English Nurse Uses HeartMath With Multiple Sclerosis Patients

A nurse in England who specializes in patients with multiple sclerosis/MS conducted an informal study in which patients with the disease achieved significant reductions in stress after practicing a HeartMath technique.

Study participants who practiced HeartMath’s Quick Coherence^® Technique, which uses heart breathing and focusing on positive emotions, realized an average point drop of more than 30% on the Hospital Anxiety Depression (HAD) Scale, nurse Miranda Olding said.

Miranda Olding, MS Specialist Nurse, England

"I have begun to use HeartMath routinely in my MS special nurse clinic, as stress is a known trigger for relapses in MS," said Olding, who conducted her study from November 2009 through August 2010 with patients at the MS Therapy Centre in Bedford, England. "My clients with MS respond really positively, I enjoy sharing the skill, and the research I carried out backs up its clinical effectiveness."

"Stress is a recognized trigger factor for exacerbations in MS," Olding wrote in the conclusion of her study, Using the HeartMath Technique to Reduce Stress in People With MS. "In this study, teaching (a HeartMath self-management technique) with regular home practice was associated with an average decrease of 7.06 points on the HAD scale.

"The intervention was time and cost effective, and a range of positive effects were noted. It would be useful to replicate the findings in controlled studies, and to ask the question: ‘Can relapses or disease activity in MS be reduced by reducing stress?’"

Olding, a licensed biofeedback practitioner and licensed HeartMath provider who is interested in integrated medicine using conventional and holistic techniques, has written articles about her research for magazines in the United Kingdom. She explains in her research report what led her to conduct the trials.

"I became interested in using the HeartMath technique with my patients after hearing about its use in education, and then using it myself, because I see many people who attribute current or recent worsening of their MS to stressful life events, or to feeling stressed," she said. "It also appealed to me as a drug-free strategy which people can do themselves. The aim of my research was to find out whether using HeartMath could reduce stress in people with MS, with a long-term aim of helping to reduce MS disease activity."

The belief that stress affects MS is not a new one.

"From the first recorded medical observations of MS," Olding wrote, "a link has been noted between stress and MS. (Jean-Martin) Charcot, who first described MS as a disease, cited ‘prolonged grief’ financial problems, and ‘circumstances of moral order’ as being associated with the appearance of symptoms.’" (While Charcot, 1825 – 1893, a French neurologist and pioneer in neurology, is not alone in making a connection between stress and MS, Olding noted in her report that there is still skepticism about such a connection in the medical community.)

Olding’s study included three men and 17 women from the ages of 19 and 63, all of whom "believed that stress was, or had recently been exacerbating their MS." The patients who believed stress was a "trigger factor" for a relapse or worsening of their MS symptoms consented to participating in HeartMath training.

"They were instructed to practice the technique for at least 10 minutes a day (first thing), but also at any time when they felt anxious or agitated, found themselves mentally free, or were trying to get to sleep," Olding said, noting that 15 of the participants actually used HeartMath regularly.

"Although some reduction in anxiety and depression might be expected to result from the support of a nurse specialist, the drop in HAD scores in the HeartMath user group was consistent and significant enough to suggest that this technique was effective in lowering anxiety and depression as a result of stress in people with MS."

Research over the last 21 years by the Institute of HeartMath has shown that focusing on positive emotions such as gratitude or appreciation, compassion and caring can help increase an individual’s heart rate variability pattern, or coherence. Coherence is a highly beneficial state in which the heart, mind and emotions are in energetic alignment and cooperation. Coherence builds resiliency.

IHM Director of Research Rollin McCraty explains: "Heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of how responsive the heart is to tiny chemical changes in the bloodstream, stimulating the heart to beat or relax, is directly affected by emotion. Negative emotion such as frustration or anger cause a low or incoherent HRV pattern, and positive emotions such as gratitude cause a high HRV pattern."

Olding stressed that her trial group was relatively small, the research was informal and she had no control group. She said there were many variables in the trial, including changes in medication, jobs and activities by participants who had scored high on initial, or baseline stress tests. These people tried numerous other approaches in the process, so all of the variables could have contributed to the final HAD scores.

Nevertheless, she noted, "The results indicate significant changes which suggest that HeartMath has a role to play as a safe, effective holistic intervention for stress in patients with MS. … Of the HeartMath regular user group, 100% had improved HAD scores."

Olding shared comments from participants in the regular HeartMath user group made after the study.

• "Brilliant. Absolutely helped me so much. It’s made such a massive difference."
• "I’m sleeping better – six hours instead of four."
• "I actually feel the benefits of it, and it is something that I know I can do myself."
• "I know my scores didn’t change much, but this year, it is amazing that I’m not worse."
• "I don’t think people who knew me five years ago would even recognize me, how I react to things now."