Improve Pain Responding in Adolescents with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “mindfulness was a significant predictor of both real-world and experimental pain outcomes. Adolescents who were more mindful tended to experience less interference in their day-to-day life as a result of pain. Additionally, . . . more mindful adolescents reported less […]
Reduce Opioid Treated Low Back Pain with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “When your focus is on the pain, obviously that increases the pain. For people who meditate, their muscle tension and heart rate drops, their respiration slows and breaths gets deeper. All those things have impact on the pain.” – […]
Improve Sleep with Tai Chi By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Tai chi, a lifestyle intervention that targets stress that can lead to insomnia, was also found to reduce inflammation, and did so by reducing the expression of inflammation at the cellular level and by reversing activation of inflammatory signaling pathways.” – Science […]
Reduce Pain in Children with Mind-Body Practices By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Guided imagery is a meditative process that uses visualization and imagination to bring awareness to the mind-body connection. Children can easily access this healing process because they’re naturally imaginative. By relaxing into a vivid story they gain tools to deal […]
Reduce Pain with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Mindfulness is an effective practice for approaching chronic pain. It teaches individuals to observe their pain, and be curious about it. And, while counterintuitive, it’s this very act of paying attention that can help your pain.” – Margarita Tartakovsky We all have […]
Tai Chi is Better than Physical Therapy for Knee Osteoarthritis By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Tai chi helps patients preserve and improve function by increasing strength, flexibility and coordination while avoiding aggravation of arthritic pain and inflammation. Tai chi is a particularly appealing form of exercise, as it is very low impact […]
Tai Chi Fails to Improve Pain and Quality of Life in Patients with Spinal Cord Disorders By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Tai chi is often described as “meditation in motion,” but it might well be called “medication in motion.” There is growing evidence that this mind-body practice, which originated in China as a […]
Relieve Chronic Fatigue with Tai Chi By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “T’ai chi is a wonderfully gentle form of movement and exercise that can be appropriate to all levels of physical ability. It can also result in increased energy levels which are particularly noticeable if your energy levels are low in the […]
Maintain a Yoga Practice to Improve Absences due to Back Pain By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “For people with lower back pain, stretching is very important. For example, stretching the hamstring muscles (in the back of the thigh) helps expand the motion in the pelvis, decreasing stress across the lower back. In […]
Improve the Quality of Life of Parents of Children with Chronic Diseases with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “mindfulness meditation is extremely good at relieving anxiety, stress, depression, exhaustion and irritability. Memory improves, reaction times become faster and mental and physical stamina increase. In short, regular meditators are happier and more […]