Transcript Mind Body Interventions for Health and Wellness

Mind Body Interventions for Health & Wellness
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Scope of Mind Body Interventions
It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to
know what sort of disease a person has ~ Hippocrates
• WHO defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social
well-being, not simply the absence of disease.”
• We can assist our bodies in the healing process, or we can exacerbate, or
create illness with what we express through the mind
• Disease states produce a psychological stressor (fear, anxiety) that further
impairs the body’s ability to recover
• “Emotions are not in the head. There’s a cellular consciousness. There’s a
wisdom in every cell. Every single cell has receptors on it.” -Dr. Candace
Pert
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The Neuroscience of Mindfulness
• Changes in the CNS alter immune responses
• Immune cells (lymphocytes) talk to the CNS
• Psychosocial factors alter our susceptibility to autoimmune and infectious
diseases
• Stress can influence immunologic reactivity – including the effectiveness
of an immunization program
• Depression plays a role in chronic disease and immune function
suppression
• Relaxation techniques influence immunologic reactivity
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Research on Mind Body Effects
• Pavlov – repeated CS, not reinforced by an UCS resulted in disappearance
of the CR (1928)
• Solomon & Moos – theoretical integration of emotion, immunity &
disease (1964)
• Ader – illness-induced taste aversion in rats (1975)
• Ader & Cohen – immunosuppressive conditioning verified (1991)
• Could conditioning be applied as a treatment for specific disease states or
to enhance immunity? Psychoneuroimmunology
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Psychoneuroimmunology
• Some human beings are more resistant to conditioning than others
• Biochemical responses, and behaviors, can become conditioned
• Visual cues reinforce conditioning phenomena
• Stress regulates downward immunity and degrades health
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Stress and Health Outcomes
• The presence of germs is insufficient to create a
disease state
o Virus in necessary, but insufficient
o Weakness in the immune system must also exist
Dr. Robert Ader. Univ. of Rochester School
of Medicine
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Relationships and Life Events
Affect Your Health
• Loneliness contributes to immune suppression
• Significant decreases in NK-cell activity in response to stress
• Uncertainty and perceived threat increase stress
• Lack of social support, conflict, caregiving,
bereavement
• Stress may contribute to cancer directly
through impairments in the DNA-repair
process (Glaser, et al, 1985)
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But…
Does lifestyle really matter?
Let’s talk –
exercise, disease, inflammation
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Total Number of Cancer Deaths Averted
1991-2008 Men & 1992-2008 Women
2012 American Cancer Society
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Exercise Effects DNA Transcription
Similar to other cancers, breast cancer follows a sequential
progression of events
2012 American Cancer Society
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Macrophage Activity
Macrophages are phagocytes, their role is to engulf and digest
cellular debris and pathogens (like a plecostomus).
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Progression of Breast Cancer
• Initiation – occurs when DNA encounters a carcinogen, resulting in the
erroneous insertion of a complimentary nucleotide.
• Promotion – initiated epithelial cells are exposed to promoters that
increase their proliferation.
• Progression – initiated cells become tumors when a second genetic event
allows the initiated cells to be permanently altered.
• Metastasis -- Malignant cells proliferate uncontrollably, spreading to
distant organs, resulting in death.
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3 Pathways for Exercise to Effect Cancer
• The anti-inflammatory effect of exercise
• Improved blood immune function associated with progression-free and
overall cancer survival
• Tumor-Associated Macrophages (TAMs) plastic response in the tumor
micro-environment
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Exercise and Blood Immune Function
• Blood immune function is positively associated with progression-free,
overall survival of cancer
• Exercise can improve blood immune function in cancer survivors
• Improvements of BIF through exercise include increased natural killer (NK)
cell cytotoxic activity, monocyte function, and proportion of circulating
granulocytes
• This study found that moderate intensity exercise increased NK cell
cytotoxic activity in postmenopausal breast cancer survivors
• Positive correlations between good NK cell function and disease-free,
overall survival, as well as poor NK cell fx and disease relapse
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The Era of Super Stress
• Quality of work with daily onslaught of “e-distractions?”
• Emails, YouTube clips, Tweets, Facebook,…
• “Do more with less” –> “Do everything with nothing”
• “Cerebral burnout” due to information overload
• Individuals who never stop are –
o
o
o
More irritable
Frustrated, rude, angry, cynical…
Have a harder time concentrating and being creative
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Stress in the Workforce
“We cannot have a maxed-out, sleep-deprived, stressed-out, e-distracted
work force and expect good things to happen.”
11 recommendations for coping with worksite stress:
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Stress in the Workforce
1.
Start Mental Training – meditation
2.
Establish Strong Healthy Boundaries – balance work/life
3.
Seek Muscle Tension Relief – massage
4.
Get Active – do something… everyday
5.
Eat for a healthy immune system – organic, fruits, veggies
6.
Get a Good Night’s Sleep – healthy sleep hygiene
7.
Go Natural – get in touch with nature
8.
Lean on Your Friends – socialize in-person with close friends
9.
Tickle Your Funny Bone – laughter is medicine
10. Create a Relaxation Survival Kit – soothing items: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell
11. Get in Tune with Music Therapy – instrumental soothes best
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Relaxation Therapy
• Somatic Relaxation – muscle relaxation
• Cognitive Relaxation – using a word, thought, breath to relax
• Relaxation Therapy
o Strengthens immune function (Kiecolt-Glaser, et al, 1985)
–
Increases NK-cell targeting
–
Significantly reduces stress (psychologic distress)
o Helps in managing hypertension (Lehrer, et al, 1994)
o Reduces chronic pain (US Agency for Health Care Policy and Research)
o Effective in treating stress, anxiety, and depression (Beck, et al, 1979)
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Meditation
Our cognitive processes – what we think, our interpretation, and reinterpretation of events –
often fuel the biochemical responses that can impair, or improve, our health ~ Lyn Freeman
• Concentrative – focus on a thought, or the breath
• Non-Concentrative – observing, in a non-judgmental way, our thoughts
• Physiologic Effects –
o Oxygen consumption is lowered
o HR & respiration rate is decreased – low level of anxiety
o Blood lactate levels sharply decrease (UCLA & Harvard studies)
o Practitioners become less reactive to external stressors
o Significant elevation of positive mood state
o Decreased suppression of immunity
o Fewer symptoms of anxiety
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Manifestations of Meditation
• Behavior is altered outside the meditative state, this differs from
relaxation
• Chronic stress elevates hormone levels,.. But makes bursts of the same
hormones less available when needed
• Meditation sharpens alertness, and increases reaction times, differing
from psychotropic drugs
• Contraindications include people exhibiting schizophrenia, and obsessivecompulsive disorders
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Types of Mind Body Interventions
• Focused, non-judgmental breathing
• Transcendental & Mindfulness Meditation
• Guided Imagery
• Loving Kindness Meditation
• PMR
• Movement Meditations – Yoga, Tai Chi, Running, Swimming
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How long does it take?
• 20 minutes twice each day is recommended
• Just 12 minutes a day can make you more productive – mindfulness
improves working memory
• Information management
• Emotional control
• Problem solving
• Complex thought
• Kids with ADHD who meditated for 10 minutes twice each day
improved their attentional abilities significantly in 3-6 months
• …How about 3 minutes?
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Three Minute Breathing Space
Step 1: Becoming Aware
Begin by adopting a dignified posture, sitting or standing. If possible, close your eyes.
Bring your awareness to your breath and consider your inner experience and acknowledge it, asking: what is my experience right
now?
What thoughts are going through your mind? As much as you can, acknowledge your thoughts as mental events (detach)
What feelings are present? Turn toward any sense of discomfort or unpleasant feelings, acknowledging them without trying to
make them different from how you find them
What body sensations are present in this moment? Recognize any sensations of tightness or tension, acknowledging the
sensations, but again, not trying to change them in any way
Step 2: Gathering & Focusing Attention
Redirecting your attention to a narrow ‘spotlight,’ the physical sensations of the breath, begin to move in closer to the physical
sensations of the breath in the abdomen… allowing your belly to expand as your breath comes in, and fall back as your breath
goes out. Follow the breath all the way in and all the way out. If the mind wanders, gently escort the attention back to the breath.
Step 3: Expanding Attention
Now, expanding the field of awareness around the breathing so that it includes a sense of the body as a whole, as if the whole
body was breathing. If you become aware of sensations of discomfort, or tension, bring your focus of attention in to the intensity
by imagining the breath moving into and around the sensations. Explore the sensations, befriending them, rather than trying to
change them. If they stop pulling for your attention, return to your awareness of the whole body, moment by moment. In this
third step, you are opening to life as it is, gently but firmly, reaffirming that you have a place in the world – your whole mind-body,
just as it is, in all its peace, dignity and completeness
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The Power to Choose
Between stimulus and response, there is a
space. In that space is our power to choose our
own response. In our response lies our growth
and our freedom.
- Viktor Frankel
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Thank you!
Penny OBrien, Director of Wellness
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Questions?
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