We all have a remedy – a glass of wine or a piece of chocolate – for lifting our spirits when we’re in a bad mood. Rather than focusing on ways to make ourselves feel better, a team of Iowa State University researchers suggests wishing others well.
Researchers are investigating if daily mindful meditation through an app could decrease anxiety in antepartum patients, who are hospitalized due to pregnancy complications, in a new trial at UTHealth.
More than 200 children ages 5-10 years old practiced yoga, meditation and sensory strategies to help them manage stress, ease test anxiety and focus on their schoolwork. Mindfulness training has been shown to reduce stress and improve mental health issues in children.
Mindfulness may be associated with fewer menopausal symptoms for women, according to a Mayo Clinic study recently published in Climacteric: The Journal of the International Menopause Society. Researchers discovered that being mindful may be especially helpful for menopausal women struggling with irritability, anxiety and depression.
As the New Year approaches, Loyola Medicine family physician Kit Lee, MD, FAAMA is offering 10 holistic lifestyle tips that can boost your health and potentially reduce the need for medications.
As we embark on 2019, it’s easy to become stressed out by the many demands on our time and energy. Why not try practicing mindfulness to create the kind of New Year that you really want? This will require effort, intention and reflection.
If your holidays will include elderly visitors, it may be important to do some advance planning to help ensure their safety. Dr. Sonja Rosen, chief of Geriatric Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, offers tips to prevent falls and keep older guests comfortable.
Mindfulness training may improve the effectiveness of intensive weight management programs, according to a small study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
For people with Type 2 diabetes, testing blood sugar levels becomes part of everyday life. But a new study suggests that some of them test more often than they need to. Fourteen percent of people with Type 2 diabetes who don’t require insulin are buying enough test strips to test their blood sugar two or more times a day – when they don’t need to test nearly that frequently according to medical guidelines.
Cutting back considerably on high-calorie foods, even full meals, in the days or weeks before Thanksgiving in anticipation of pigging out on turkey, sweet potato pie and other traditional dishes on the big day is a common pre-holiday diet plan.
Emergency room visits for yoga injuries have increased 70% in the past five years for over 36 million Americans who practice yoga. To make yoga safer for everyone and to prevent yoga-related injuries, Loren Fishman, MD, has launched YIP—Yoga Injury Prevention (YIP.Guru), a searchable interactive web site.
Kim Innes, an epidemiology professor from the West Virginia University School of Public Health, and her team are studying the potential benefits of a simple meditation or music listening practice for improving memory and cognitive functioning, as well as mood, sleep and quality of life in adults with subjective cognitive decline, or SCD.
People who include a little yoga or tai chi in their day may be more likely to remember where they put their keys. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and Japan’s University of Tsukuba found that even very light workouts can increase the connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for memory formation and storage.
Religion and nature can both lead to awe, and turning to one or the other is a common coping strategy for the stress.
But an awe-inspiring experience can have negative consequences as well as benefits, according to a novel UB-led study that uses cardiovascular responses to stress to take a broad look at awe and the critical role perspective plays when considering the effects of encountering awe.
Ever wonder why some people seem to feel less pain than others? A study conducted at Wake Forest School of Medicine may have found one of the answers – mindfulness.
This month's tip sheet from Fred Hutch includes story ideas about immunotherapy for a deadly type of skin cancer, cancer care that costs twice as much but yields no better outcome, yoga and music therapies for breast cancer and more. To pursue any of these story ideas, please contact the individual listed for each.
A breast cancer patient dealing with anxiety, depression or mood swings could soon be encouraged by her oncologist to learn meditation techniques, join a yoga class or put music to therapeutic use. Today, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), published its endorsement of integrative therapy guidelines recently established by the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO).
“Photons are the elementary particle responsible for light,” said Hollingsworth, a researcher at the Laboratory’s Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies. “If the 20th century depended on electronics, it is predicted that the 21st century will depend as much on photonics: the science and application of making, detecting, controlling and transforming photons.”
A new study suggests compassion meditation training may reduce the distress a person feels when witnessing another’s suffering. The findings may have implications for professions in which people routinely work with others who are suffering, like doctors, law enforcement officers and first responders.
Cancer, like so many other overwhelming or life-altering situations, can really stick with a person. For many, the end of treatment is met with a flood of emotions that can make it difficult to get back to normal life. Learning how to recognize and live with a cancer diagnosis is a struggle that can last for years even after being given a clean bill of health. For Penn patient Catherine Hagele, the end of treatment was simply the end of one chapter in her journey, and the beginning of another.
A meditation and stress reduction program may be as effective at getting people to move as structured exercise programs, according to a study led by an Iowa State researcher. Jacob Meyer is part of another study that found resistance training reduces symptoms of depression.
Mindfulness meditation programs have shown promise for the treatment of anxiety, one of the most common mental health disorders in the U.S. New research suggests people can begin to derive psychological and physiological benefits from the practice after a single introductory session.
A new study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at MGH identified genes associated with the body’s response to relaxation techniques and sheds light on the molecular mechanisms by which these interventions may work to lower blood pressure. The findings were published today in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
Dutch adventurer Wim Hof is known as “The Iceman” for good reason. Hof established several world records for prolonged resistance to cold exposure, an ability he attributes to a self-developed set of techniques of breathing and meditation — known as the Wim Hof Method — that have been covered by the BBC, CNN, National Geographic and other global media outlets. Yet, how his brain responds during cold exposure and what brain mechanisms may endow him with this resistance have not been studied — until now.
Wayne State University School of Medicine professors Otto Muzik, Ph.D., and Vaibhav Diwadkar, Ph.D., changed that.
A new study could bring a better scientific understanding of the unique stressors facing police officers. Expanding on a pilot study, the new project delves deeper into the effectiveness of an eight-week mindfulness-based program on police well-being and brings into the fold new collaborators in the law enforcement community.
Losing or maintaining weight over the holidays can be a struggle. While the average holiday weight gain is about 3% of body weight, or 3.35 lbs, research shows that although weight gain can be slight for some, it can also last a lifetime.
Rural counties continue to rank lowest among counties across the U.S., in terms of health outcomes. A group of national organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National 4-H Council are leading the way to close the rural health gap.
Mindfulness may offer an active coping mechanism for mothers faced with the stress of having a newborn diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD). Mindfulness, which aims to increase a person’s awareness and acceptance of daily experiences, is currently used in a variety of healthcare settings as a potentially effective skill for stress reduction, emotion, affect and attention regulation.
The mindfulness movement has grown in popularity over the past two decades, but research on its effectiveness is still catching up. According to a West Virginia University neuroscientist, increasing the precision of mindfulness research can multiply the potential benefits that meditation and similar practices impart.
Participating in twice-weekly practice of Tibetan yoga may reduce sleep disturbances and improve sleep quality in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, according to a study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Researchers analyzed interviews with 23 patients and produced a model of the circuitous process of healing. The study found healing involved the acquisition of trusted relationships and resources, giving rise to characteristics like self-acceptance, and ultimately, a restored sense of wholeness.
Anesthetic gases selectively block consciousness, sparing non-conscious brain activities. Thus the specific mechanism of anesthetic action could reveal how the brain produces consciousness.
Researchers at Jefferson’s Maternal Addiction Treatment Education & Research (MATER) program found significant improvement in the quality of parenting among mothers who participated in a trauma-informed, mindfulness-based parenting intervention while also in medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. Results of the study, the first to scientifically test a mindfulness-based parenting intervention with this population, were published July 27 in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.
After participating in a single, 15-minute session of one of these mind-body therapies, patients reported an immediate decrease in pain levels similar to what one might expect from an opioid painkiller. This study is the first to compare the effects of mindfulness and hypnosis on acute pain in the hospital setting.
We all have encountered people who seem “holier than thou” — those who believe they are morally superior to others; in fact, we may have felt morally superior ourselves at times. If so, you’re not alone – self-righteousness is widespread.
As people grow older, those who are securely attached to God are more likely to have a sense of well-being — and the more frequently they pray, the greater that feeling, Baylor University sociologists have found. But those who feel more distant from God do not receive the same benefit.