Chamorros maybe we will be able to save the Chamorro’s ability to preserve our homeland for Chamorros. We have someone who can empathize with our plight.
________________________________________
2:45 p.m. – Rahall says he supports Guam’s self-determination
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS • NEWS@GUAMPDN.COM • AUGUST 12, 2009
Read Comments(1) RecommendPrint this pageE-mail this articleShare

At a meeting with the Guam Chamber of Commerce today, Rep. Nick Rahall — the head of the House Committee on Natural Resources that oversees insular areas, including Guam — said he supports Guam determining its own political future.

Rahall is leading a six-member Congressional delegation currently on island to learn more about the military buildup, immigration reforms and other territorial-federal issues.

In a response to a question from Guam Sen. Eddie Baza Calvo, a candidate for governor in the 2010 elections, Rahall said he would support the political future Guam chose in a future plebescite.

“Yes we would,” Rahall said.

Funding for educational and outreach efforts related to the self-determination issue could come from the Department of Interior, he added.
_________________________________________
Peter

There’s a new measure that doctors are watching as a possible marker for heart disease risk. Called “Heart Rate Variability (HRV),” it refers to the amount of change in the interval time between heart beats, from fastest to slowest.

VARIABILITY IS GOOD HEALTH NEWS

In the normal healthy heart, HRV speeds up on inhalation and slows down on exhalation. The greater the difference between the heart rate on inhalation and exhalation, the healthier the heart is, in general.

According to Robert Nolan, PhD, CPsych, director of the Behavioural Cardiology Research Unit at the University of Toronto, HRV is a way to observe how the heart responds to normal regulatory impulses affecting its rhythm. A number of factors are known to decrease the rate of variability including age, lack of exercise, and, importantly, health status — including hypertension, diabetes and coronary heart disease (this most especially). It’s not good when the heart shows a blunted response in its ability to slow down at rest, during sleep or while you are breathing in a slow and relaxed way.

HRV can be improved through regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle (whatever your age), as well as by using certain breathing patterns that can be established through yoga, meditation or biofeedback training (more on biofeedback in a minute). The resulting improvement in HRV leads to what sounds like a medical problem, but it is actually a good thing — respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), which refers to breathing-induced changes affecting the cardiac tissue that generates heart beats. A strong RSA pattern means that the parasympathetic system is effective at relaxing the heart and that’s healthy. Several studies have shown that post-heart attack patients who have an increased RSA have a lower mortality risk within the two years following the attack, independent of other factors.

However, according to Dr. Nolan, the validity of this as a clinical, independent test has not been fully established. While it is clear that a relatively higher HRV is associated with better heart health, Dr. Nolan explains that “we haven’t yet sorted out how much of an increase in HRV is required before improved health outcomes are observed.” Other questions remain too — how best to measure HRV, for instance, and what is the ideal HRV, the amount above or below which would help inform as to heart health and risk. As Dr. Nolan puts it, “HRV isn’t ready for primetime” but he believes it should be paid attention to. Indeed clinical evidence for its importance as a marker of heart health is beginning to build including in several laboratory studies and clinical trials.

LEARNING TO CONTROL HRV: BIOFEEDBACK

You don’t have to wait for those research findings to put this information to good use, however. Here’s where we get back to biofeedback training and HRV. Biofeedback therapists teach clients how to relax physically and emotionally so they can achieve a pattern of smooth breathing from the diaphragm of five to seven inhalations per minute. After mastering these skills, clients are hooked up to equipment with screens that enable them to literally watch how their breathing affects their heart rate… so ultimately they learn how to produce the calm physiological state that increases HRV range. Dr. Nolan recently completed a study that found that HRV could be altered by biofeedback, which in turn reduced psychological stress and depression. This improved sense of well being and reduced stress that biofeedback teaches is its greatest proven clinical value right now, says Dr. Nolan.

Dr. Nolan is enthusiastic about the benefits of biofeedback training to improve HRV, but emphasizes that it must be considered a complementary feature of cardiac health — not a plan in and of itself. There are already advertisements promoting home biofeedback kits to improve HRV, he says, but it is premature to concentrate on that as an endpoint in itself. There’s no substitute for a healthy lifestyle, with plenty of daily exercise and nutritious foods. “We have proof that a heart healthy lifestyle improves HRV,” he says. “These protective activities are the best way to go about getting a better HRV, considering that you will also derive all of the other benefits that accompany them.”

Source(s):

Robert Nolan, PhD, CPsych, director of the Behavioural Cardiology Research Unit at the University of Toronto.

He’s OUR man in Washington!

Clinton, caught of guard, bordered on being rude, but was quick to regroup as no disrespect was intended by the translator in my opinion.

I wouldn’t even bother reaching for a featherduster on this one.

I wonder when we will hear from the TAO again.

touch`e
Al