Blood Chemistry

Heart Healthy Yoga

psyjdc 11 Comments

Metabolic Syndrome is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It generally results from overweight and abdominal obesity and includes high blood pressure, insulin resistance and elevation of plasma cholesterol and triglycerides. It is an important risk factor as it increases the risk of developing type-2 diabetes five-fold and heart attack or stroke three-fold.

Metabolic Syndrome incidence has been rising rapidly approaching epidemic proportions. It is estimated that it currently affects 34% of US adults. Needless to say this is a major health problem. The good news is that timely treatment can prevent or reverse the risk. The simplest treatment is simply exercise and weight loss.

Yoga has been used to promote health and well-being for thousands of years. In today’s Research News article “Effects of 1-year yoga on cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged and older adults with metabolic syndrome: a randomized trial”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1045854842105108/?type=1&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4440276/

Siu and colleagues examine whether yoga is an effective treatment for metabolic syndrome. They found that a 1-year yoga program reduced waist circumference, blood pressure, and resting heart rate and increased activity levels. This suggests that yoga is effective in reducing the symptoms of the Metabolic Syndrome.

Probably the most important finding was a 3.5% reduction in waist circumference. Most of the Symptoms of the Metabolic Syndrome result from a high level of abdominal fat. This produces the insulin resistance which in turn increases diabetes risk and raises cholesterol and triglycerides which increases cardiovascular risk. Hence, a key to treatment is to reduce this belly fat and yoga appears to be effective at doing just that.

Yoga is in part an exercise and this by itself could be responsible for the improvement. Indeed yoga practice increased activity levels which promotes the conversion of fat to muscle. So, even if there is no change in weight there is a reduction in abdominal fat, the primary culprit in Metabolic Syndrome.

Yoga, however, produces other beneficial effects that could be responsible for the improvement in Metabolic Syndrome. Yoga practice reduces the physiological symptoms of stress. It reduces the levels of stress hormones and it relaxes the sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight system. Stress exacerbates the symptoms of Metabolic Syndrome. By reducing the physiological mechanisms by which stress affects Metabolic Syndrome, yoga can markedly improve the symptoms. In addition, by reducing stress, yoga can improve immune system response, increasing the individual’s ability to fight off diseases.

So practice yoga and reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

CMCS

Tackle Cancer with Mindfulness

psyjdc 3 Comments

Cancer is arguably the most feared disease. Just the word seems to strike fear in the hearts of most everyone, let alone a diagnosis of cancer. Unfortunately this fear is well founded. It is the second leading cause of death. It is estimated that in 2015, 1,658,370 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. and 589,430 people will die from the disease.

But beyond the mortality figures, cancer is so feared because the treatments are so difficult. It can take years of treatments that produce horrible side effects and even if they are effective there is a never ending fear of reoccurrence. There is a need to not only treat the cancer itself, but to find ways to help the victim to endure the treatments and deal with the difficult psychological and social issues that go along with the living with diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.

Mindfulness training has been found to be very helpful with the physical and psychological issues associated with diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from cancer. In today’s Research News “The impact of mindfulness-based interventions on symptom burden, positive psychological outcomes, and biomarkers in cancer patients.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4457221/

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1042255255798400/?type=1&theater

A large amount of research is reviewed and summarized. It suggests that mindfulness appears to be helpful in dealing with all of the issues surrounding cancer.

Based upon the available evidence, mindfulness training appears to be helpful with the psychological issues of distress, stress, sleep disturbance, and fatigue, quality of life and spirituality. It can assist with regulating the fear associated with cancer. Mindfulness training focuses the individual on the present moment, while fear is focused on potential future negative events. By focusing on what is transpiring now and not in the future mindfulness can ameliorate fear. It doesn’t eliminate fear. It simply makes it more manageable.

Mindfulness is known to improve emotion regulation. With training the individual is better able to deal with emotions as they arise and respond to them more appropriately. So, it helps the victims cope with the myriad of emotions associated with cancer and its treatment. The improved regulation of emotions and the reduction in fear can facilitate better sleep and increase feelings of well-being. Indeed, mindfulness has been found to be associated with improvements in sleep and increases in feelings of calm and well-being in cancer patients.

Mindfulness can help manage the pain associated directly with the cancer and indirectly with the treatments. It appears to slightly reduce the pain but has a larger impact on the psychological perception of pain. Mindfulness decreases the nervous systems responses to pain, helping the patients cope with the persistent discomfort.

Mindfulness has been well documented to reduce stress. This is particularly important in cancer patients who are under intense physical and psychological stress. Reducing this stress in turn improves the body’s ability to fight off the disease and also improves the individual’s psychological capacity to weather the storm.

All of these psychological effects of mindfulness result in an improvement in the patients’ quality of life. This is very important as fighting cancer is usually a long term-proposition. The better the quality of life with cancer the better the individual’s ability to persevere and continue to fight over the long haul.

Beyond the psychological help provided by mindfulness it also appears to help physically. It has been show to improving immune function and even alters the expression of genes associated with inflammation. It improves the regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis which is associated with stress hormones. It reduces the activity of the sympathetic nervous system which is associated with activation and stress. In addition, it can affect the body’s cells themselves increasing the important indicator of cellular aging, telomere length. All of these physical changes are indicators of improvements in the body’s ability to fight off the cancer, withstand the treatments, and improve recovery.

So, use mindfulness as a tool to improve your ability to tackle cancer.

CMCS