Lower Heart Rate and Increase its Variability with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “If a person’s system is in more of a fight-or-flight mode, the variation between subsequent heartbeats is low. If one is in a more relaxed state, the variation between beats is high. In other words, the healthier the […]
Improve Major Depressive Disorder with Psilocybin and Mindfulness Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “mindfulness training enhances the positive effects of a single dose of psilocybin, and can increase empathy and permanently reduce ego-centricity. This opens up new therapeutic avenues, for example for the treatment of depression.” – Franz Vollenweider Psychedelic substances […]
Reduce Anxiety and Depression in Coronary Heart Disease Patients with Tai Chi By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Tai chi is an interesting, promising exercise option. I think based on what we found, it’s a reasonable and safe step to offer tai chi within cardiac rehab.” – Elena Salmoriago-Blotcher Cardiovascular disease is […]
Improve Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents with Yoga Practice By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Yoga appears to be a promising complementary therapy and stress-management tool for children and adolescents, with very low reports of adverse effects. Yoga, as a therapeutic intervention, has positive effects on psychological functioning, especially in children […]
Improve a Biological Marker of Aging, Telomeres, with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “While we might expect our bodies and brains to follow a shared trajectory of development and degeneration over time, by actively practicing strategies such as meditation, we might actually preserve and protect our physical body and brain structure […]
Improve Emotion Processing by the Brain with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Alterations in key brain circuits associated with emotion regulation can be produced by mindfulness meditation.” – Richard Davidson There has accumulated a large amount of research demonstrating that meditation practice has significant benefits for psychological, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. It […]
Improve Sleep in Insomniacs with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Given the absence of side effects and the positive potential benefits of mindfulness that extend beyond sleep, we encourage people with chronic insomnia, particularly those unable or unwilling to use sleep medications, to consider mindfulness training.” – Cynthia Gross Modern society has […]
Online Mindfulness Training Improves Clinical Anxiety and Depression By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “adding MMB [mindfulness training] to depression care led to greater reductions in depressive and anxious symptoms, higher rates of remission and higher levels of quality of life compared to patients receiving conventional depression care alone.” – Traci Pederson […]
Improve Body Size, Endocrine Function, and Anxiety in Anxious Obese Children with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Mindfulness is a promising tool to be used as an adjunctive therapy for childhood obesity, either because of its potential to decrease stress or because it could counter act the stressful condition imposed by […]
Relieve Generalized Anxiety Disorder with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “a way to reduce the symptoms of anxiety is to be fully, mindfully, anxious. As anxiety reveals itself to be a misperception, symptoms will dissipate.” – George Hofmann Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 […]