MBSR

Headaches are a Headache – Reduce them with Mindfulness

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“To diminish the suffering of pain, we need to make a crucial distinction between the pain of pain, and the pain we create by our thoughts about the pain. Fear, anger, guilt, loneliness and helplessness are all mental and emotional responses that can intensify pain.” ~Howard Cutler

 

Headaches are a headache and can be disruptive to our productivity and happiness. The most common form of headache is tension headache constituting 90% of all headaches. Occasional headache is a common ailment but when it becomes chronic it can be quite disruptive to the sufferer’s life. Chronic tension headaches affect about 3% of the population.

 

It has been demonstrated that mindfulness training can help with a wide variety of types and sources of pain, for example it has been found to be effective for fibromyalgia pain http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/mindfulness-the-pain-killer/, a particularly difficult pain to treat. It has also been shown to be effective for migraine headaches.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Pain Severity and Mindful Awareness in Patients with Tension Headache: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4332994/

Omidi and Zargar test the application of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for chronic tension headache pain. They found that MBSR produced a clinically significant reduction in pain and also increased mindfulness in these patients.

 

There are a number of ways that MBSR training could be producing the reduction in tension headache pain. MBSR was designed for the reduction of stress and has been shown to be very effective. Since, tension headaches are often precipitated or amplified by stress, the reduction in responsivity to stress produced by MBSR would be expected to help reduce pain.

 

Pain itself can amplify pain by producing a fear of pain which can cause the individual to not only suffer from the current pain but add to it with worry about future pain. Many pain patients ruminate about their past pain which can also produce worry and stress and make pain worse. Indeed, meditation has been shown to reduce pain by decreasing catastrophizing. (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/07/pain-is-a-pain-relieve-it-with-meditation/). By helping the individual focus on the present moment mindfulness training can reduce the rumination about past pain and the expectation of future pain, reducing currently experienced pain.

 

Mindfulness is known to affect the brain’s processing of pain stimuli, blunting the neural activity associated with pain. This by itself could be responsible for the reduction in tension headache pain. Mindfulness also increases relaxation and reduces activity of the segment of the peripheral nervous system that’s responsible for activation and tension. This reduces the response to pain allowing greater relaxation and less pain. Mindfulness also increases awareness of one’s internal state. This self-monitoring could lead to better self-care and early intervention for a tension headache. Finally, mindfulness improves emotion regulation. It allows the individual to more effectively respond to emotions. This would include the emotions elicited by pain and those that can precipitate a tension headache. In this way, responses to pain and the intensity of the pain can be mitigated.

 

Regardless of the mechanism, mindfulness training is clearly an effective strategy for dealing with chronic tension headache pain. It remains to be seen if a simpler mindfulness training than MBSR might also be effective. MBSR requires a considerable commitment of time and energy and the presence of an instructor. This is not always practicable with the busy lives that many people lead. So, it would be better if a simpler training would be equally effective.

 

So practice mindfulness and make a headache less of a headache.

 

“When our pain is held by mindfulness it loses some of its strength.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Live More Effectively with Breast Cancer with Mindfulness

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About 1 in 8 women in the U.S. develop invasive breast cancer over their lifetimes and about 40,000 women die annually from breast cancer. It is encouraging however that the death rates have been decreasing for decades from improved detection and treatment of breast cancer. Five-year survival rates are now at around 95%. Nonetheless, more women in the U.S. die from breast cancer than from any other cancer, besides lung cancer.

The improved survival rates mean that more women are now living with cancer. This can be difficult as breast cancer survivors can have to deal with the consequences of chemotherapy, and often experience increased fatigue, pain, and bone loss, reduced fertility, difficulty with weight maintenance, damage the lymphatic system, heightened fear of reoccurrence, and an alteration of their body image. With the loss of a breast or breasts, scars, hair shedding, complexion changes and weight gain or loss many young women feel ashamed or afraid that others will reject or feel sorry for them.

There is a need then to find ways to help women adjust and adapt to life with breast cancer. Mindfulness training has been shown to help in dealing with the psychological issues associated with having cancer (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/tackle-cancer-with-mindfulness/ ). In today’s Research News article “The effect of group mindfulness – based stress reduction program and conscious yoga on the fatigue severity and global and specific life quality in women with breast cancer.”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4431452/

Rahmani & Talepasand employed Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to help women who live with breast cancer. They found that MBSR produced robust and clinically significant improvements in the patients’ quality of life including role, cognitive, emotion, and social quality of life. It even reduced pain and fatigue in these women.

These are encouraging results that MBSR can be of great assistance for women coping with breast cancer. It has been previously shown that MBSR reduces fears of recurrence and symptoms of anxiety and depression in breast cancer survivors. These reductions alone could be responsible for improved quality of life. But, MBSR does so much more. It also reduces perceived stress and arousal in the sympathetic nervous system. Reduction in stress, allowing the patient to relax, by itself can also improve quality of life.

MBSR is also known to improve present moment awareness. By focusing on the present moment rather than catastrophizing about the future of the cancer, MBSR can help the patient to focus on living with the cancer in the moment making them better able to cope. MBSR also improves emotion regulation. This allow the women to more effectively process and respond to how their feeling about their situation. So, rather than being paralyzed by fear, anxiety, and depression, they can allow themselves to feel these emotions and still respond effectively to the needs of the moment.

MBSR is also known to reduce pain (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/mindfulness-the-pain-killer/). In part, MBSR works by interrupting the rumination and fear of pain that amplifies the perceived pain. This can go a long way in improving quality of life with cancer.

Finally, there is evidence that MBSR can increase the activity of the enzyme telomerase that is responsible for long-term cellular health. This can directly affect the progress of the cancer.

So, practice mindfulness and live more effectively with cancer.

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Does spirituality account for mindfulness’ anti-depressive effects.

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Mindfulness training has physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual components. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is even more complex as it contains yoga and body scan in addition to meditation. Because of the complexity and the variety of effects of these practices it is difficult to know which components are effective in promoting well-being and which are not.

In today’s Research News article “Decreased Symptoms of Depression After Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: Potential Moderating Effects of Religiosity, Spirituality, Trait Mindfulness, Sex, and Age.”

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It is well established that MBSR is quite effective in treating and preventing depression. But it is not clear who benefits the most and what characteristics of the individual might be related to MBSR effectiveness. Greeson and colleagues investigate this question, particularly whether spirituality and religiosity or other demographic characteristics might be important for MBSR effects on depression. They demonstrate that MBSR acts independent of these other characteristics; it works regardless of level of spirituality or religiousness.

These results should not be surprising as chronic depression, as opposed to reactive depression, appears to be primarily physiologically based. It appears to be a problem with neurotransmitter balance in the central nervous system and is highly related to genetic inheritance. So, it is not surprising that behavioral and psychological characteristics such as  spirituality and religiousness would not be associated with effective treatment.

MBSR, like all contemplative practices, has marked physiological effects. It is known to change the nervous system, increasing the size of some areas, decreasing others, and altering connectivity. It also changes hormonal balances and activity in the peripheral nervous system producing greater calm and lower arousal. It is likely that these physiological effects of MBSR are responsible for its effectiveness in treating depression.

This is not to discount the importance of spirituality and religiousness. They can be very helpful with a number of conditions. Had Greeson and colleagues investigated MBSR effects on more experientially based psychological problems, such as eating disorders or panic disorder, they might have seen a large impact of spirituality and religiousness.

It is clear though that depression can be treated effectively with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

CMCS

Mindfulness, the Pain Killer

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Many people have to deal with pain on a daily basis. Most use prescription medications to help. But, these drugs are dangerous and over 12,000 people a year die from overdoses of these powerful pain killers. In addition, there are a number of disorders that do not respond well to these drugs. One of these painful disorders is fibromyalgia.

In today’s Research News “Mindfulness meditation alleviates fibromyalgia symptoms in women: Results of a randomized clinical trial.”

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It is reported that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) reduces symptoms of fibromyalgia, including perceived stress, sleep disturbance, and symptom severity, but not pain or physical functioning. This study and prior research suggest that mindfulness is a safe and effective treatment for this painful disorder. It is not a magical cure, but can be of great assistance in coping with the disorder.

MBSR contains both meditation and yoga practice. Prior research suggests that both may be helpful with pain management. Yoga exercises may help reduce fibromyalgia pain. Yoga has been shown to reduce pain, fatigue, depression, and improve sleep and energy. But, it is unclear whether meditation and yoga practice act in the same way, synergistically, or additively. Regardless they seem to work; but how?

Mindfulness practice and particularly MBSR appears to calm the sympathetic nervous system, reducing stress. This benefit can lead to a lowering of resting heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and relax muscle. Mindfulness promotes deep muscle relaxation which lessens tension and irritability. With the reduction of the stressful effects of pain, the pain becomes more manageable. The physiological relaxation itself can stop the pain from amplifying itself through the induction of the stress response.

Mindfulness practice can also help manage the psychological effects of pain. When pain is consistently part of the day, the individual starts to dwell on it. This in turn produces stress and anxiety about the present pain, as well as a dread concerning future pain. Mindfulness training can help patients learn to direct their attention away from pain. By focusing on the present moment, thoughts of future pain are removed.

Mindfulness practice can promote relaxation and awareness of what is actually transpiring. This can reduce the distressing thoughts and feelings that come with pain and prevent them from making the pain worse. Mindfulness training can enhance body awareness, which may lead to improved self-care. All of these effects of mindfulness training can help with the pain management.

Mindfulness training is known to produce changes in the nervous system that may provide benefits for pain patients. The changes appear to result in an inhibition of the central nervous system’s ability to perceive pain, reducing the sensations the patient actually feels.

So practice mindfulness to assist in pain management.

CMCS