Stress

Increase Health Behaviors with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Even though the academic research on mindfulness meditation isn’t as robust as, say, nutrition or exercise, there is a reason why it’s been around for literally thousands of years. And we’re starting to get a better understanding of why it seems to be beneficial for so many aspects of life, from disease and pain management, to sleep, to control of emotions.” – Amanda Chan

 

We tend to think that illness is produced by physical causes, disease, injury, viruses, bacteria, etc. But, many health problems are behavioral problems or have their origins in maladaptive behavior. This is evident in car accident injuries that are frequently due to behaviors, such as texting while driving, driving too fast or aggressively, or driving drunk. Other problematic behaviors are cigarette smoking, alcoholism, drug use, or unprotected sex. Problems can also be produced by lack of appropriate behavior such as sedentary lifestyle, not eating a healthy diet, not getting sufficient sleep or rest, or failing to take medications according to the physician’s orders. Additionally, behavioral issues can be subtle contributors to disease such as denying a problem and failing to see a physician timely or not washing hands. In fact, many modern health issues, costing the individual or society billions of dollars each year, and reducing longevity, are largely preventable. Hence, promoting healthy behaviors and eliminating unhealthy ones has the potential to markedly improve health.

 

Mindfulness training has been shown to promote health and improve illness. It appears to be associated with a number of factors that also promote health including emotion regulation, stress management, and immune function. Many of the improvements occur by changing health behaviors. This suggests that mindfulness may affect health indirectly through intermediaries, with mindfulness affecting an intermediary which in turn affects health behaviors which in turn affects health.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness facets, trait emotional intelligence, emotional distress, and multiple health behaviors: A serial two-mediator model.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1230914793599111/?type=3&theater

or see below

Jacobs and colleagues explore the role of emotional intelligence and stress management as intermediaries between mindfulness and health behaviors. They had a large group of occupational therapists complete a series of tests on-line and conducted sophisticated statistical analyses to determine mediation effects of emotional intelligence and stress management between four different facets of mindfulness, observing, describing, acting with awareness and accepting without judging, and health behaviors.

 

They found that all of the mindfulness facets were significantly associated with positive health behaviors. The observing facet was primarily associated directly with health behaviors while the mindfulness facets of acting with awareness and accepting without judging affected health behaviors indirectly by affecting emotional intelligence and stress management which in turn, improved health behavior. Hence, the effects of mindfulness on health behaviors is partially direct with observing and indirect through emotional intelligence and stress management for the acting with awareness and accepting without judging facets.

 

These results suggest that observing, being able to notice and pay attention to internal and external occurrences, allow the individual to be better able to change their health behavior. Perhaps, being more aware of the effects of behavior on the body, the condition of the body, and the links to external conditions is helpful in motivating behavioral change. In other words, improved awareness of what the individual is doing and its consequences produces positive change in what the individual does.

 

Emotional intelligence involves being able to experience emotions fully without judging them. The mindfulness facet of accepting involves “being nonjudgmental and allowing the experienced

phenomena to be as they are without attempting to avoid, change or eliminate them.” Hence, mindfully accepting emotions is itself a component of emotional intelligence. In addition, emotional intelligence involves acting appropriately and adaptively in response to the emotions. This includes acting with awareness. Hence, the mindfulness facet of acting with awareness would be directly linked to emotional intelligence. In turn, emotional intelligence would allow for a more rational and adaptive response to our situation which would include promoting health behavior. So, the ability of mindfulness to produce positive health behaviors occurs in part directly and in part through its relationship with emotional intelligence.

 

The most important message here is that mindfulness can contribute greatly to your health. It improves your behavior to take better care of your health and it also improves the way you deal with your emotions making you better able to cope with the stresses of everyday life, improving your health. So, increase health behaviors with mindfulness.

 

“people who have battled with health problems for years find relief through accepting and working with their condition in a new way, dropping the desperate struggle to make things different from how they are. Mindfulness training makes it possible for a different kind of healing to take place, creating an open space of awareness from which people can start choosing to live well, as best they can, even with a serious illness.” – Line Goguen-Hughes

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

 

Study Summary

Jacobs, I., Wollny, A., Sim, C.-W. & Horsch, A. (2016). Mindfulness facets, trait emotional intelligence, emotional distress, and multiple health behaviors: A serial two-mediator model. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology

 

Abstract

In the present study, we tested a serial mindfulness facets-trait emotional intelligence (TEI)-emotional distress-multiple health behaviors mediation model in a sample of N = 427 German-speaking occupational therapists. The mindfulness facets-TEI-emotional distress section of the mediation model revealed partial mediation for the mindfulness facets Act with awareness (Act/Aware) and Accept without judgment (Accept); inconsistent mediation was found for the Describe facet. The serial two-mediator model included three mediational pathways that may link each of the four mindfulness facets with multiple health behaviors. Eight out of 12 indirect effects reached significance and fully mediated the links between Act/Aware and Describe to multiple health behaviors; partial mediation was found for Accept. The mindfulness facet Observe was most relevant for multiple health behaviors, but its relation was not amenable to mediation. Implications of the findings will be discussed.

 

Help Cancer Treatment with Qigong

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Qigong is a viable and essential practice for enhancing everyday life, as well as an effective factor in mainstream health care.“ – Sifu Wong

 

Qigong has been practiced for thousands of years with benefits for health and longevity. Qigong training is designed to enhance function and regulate the activities of the body through regulated breathing, mindful concentration, and gentle movements. Only recently though have the effects of qigong practice been scrutinized with empirical research. It has been found to be effective for an array of physical and psychological issues. It appears to strengthen the immune system, reduce inflammation and increase the number of cancer killing cells in the bloodstream. All of these effects suggest that Qigong may be effective for cancer survivors.

 

Modern medicine has improved markedly in treating cancer. But, the treatments themselves can be difficult on the patient and produce great discomfort and suffering. In addition, if the treatment is successful, the cancer survivor is left with a whole different set of challenges. Fatigue accompanies cancer and its treatment in from half to all cancer patients depending upon the type of cancer and treatment regimen. The fatigue can continue even after completion of successful treatment. The patient feels weak, tired, weary, or exhausted all of the time and sleep does not relieve the tiredness. Symptoms can include prolonged, extreme tiredness following an activity, arms and legs feeling heavy and hard to move, lack of engagement in normal daily activities, trouble concentrating, thinking clearly, or remembering, feeling frustrated, irritable, and upset, putting less energy into personal appearance, and spending more time in bed or sleeping. It is easy to confuse cancer-related fatigue with depression. The cause of cancer-related fatigue is unknown.

 

The best treatment for cancer-related fatigue appears to be encouragement to engage in moderate exercise along with relaxation and body awareness training. The ancient Chinese practice of Qigong has all of these properties. It’s a light exercise that produces relaxation and body awareness. So, it would seem reasonable to expect that Qigong practice would be effective in treating cancer patients.

 

In today’s Research News article “Qigong in cancer care: a systematic review and construct analysis of effective Qigong therapy.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1225696334120957/?type=3&theater

or see below

Klein and colleagues review the published research literature on the application of Qigong for the treatment of cancer patients. They report that a significant number of controlled studies report that Qigong has positive effects on the cancer-specific quality of life, improving the overall well-being of the patients. In this regard, it is effective for reducing fatigue, which by itself will improve quality of life. Importantly for fighting cancer, Qigong improves immune function, reduces the inflammatory response, and the stress levels of individuals with cancer, as referenced by decreased cortisol levels. These latter findings suggest that Qigong can not only improve the quality of life but also help in fighting the cancer itself.

 

These findings are very exciting. They suggest that Qigong practice may be a tremendous help in treating cancer and for the patients coping with the consequences of cancer and its treatment. Qigong is a light exercise as well as a mindfulness practice. Because of its gentle nature it is appropriate for individuals weakened by disease or for the elderly. The exercise component may be essential for improving the individual’s ability to fight cancer. The mindfulness component is also important as mindfulness practices, in general, have been found to be effective in improving health and fighting disease. So, the combination of gentle exercise along with mindfulness training suggests that Qigong is a potent mixture to assist cancer patients.

 

So, help cancer treatment with qigong.

 

“Qigong is clearly not for those who would like to take a pill and wait for the next instruction from the oncologist. But for anyone who has found their diagnosis has led them to a deeper enquiry into the subtler energetic levels of health and healing, this practice has a proven track record and can provide excellent results for those with the discipline for daily practice.” – Donatus Roobeek

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Study Summary

Klein PJ, Schneider R, Rhoads CJ. Qigong in cancer care: a systematic review and construct analysis of effective Qigong therapy. Support Care Cancer. 2016 Apr 5. [Epub ahead of print] Review.

PMID: 27044279

 

Abstract

Purpose: This review (a) assesses the strength of evidence addressing Qigong therapy in supportive cancer care and (b) provides insights for definition of effective Qigong therapy in supportive cancer care.

Methods: This mixed-methods study includes (a) a systematic review of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) following PRISMA guidelines and (b) a constant-comparative qualitative analysis of effective intervention protocols.

Results: Eleven published randomized clinical trials were reviewed. A total of 831 individuals were studied. Geographic settings include the USA, Australia, China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. Qigong therapy was found to have positive effects on the cancer-specific QOL, fatigue, immune function, and cortisol levels of individuals with cancer. Qigong therapy protocols varied supporting a plurality of styles. Qualitative analyses identified common programming constructs. Content constructs included exercise (gentle, integrated, repetitious, flowing, weight-bearing movements), breath regulation, mindfulness and meditation, energy cultivation including self-massage, and emphasis on relaxation. Logistic constructs included delivery by qualified instructors, home practice, and accommodation for impaired activity tolerance.

Conclusions: There is global interest and a growing body of research providing evidence of therapeutic effect of Qigong therapy in supportive cancer care. While Qigong therapy protocols vary in style, construct commonalities do exist. Knowledge of the common constructs among effective programs revealed in this research may be used to guide future research intervention protocol and community programming design and development.

 

Alleviate Work Related Stress with On-Line Mindfulness Training

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Mindfulness stress call center2 Allexandre

Alleviate Work Related Stress with On-Line Mindfulness Training

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Managers who practice mindfulness have discovered that it improves their ability to encourage calm and stability in the workplace. They actually increase productivity when they model “mindful manager” qualities, such as listening before acting and leading people by focusing less on hierarchical relationships. “Do this because I told you to” becomes “Let’s talk about how and why we do things this way.” – Ruth W. Crocker

 

Stress is epidemic in the western workplace. A recent Harris poll found that 80 percent of workers feel stressed about one or more things in the workplace. This stress can lead to physical and psychological problems for managers and employees, including personal and professional burnout, absenteeism, lower productivity, and lower job satisfaction. Indeed, 46.4% of employees, report having psychological distress.

 

Call centers can be particularly stressful due to a heavy workload, sustained fast work pace, repetitive tasks, lack of control over the job, the blurred relation between feelings and actions, a competitive environment, and being faced with losing a client. These stresses can lead to problems, including visual, auditory, and speech fatigue. Indeed, each year, 60% of employees take sick leave and 39.4% of employees showed psychological distress symptoms and 8.3% found themselves in a severe situation of psychological distress, and 24% were taking psychoactive drugs. This also produces high turnover, with the average employee leaving the job after only a year.

 

Mindfulness training of employees is a potential help with work related stress. It has been shown to reduce the psychological and physical reactions to stress overall and particularly in the workplace and to reduce burnout. A problem in implementing mindfulness programs in the workplace is the time required for the training. This makes many managers reticent to try it. So, it is important to develop programs that do not seriously impact on work time. A potential solution is to train mindfulness on-line. Indeed, training over the internet has been found to be effective for anxiety depression.

 

In today’s Research News article “A Web-Based Mindfulness Stress Management Program in a Corporate Call Center: A Randomized Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Added Benefit of Onsite Group Support.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1219305188093405/?type=3&theater

or below, or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4768630/

Allexandre and colleagues implemented an 8-week on-line mindfulness stress management program for call center employees and compared its effectiveness to a wait-list control group. They implemented three different programs, a condition with on-line mindfulness training alone, a condition with mindfulness training combined with a support group, and a condition with mindfulness training and a support group led by a licensed clinical psychologist.

 

They found that all the on-line mindfulness training groups had greater reductions in perceived stress, and increases in emotional well-being, and emotional role functioning than the wait-list control group. These improvements were maintained at 8-weeks after the end of the training program. The addition of the support group produced greater satisfaction with the program and greater reductions in stress, and improvements in emotional well-being, and emotional role functioning than the mindfulness training alone group. Surprisingly, the addition of a clinical psychologist to the support group did not improve the support group’s effectiveness.

 

These results suggest that mindfulness training can be implemented over the internet and it can be effective in reducing stress and improving emotional well-being, and emotional role functioning for call center employees. It has been shown previously that mindfulness reduces the psychological and physiological responses to stress. These results demonstrate that this benefit can be produced with on-line training. They further demonstrate that adding a support group magnifies the effectiveness of the program. So, mindfulness can help, but mindfulness with support from other employees is substantially better. The sharing in support groups may well help the employee to see that their issues are shared by many, reducing their impact on the individuals work performance and well-being.

 

These findings suggest that a mindfulness training program that takes little time away from work can be successfully implemented and can have beneficial effects. This may be important for convincing managers and executives to implement such programs in their enterprises,

 

So, alleviate work related stress with on-line mindfulness training.

 

“Teaching mindfulness to employees can help them take a step back, think through a problem and consider all options. And that can improve decision making and positively affect the bottom line. One recent study, for example, showed that when call center employees took part in a mindfulness program, client satisfaction increased. Employees were also less stressed, anxious and fatigued on the job, thereby increasing productivity.” – Lisa Wirthman

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Study Summary

Allexandre, D., Bernstein, A. M., Walker, E., Hunter, J., Roizen, M. F., & Morledge, T. J. (2016). A Web-Based Mindfulness Stress Management Program in a Corporate Call Center: A Randomized Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Added Benefit of Onsite Group Support. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 58(3), 254–264. http://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000000680

 

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of an 8-week web-based, mindfulness stress management program (WSM) in a corporate call center and added benefit of group support.

Methods: One hundred sixty-one participants were randomized to WSM, WSM with group support, WSM with group and expert clinical support, or wait-list control. Perceived stress, burnout, emotional and psychological well-being, mindfulness, and productivity were measured at baseline, weeks 8 and 16, and 1 year.

Results: Online usage was low with participants favoring CD use and group practice. All active groups demonstrated significant reductions in perceived stress and increases in emotional and psychological well-being compared with control. Group support improved participation, engagement, and outcomes.

Conclusion: A self-directed mindfulness program with group practice and support can provide an affordable, effective, and scalable workplace stress management solution. Engagement may also benefit from combining web-based and traditional CD delivery.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4768630/

Keep Health Care Professionals from Burning Out with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Through practicing mindfulness we become more aware of subtle changes in our mood and physical health, and can start to notice more quickly when we are struggling. Rather than waiting for a full meltdown before we take action, we can read the signals of our minds and bodies and start to take better care of ourselves.” – The Mindfulness Project

 

Stress is epidemic in the western workplace with almost two thirds of workers reporting high levels of stress at work. In high stress occupations burnout is all too prevalent. This is the fatigue, cynicism, emotional exhaustion, and professional inefficacy that comes with work-related stress. Healthcare is a high stress occupation. It is estimated that over 45% of healthcare workers experience burnout with emergency medicine at the top of the list, over half experiencing burnout. Currently, over a third of healthcare workers report that they are looking for a new job. Nearly half plan to look for a new job over the next two years and 80% expressed interest in a new position if they came across the right opportunity.

 

Burnout is not a unitary phenomenon. In fact, there appear to be a number of subtypes of burnout. The overload subtype is characterized by the perception of jeopardizing one’s health to pursue worthwhile results, and is highly associated with exhaustion. The lack of development subtype is characterized by the perception of a lack of personal growth, together with the desire for a more rewarding occupation that better corresponds to one’s abilities. The neglect subtype is characterized by an inattentive and careless response to responsibilities, and is closely associated with inefficacy. All of these types result from an emotional exhaustion. This exhaustion not only affects the healthcare providers personally, but also the patients, as it produces a loss of empathy and compassion.

 

Regardless of the reasons for burnout or its immediate presenting consequences, it is a threat to the healthcare providers and their patients. In fact, it is a threat to the entire healthcare system as it contributes to the shortage of doctors and nurses. Hence, preventing existing healthcare workers from burning has to be a priority. Mindfulness has been demonstrated to be helpful in treating and preventing burnout. One of the premiere techniques for developing mindfulness and dealing effectively with stress is Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is a diverse mindfulness training containing practice in meditation, body scan, and yoga. As a result, there have been a number of trials investigating the application of MBSR to the treatment and prevention of health care worker burnout.

 

In today’s Research News article “Outcomes of MBSR or MBSR-based interventions in health care providers: A systematic review with a focus on empathy and emotional competencies”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1197241983633059/?type=3&theater

http://www.complementarytherapiesinmedicine.com/article/S0965-2299(15)30014-5/fulltext

Lamothe and colleagues summarize the published literature on the effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for healthcare worker burnout. They found that the preponderance of evidence from a variety of different trials indicated that MBSR treatment is effective for burnout. In particular, the research generally reports that MBSR treatment significantly improves mindfulness, empathy, and the mental health of healthcare workers. It was found to significantly relieve burnout, and reduce anxiety, depression, and perceived stress.

 

Hence, the published literature is highly supportive of the application of MBSR for the prevention and treatment of healthcare worker burnout. It appears to not only help the worker, but the improvement in the empathy of the worker projects positive consequences for the patients. In addition, the reduction in burnout suggests that MBSR treatment may help to reduce healthcare workers leaving the field, helping to relieve the systemic lack of providers. These are remarkable and potentially very important results.

 

Mindfulness training makes the individual more aware of their own immediate physical and emotional state. Since this occurs in real time, it provides the individual the opportunity to recognize what is happening and respond to it effectively before it contributes to an overall state of burnout. Indeed, mindfulness training has been shown to significantly improve emotion regulation. This produces clear experiencing of the emotion in combination with the ability to respond to the emotion adaptively and effectively. So, the healthcare worker can recognize their state, realize its origins, not let it affect their performance, and respond to it appropriately, perhaps by the recognition that rest is needed.

 

So, keep health care professionals from burning out with mindfulness.

 

“It helps people to undo some of the sense of the time pressure and urgency that makes it so hard to feel present for your patient, and it helps your patients feel like you’re really there, really listening and that you really care. What you learn is to undo the distractedness that comes with worrying about what happens next, and the concern with what’s already over and done with. It doesn’t take more time; it takes an intention and practice to do it successfully.” –  Dr. Michael Baime

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Improve Emotions in MS with Mindfulness

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By Dr. John M. de Castro

 

“Mindfulness practice appears to be a safe, drug-free approach to coping with stress and anxiety, which may in turn help reduce your MS symptoms.” – Amit Sood

 

“Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most widespread disabling neurological condition of young adults around the world. more than 400,000 people in the United States and about 2.5 million people around the world have MS. About 200 new cases are diagnosed each week in the United States. The most common early symptoms of MS are: fatigue vision problems tingling and numbness vertigo and dizziness muscle weakness and spasms problems with balance and coordination.” – Healthline

 

MS is a progressive demyelinating disease which attacks the coating on the neural axons which send messages throughout the body and nervous system. It is most commonly diagnosed in people between the ages of 20 and 50 years.  Unfortunately, there is no cure for multiple sclerosis.  There are a number of approved medications that are used to treat MS but are designed to lessen frequency of relapses and slow the progression of the disease, but they don’t address individual symptoms. Although there is a progressive deterioration, MS is not fatal with MS patients having about the same life expectancy as the general population. Hence, most MS sufferers have to live with the disease for many years. So, quality of life becomes a major issue. There is a thus a critical need for safe and effective methods to help relieve the symptoms of MS and improve quality of life.

 

Quality of life with MS is affected by fatigue, cognitive decrements, physical impairment, depression, and poor sleep quality. But, the emotional symptoms are the most problematic with clinically significant depression present in 50% of MS sufferers and anxiety in about a third of MS sufferers. Since mindfulness has been previously shown to improve depression, sleep quality, cognitive impairments, and emotion regulation, it would seem likely that mindfulness would affect the quality of life in MS patients.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Anxiety, Depression and Stress in Women with Multiple Sclerosis”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1179736912050233/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4733502/

Kolahkaj and Zargar compared MS patients who were randomly assigned to receive either Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) or treatment as usual. They were compared prior to the intervention, after and two months later. They found that MBSR produced clinically significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and stress that were maintained two months after the end of active treatment.

 

The size and endurance of the effectiveness of MBSR is striking. But, it should be remembered that the control condition did not receive any active intervention, only receiving treatment as usual. Hence, the effectiveness of MBSR could be due to a number of contaminants including expectancy effects, experimenter bias effects, attention effects, etc. or social effects as MBSR is conducted in groups. It remains for future research to compare MBSR to other active interventions. In addition, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) involves meditation, body scan, and Hatha yoga. It is a potent combination. But, it leaves the question open as to which of the components is effective against the various symptoms of MS. Once again, future research is needed to begin to separate out effective from ineffective components.

 

MBSR is known to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress. Since MS produces considerable stress in the sufferers, reducing the responses to stress may be a very important component of MBSR’s effectiveness for depression and anxiety. Also the yoga component of MBSR may be helpful in helping the MS sufferers to better deal with the effects of MS on motor movements and this may reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Both meditation and yoga are known to improve emotion regulation, allowing the patient to better experience their emotions, yet respond to them adaptively and positively. This could markedly reduce anxiety, depression, and in turn, stress.

 

Regardless of the mechanism, it is clear that Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) produces marked improvement in the levels of anxiety, depression, and stress of MS patients. So, improve emotions in MS with mindfulness.

 

“I dissolved into a spiral of negative thinking. But since I started to practise mindfulness, I can control my negative thoughts and fears about the future. My stress levels are the lowest they’ve ever been and I’m back at work full-time.

I think mindfulness is even having a physical effect on the progression of the disease – my disability progression continues to be slow, even though I’ve been diagnosed for five years now.” – Gareth Walker

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Improve Gastrointestinal Disorders with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

 “The functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are a group of more than 20 chronic and hard to treat medical conditions of the gastrointestinal tract that constitute a large proportion of the presenting problems seen in clinical gastroenterology.” – Jennifer Wolkin

 

Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders are the most common disorders of the gastrointestinal tract in the general population. The most common disorder in this group is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders can involve the esophagus, stomach and/or intestines and are disorders of function (how these structures work), not structural or biochemical abnormalities. Estimates vary, but about 25% of people in the United States have one of these disorders. The conditions account for about 40% of GI problems seen by doctors and therapists.

 

The cause(s) of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders are not known. But, emotion dysregulation is suspected to be involved. It is clear that psychological stress exacerbates the illnesses and anxiety amplifies the symptoms. This suggests that mindfulness or the lack thereof may be involved as mindfulness is known to be helpful in reducing the psychological and physical responses to stress and mindfulness is known to improve emotion regulation. In addition, contemplative practice has been shown to improve the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. So, it would make sense to further investigate the relationship of mindfulness to emotion regulation, stress, and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders.

 

In today’s Research News article “Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Mindfulness in Psychological and Somatic Symptoms of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1178359818854609/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4733315/

Mazaheri investigated the relationships between gastrointestinal symptoms, emotions, emotion regulation, and mindfulness in patients diagnosed with Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders. They found that the higher the levels of either depression, anxiety, or stress the greater the GI symptoms and that the lower the levels of emotion regulation the greater the symptoms. Significantly, they found that high levels of mindfulness were associated with lower levels of GI symptoms, depression, anxiety, and stress and with higher levels of emotion regulation.

 

The results support the contention that an inability to regulate emotions and stress are an important factor in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders. In addition, they suggest that mindfulness is not only associated with lower levels of emotion and psychological stress but also with a greater ability to regulate these emotions. It should be noted that the results of this study are strictly observational and correlational and as such no conclusion about causation can be reached. But, the results give strong support to the need to perform a randomized controlled trial where mindfulness is trained and its effects on emotion regulation and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders are measured.

 

With the caveat that causation hasn’t been established, it can be speculated that mindfulness training may be a safe and effective method for both the prevention and treatment of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders. Mindfulness’ ability to improve emotion regulation may help the individual to be able to better experience emotions but respond to them in an effective and adaptive manner, lessening their impact. It remains for future research to investigate this exciting possibility.

 

So, improve gastrointestinal disorders with mindfulness.

 

“patients with heightened GI-specific anxiety may benefit from participation in a mindfulness programme as an adjunct to their usual clinical care.” – D. J. Kearney

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Age Healthily: Improve Cellular Health with Mindfulness

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“Simply responding to the physical symptoms of disease might make sense for treating an acute infection or fixing a broken leg, but to beat chronic age-related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia, we will need to embrace the fuzzy, subjective domain of the mind.” – Jo Marchant

 

Aging seems inevitable. But, different species age at different rates. Everyone knows for example that dogs’ life span is about 1/6th of the human life span. This suggests that there must be some biological mechanism that regulates aging. Recent genetic research is starting to uncover that mechanism. It has been found that the genes, coded on the DNA molecule, govern cellular processes in our bodies. One of the most fundamental of these processes is cell replication. Cells are constantly turning over. Dying cells or damaged are replaced by new cells. The cells turn over at different rates but most cells in the body are lost and replaced between every few days to every few months. Needless to say were constantly renewing ourselves.

 

As we age the tail of the DNA molecule called the telomere shortens. When it gets very short cells have a more and more difficult time reproducing and become more likely to produce defective cells. On a cellular basis this is what produces aging. As we get older the new cells produced are more and more defective. The shortening of the telomere occurs each time the cell is replaced. So, slowly as we age it gets shorter and shorter. This has been called a “mitotic clock.” This is normal. But, telomere shortening can also be produced by oxidative stress, which can be produced by psychological and physiological stress. This is mediated by stress hormones and the inflammatory response. So, chronic stress can accelerate the aging process. In other words, when we’re chronically stressed we get older faster.

 

Fortunately, there is a mechanism to protect the telomere. There is an enzyme in the body called telomerase that helps to prevent shortening of the telomere. It also promotes cell survival and enhances stress-resistance.  Research suggests that processes that increase telomerase activity tend to slow the aging process by protecting the telomere.  One activity that seems to increase telomerase activity and protect telomere length is mindfulness practice (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/12/04/retreat-for-longevity/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/aging-healthily-yoga-and-cellular-aging/). Hence, engaging in mindfulness practices may protect the telomere and thereby slow the aging process.

 

In today’s Research News article “Telomerase activity and its association with psychological stress, mental disorders, lifestyle factors and interventions: A systematic review”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1168516629838928/?type=3&theater

Deng and colleagues review the published scientific literature on factors that influence telomerase activity. They report that chronic, long-term, psychological stress but not acute, short-term, stress reduced telomerase activity. They also report that Major Depressive Disorder is associated with reduced telomerase activity. Importantly, they find that diet, exercise, and mindfulness practices all increase telomerase activity. In particular, they found that “physical exercise, diet micronutrient supplementation, mindfulness meditation, Qigong practice or yoga mediation resulted in increase in telomerase activity.”

 

These are very exciting outcomes and suggest that mindfulness practices might contribute to longevity by reducing cellular aging. How might these very different practices increase telomerase activity? All of these mindfulness practices have been shown to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/). Since, chronic stress has been shown to reduce telomerase activity and in turn accelerate cellular aging, it would seem reasonable to conclude that practices that reduce stress responses would protect the individual from the deleterious effects of stress and increase telomerase activity. There may be other mechanisms involved, but this would seem to be the obvious one.

 

These findings suggest that mindfulness practices may improve longevity by protecting us from the damaging effects of chronic stress. By making us more mellow, we age slower.

 

So, age healthily: improve cellular health with mindfulness.

 

“it is possible that greater presence of mind promotes a healthy biochemical milieu and, in turn, cell longevity,” – Elizabeth Blackburn

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Get College Students out of the Dumps with Mindfulness

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“College is a great time in a young person’s life. You get to grow in many aspects; socially, academically and even spiritually. . . . Yes, college can be one of the best times, but it also comes with some of the worst times in your life. The constant stress of classes, exams, organization obligations, friend drama and family issues can completely break a person. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed and overworked, that we feel absolutely hopeless.” – Mariah Nicole Wild

 

Depression is a common mental illness. It is debilitating by producing any or all of a long list of symptoms including: feelings of sadness or unhappiness, change in appetite or weight, slowed thinking or speech, loss of interest in activities or social gatherings, fatigue, loss in energy, sleeplessness, feelings of guilt or anger over past failures, trouble concentrating, indecisiveness, anger or frustration for no distinct reason, thoughts of dying, death and suicide. This can be difficult at any point in life, but for college students with the intense demands on them, it can be devastating. Depression in college students is extremely common with 36.4% of reporting some level of depression. Depression is the number one reason students drop out of school. It also can lead to other symptoms including suicide Indeed, suicide is the third leading cause of death among college students.

 

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is most commonly treated with drugs, but they can have problematic side effects and are not always effective. So, there is a need for alternative treatments for Major Depressive Disorder. Behavioral Activation (BA) has been shown to be effective for depression. It involves behavioral strategies to increase positive reinforcement and the encouragement of activities that produce pleasure and feelings of accomplishment in the patient’s life. Mindfulness training is another alternative treatment for depression. It has been shown to be an effective treatment and is also effective for the prevention of its reoccurrence (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/depression/).

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness-based therapy and behavioral activation: A randomized controlled trial with depressed college students”

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McIndoo and colleagues randomly assigned college students who suffered from Major Depressive Disorder to either Behavioral Activation, Mindfulness training, or to a wait list control group who did not receive treatment. Treatment occurred in one hour weekly sessions for four weeks. They found that both the Behavioral Activation and Mindfulness Training produced significant improvements in both self-reported and clinician assessed depression, perceived stress, and rumination, but not anxiety. The Mindfulness training alone produced increases in mindfulness. These were clinically significant changes of moderate to large effect sizes and these improvements were maintained at a one-month follow-up. Importantly, around two thirds of the treated groups attained remission from depression while only one quarter in the wait list group did.

 

These are impressive findings that a relatively brief treatment with either Mindfulness or Behavioral Activation training could produce such dramatic changes in the students. Since both approaches were clinically effective, the study findings suggest that either approach can be selected by clinicians tailored to the client. There were some indications that the Mindfulness training was preferred by the students, possibly because it is simpler and less stressful than Behavioral Activation. Regardless, both appear to be appropriate alternative treatments for major depressive disorder in college students.

 

So, get college students out of the dumps with mindfulness

 

“Imagine what effect it would have on you if someone stood behind you all day telling you how useless you were when you were trying desperately to cope with a difficult experience. Now imagine how much worse it would be if the criticism and harsh judgment came from inside your own mind.” ― Mark Williams
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Rejuvenate Doctors Conveniently with Mindfulness

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“Mindfulness gives doctors permission to attend to their own health and well-being. But it also allows doctor to help patients by listening more, talking less, and seeing what the patients need.” – Dr. Mary Catherine Beach

 

“That’s the thing: You don’t understand burnout unless you’ve been burned out. And it’s something you can’t even explain. It’s just doing something you have absolutely no passion for.” – Elena Delle Donne

 

It is estimated that there is a shortage in the U.S. of over 9,000 physicians. The shortages are not just due to training insufficient numbers of healthcare provides but also due to high turnover rates. In part because of the shortage and high patient loads, physicians experience high stress and burnout. They experience a loss of enthusiasm for work, feelings of cynicism, and a low sense of personal accomplishment. This is known as burnout.

 

In a recent survey 46% of all physicians responded that they had burnout. Currently, over a third of healthcare workers report that they are looking for a new job. Nearly half plan to look for a new job over the next two years and 80% expressed interest in a new position if they came across the right opportunity. Since there is such a great need to retain experienced physicians, it is imperative that strategies be identified to decrease stress and burnout.

 

Mindfulness training has been shown to be effective for burnout of health care professionals (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/burnout/). But todays physicians are extremely busy and have little time to devote to mindfulness training. Hence, it is important to develop a mindfulness training that can be administered conveniently and is effective. In today’s Research News article “Brief Video-Module Administered Mindfulness Program for Physicians: A Pilot Study”

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Pflugeisen and colleagues developed a mindfulness training consisting of “three live sessions, eight online video trainings, and weekly teleconference coaching calls.”  Other than the live sessions all of the trainings could be accessed at a time and place of the physicians’ convenience. In a pilot study, they found that in comparison to pre-training the physicians showed large and significant decreases in stress and emotional exhaustion, and increases in feelings of personal accomplishment, and mindfulness. These improvements were still present 16-weeks later.

 

These pilot results are very encouraging. The program was not only effective in improving physician well-being, it was convenient for the physicians, as it was delivered for the most part when the physicians had time to engage. This makes this program much more likely to be initiated and completed by busy physicians. There is, of course, a need for a randomized controlled trial before rolling out this program for widespread use.

 

These results suggest that mindfulness is to some extent an antidote to high stress and burnout in physicians. There are a number of effects to mindfulness training that could be responsible for the reduced perceived stress and increased well-being. In particular mindfulness has been shown to reduce both physiological and psychological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/). Mindfulness has also been shown to increase emotion regulation, allowing the individual to experience and respond to emotional situations appropriately and constructively and thereby reduces stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/emotions/). Finally, mindfulness training is targeted to increasing focus on the present moment. This tends to reduce catastrophizing, worry, and anxiety which are focused on potential negative future events (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/worry/) and thereby can reduce psychological stress in physicians.

 

Regardless of the reason it is clear that mindfulness training can be delivered conveniently to busy physician and it can reduce burnout and improve well-being.

 

So, rejuvenate doctors conveniently with mindfulness

 

“If you asked my patients, I think they would say I listen more carefully since the training and that they feel they can explain things to me more forthrightly and more easily. Even the brief moments with patients are more productive. Are there doctors who desperately need this training? Yes, absolutely.” – Edward Stehlik, M.D.
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Improve Your Stress Responses with Mindful Awareness

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“Researchers estimate that stress contributes to as many as 80 percent of all major illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disease, skin disorders, and infectious ailments of all kinds.” – Prescription for Nutritional Healing 4th edition

 

The mind and body are intimately connected and can never be completely separated. This can be witnessed in how the brain and the hormonal systems interact. The stress response is a case in point. Difficult, challenging, outside situations affect the mind which responds by producing psychological and physiological stress responses. These include the release of stress hormones such as cortisol. This prepares the body to fight off the potentially damaging stressors. This is normally a good thing, but if it persists over a prolonged period the stress response itself becomes damaging and a source of disease. Hence, it is important to not block the stress response but to insure that it doesn’t become a chronic condition.

 

The stress hormones including cortisol not only affect the peripheral physiology, they also affect the brain. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are particularly sensitive to cortisol. These are also sites that are affected by meditation (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/01/this-is-your-brain-on-meditation/). In addition, it has been shown that meditation reduces the psychological and physiological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/). So, it is possible that meditation has its effects on stress responses in part by altering the brain structures that respond to stress hormones, that it changes the brains response to stress hormones.

 

In today’s Research News article “Can the neural–cortisol association be moderated by experience-induced changes in awareness?”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4649618/

Lau and colleagues separated meditation naïve adults into two groups, an awareness-based compassion meditation (ABCM) group and a relaxation group. The groups practiced for six weeks for comparable amounts of time. Following practice, they found that the meditation produced a significant increase in mindfulness while the relaxation actually reduced mindfulness. These changes in mindfulness were significantly related to cortisol levels with high mindfulness associated with low cortisol. In addition, they found that both increases in mindfulness and decreases in plasma cortisol levels were associated with increases in the synchronization of spontaneous brain activities of the Hippocampus. In other words, mindfulness moderates the ability of cortisol to affect the hippocampus. Hence, meditation increased mindfulness that in turn decreased both blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol and the ability of cortisol to affect brain function.

 

These results demonstrate that mindfulness affects the stress response, with higher mindfulness associated with lower levels of stress hormones. But, they also demonstrate another effect of mindfulness on the stress system. High mindfulness was associated with a greater effect of cortisol on the activity of the hippocampus. These results then demonstrate that mindfulness has a direct effect of reducing stress hormone levels and also indirect effects by affecting the influence of the stress hormones on the brain. This is a clear case of mind-body interaction.

 

The findings of Lau and colleagues demonstrate two physiological mechanisms through which mindfulness practice has powerful effects on reducing psychological and physiological responses to stress. These results further support the use of mindfulness practice to improve stress responding and thereby improve health and well-being. These effects of mindfulness on stress may be a major reason why mindfulness training is so beneficial to a wide array of health conditions.

 

So, improve your stress responses with mindful awareness.

 

“Cortisol could be described as “Miss Misunderstood” of hormones. Elevated levels of cortisol is not always bad. Low levels of cortisol is not bad either. Cortisol is there for a reason. The body uses cortisol to deal with stress and pain and it fluctuates according to the body’s demand. The problem arises when the stress is not dealt with for an extended period of time and as a result the body’s stress adaption mechanism breaks down and cortisol levels go crazy. In order to prevent such a fate, stress reduction could definitely offer significant help.” – YawnCentral

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies