroke is stress. If you are under stress, you don't take care of yourself. In high-stress situations, the person does not exercise and may overeat. Stress itself can cause hypertension, which is a risk factor for both strokes and heart attacks.”
People may also self-medicate because of the stress; for example, with alcohol, “which also increases the risk of heart attack and stroke,” Artis states. Similarly, energy drinks and colas contain high doses of caffeine, “which can stimulate the heart and raise the blood pressure.” Over-the-counter medications for relaxation can also lead indirectly to increased risk.
Artis points out that it's important for each individual to know how he or she reacts to stress and their body's reaction. Telltale signs for a heart attack include tightened jaws, headaches, palpitations and stomach aches. “These are triggers to back off,” he says. “Most executives push pretty hard.”
Artis also notes that executives can learn a valuable lesson from athletes. “Pushing yourself at 100 percent of capacity, 100 percent of the time, actually leads to reduced performance,” he says. “Even athletes have rest periods, where they bring themselves down.” Tied in with this truth is the need for executives to take periodic “timeouts” or to go on vacation.
“Executives must take their health very seriously, because without it they cannot lead their organization,” Artis maintains.
Rick Richards, 59, a Michigan City freelance writer and editor of Northwest Indiana Business Quarterly, suffered a heart attack on a Sunday morning in July 2011. At early Mass, he had felt nauseous and but he thought the extremely hot weather outside was the reason.
When Richards returned home from Mass with his daughter and placed the key in the house door, “it hit me,” he remembers. “I had this really bad feeling in my stomach. I just knew something wasn't right.” He also had pressure in his neck.
Richards was unsure if he was experiencing a heart attack, so he took two aspirin, “which in retrospective the doctor said was very, very smart.” But when his wife arrived home shortly thereafter, she insisted he go immediately to the hospital, which was 10 blocks away. Instead of calling for an ambulance, Richards' wife drove him to the hospital and dropped him off at the emergency room exit with his daughter. “I sat down in a wheelchair and told the woman at the desk that I thought I was having a heart attack,” Richards says. “Within seconds, I was connected to tubes and wires.”
Richards believes stress from his work contributed to his heart attack. Ironically, he had joined a gym a few months earlier to lose weight and had started to change his diet. “But the damage had already been done and I had blockages in my arteries,” he conveys.
Today, Richards says he feels more relaxed and continues to work out at the gym at least three times a week, including one day with a personal trainer, which he says is not that expensive.
His advice to executives for reducing stress? “Find the time to exercise, whether that be jogging or walking. Don't make it as an afterthought, but as part of your weekly schedule. I've lost over 40 pounds. If I don't work out, I feel guilty for not going. I enjoy it and I've met friends there.”
Richards also says that a person who has had a heart attack or stroke should check with his doctor to ascertain what one's system can and cannot endure through exercise. “You don't want to create more problems than you are trying to solve,” he notes.
Anas Safadi, a cardiologist at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, observes that executives tend to have type A personalities (highly competitive and time sensitive), which can exacerbate stress. “Probably the best thing to do to reduce cardiovascular and stroke risks is to participate in stress-reduction techniques,” Safadi says. These include a wide variety of cardiovascular exercises and different types of activities that provide “somewhat of a timeout from their high-stress jobs.”
Running, jogging, biking, brisk walking and yoga are examples of activities that “counter the stress of an actual job,” Safadi conveys. At minimum, executives should devote three to four sessions a week to such activities, but preferably five to six, each lasting about 30 minutes, regardless of the time of day, according to Safadi. “You almost need to approach this commitment like brushing your teeth. It is habitual. And for people who do this almost on a daily basis, they will tell you it actually becomes addictive. When they stop doing it, they just feel awful.”
Smoking has also “clearly been linked and associated with cardiovascular risk and risk of stroke,” Safadi continues. Alcohol plays a role, too. Moreover, Dr. Safadi cites a study from the European Heart Journal that showed that British white-collar workers who normally worked three to four hours of overtime were 56 percent more likely to develop a heart attack or die of heart disease than those that did not work overtime. “Therefore, it is really important to partake in stress-reduction techniques, because if you don't, sooner or later it will catch up with you,” he says.
To minimize recurrence of a heart attack or stroke, lifestyle modification is key, according to Sandeep Sehgal, an interventional cardiologist affiliated with Porter Regional Hospital in Valparaiso. This encompasses dietary changes, daily exercise and stress-reduction therapy. “You need to cut down on fat and cholesterol in the diet, and add more proteins and low animal fats,” Sehgal says. A nutritionist consultation while the patient is still in the hospital is also routine at Porter hospital, as are smoking-cessation strategies that include the use of medication and nicotine patches and gum.
To reduce stress, Sehgal recommends yoga, tai chi and/or meditation. He notes that a recent study from Wisconsin found that among people who had experienced a heart attack, those who meditated 10 to 15 minutes a day for one year were dramatically less likely to have a second heart attack than the group who did not meditate at all.
Control of high blood pressure, diabetes and weight are also part of the overall mix. “There is no single reason for a heart attack or stroke. It is multifaceted,” Sehgal says. “You have to look at the global picture. Every modifiable factor should be corrected, by using both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic methods.”
