The Healing Power of Laughter

Laughter is the best medicine

“Always remember to laugh,” Lord Byron once said. “It is the cheapest medicine.”

While watching a 60 Minutes report, many years ago, I watched a career altering story about the healing power of laughter. Shortly after a trip to the Soviet Union, Norman Cousins, former editor of Saturday Review, was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a progressive, degenerative disease of collagen tissue often affecting the spine. His doctors indicated heavy metal poisoning as a possible cause of his illness.

Mr. Cousins, on the other hand, suspected that a stress-induced condition of adrenal exhaustion lessened his body’s ability to tolerate repeated toxic exposure to diesel exhaust fumes during his travels. He then recalled reading about a research that concluded negative emotions caused biochemical changes that had deleterious effects on the body. He theorized that positive emotions might create changes in the body that would enhance his recovery process. With the assistance of his very open-minded physician, he checked into a hotel and laughed for hours watching Marx Brothers and Three Stooges movies, while an IV infused with large amounts of vitamin C flowed into his veins.

He reported that watching the films decreased his pain and helped him to sleep better. Significant changes in his blood chemistry were recorded. The sedimentation rate (an indicator of inflammation) was taken daily, before and after “laughter” sessions; significant decreases were noted after. Cousins’ controversial personal account was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. It prompted an outpouring of disbelief and heated discussion within medical circles.

The Birth of Humor Therapy
His book, Anatomy of an Illness, became a best-seller and is now considered a classic in the world of mind-body medicine. Cousins is the father of humor therapy, and made significant contributions through encouraging and supporting the scientific investigation of humor induced physiological responses and the impact they have on our health.

Today a continually expanding body of medical research recognizes the benefits of laughter in preventing and reversing disease caused by the effect of stressful events on our lives. This finding isn’t actually as new as it appears to be. Throughout history, and for thousands of years, sages have recognized the importance of laughter, as recorded in the ancient scriptures. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” says the Bible (Proverbs 17:22).The medical world has studied humor and found that mirthful laughter, the type of laughter associated with humor, positively affects most of the body’s major systems: circulatory, respiratory, muscular, nervous (including the brain), endocrine, and immune.

The stimulation that laughter provides improves circulation because of its effects on the heart and the blood pressure. It helps the lungs to process oxygen more efficiently and improves the conditioning of the heart muscle. It also decreases the level of stress hormones circulating in the bloodstream and reduces muscle tension and pain. William Fry, now a professor emeritus at Stanford University, has conducted extensive research on the effects of laughter and concluded that several minutes of intense mirthful laughter is comparable to exercising for ten to fifteen minutes on a stationary bike or a rowing machine.

Laughter is a happy, pleasant experience that alters our emotional response to stress. It temporarily shifts our attention, allowing us to experience the lighter side of life even in the face of adversity or illness. It enables us to release painful emotions like anger, fear, and boredom. Through laughter, we can leave behind crying and feeling like a victim, instead moving toward health and feeling like a survivor.

The ability to appreciate humor can reduce the mood disturbances that are the response to negative life events. Psychologically, it somehow gives us a greater sense of control over our lives. Although we cannot control the outside world and the things that happen in it, we do have the ability to control how we view these events and how we respond to them emotionally.

There is an interesting difference between the effects on our health of appropriate and inappropriate humor. The basic rule is that appropriate humor is inclusive: it brings people together. Any humor that is exclusive—that separates, offends, or lacks consideration of the feelings of others—is inappropriate. Therefore, it’s no surprise to me that medical research has determined that appropriate humor is beneficial, whereas inappropriate humor is not.

Laughter Engagement Suggestions
The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor defines therapeutic humor as “any intervention that promotes health and wellness by stimulating a playful discovery, expression, or appreciation of the absurdity or incongruity of life’s situations.”

Laughter is an effective self-care tool. It improves the body’s function. Yet it is not merely a tool to be employed when you’re stressed or unwell; it a gift of your humanity to be thoroughly enjoyed every day of your life. We’re born laughing. Babies begin to laugh during the first few months of life. On average, children laugh about 150 times a day, whereas most adults laugh only 15 times a day. Laughing will help you to stay young at heart.

Stronger social bonds are formed when laughter is shared. Have you ever “caught” someone else’s boisterous laughter? Surely you have! Nothing beats the feeling that comes from being “infected” like this. Laughter definitely helps us raise our happiness quotient.

To bring more smiles and laughter into your life, try one of these humor strategies:
1. Consciously intend to laugh.
2. Identify what types of things you find funny.
3. Cultivate a playful attitude.
4. Learn to tell jokes.
5. Create your own verbal humor.
6. Look for humor in your daily life.
7. Laugh at the silly things you do.
8. Purposefully find humor in the midst of stress.
9. Hang out with people who make you laugh.
Let’s begin laughing!

Sources:
SuperHealing: Engaging Your Mind body, and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being by Elaine R. Ferguson, MD Chapter 2

Med School Success Basics: Worried, Feeling Anxious? Stop It NOW

Med School Success Basics

One of the greatest ways to relieve stress may sound impotent, but trust me when I tell you it’s not.

I’ve learned this over the years–find something to laugh about.  No joke.

It can change your physiology immediately, and take your body from stress, dis-ease to ease and relaxation.

I couldn’t believe it either, when I first heard about Norman Cousins’ seminal book, Anatomy of an Illness on a television interview.  I was intrigued, but stupified by the thought that watching comedy films could put a severe, chronic degenerative disorder as anklyosing spondylitis to be healed.

Today, thanks to his work, there’s a field of humor therapy, that has clearly defined the benefits of laughter.

If you can’t laugh–take a few deep breaths.  That will stop your brain from releasing stress hormones. You can mediate–even 2 to 5 minutes are beneficial. .  Meditate.

Also  there are nutrients phytochemicals (botanicals), vitamins, minerals and amino acids which can make a difference in your brain functioning.  Check out our Med School Basic Resources for more information.

Or you  can take a few minutes and immerse yourself in nature.

How are you feeling about what’s going on in the world?  I know a lot of people have been experiencing more fear, uncertainty, and despair, for a variety of reasons.  I want to share with you something that can help you and our world.

Several years ago while walking through the parking lot of a major big box store, I saw a beautiful little boy sitting in a shopping cart being pushed by his mother. His arms were outstretched as if to embrace everyone in his presence, and as they approached me, he turned his joyful smile in my direction. As he looked at me, beaming, he held out his arms toward me. I felt his heart embracing me, as though he’d actually wrapped his arms around me, and I also felt my heart returning his embrace.

It all happened in just a few seconds, but it was a powerful and beautiful moment that I will never forget.

His mother looked and me and said, “He’s like this everywhere we go. He just wants to love the world. It’s so embarrassing.”

“Don’t be embarrassed,” I replied. “He’s beautiful.”

I believe babies and young children are our purest and most accessible example of spiritual engagement. They live entirely in the moment and are always express their truth. Upset one moment, they can become happy with lightning speed. It’s not until much later in life that we linger in sadness.

Children haven’t experienced enough involvement with the external world to displace their natural awareness of love, and they are naturally and openly connected to their spirits. There are no prolonged interfering thoughts or emotions that separate them from their spirits. They remind us of who we are and of the beauty that lies within us. Over time, however, that engagement with spirit dwindles, and as adults, we shift our focus to the physical realm. Still, spirit remains the core of our being and waits for our conscious return to it.

And lovingkindness, is the doorway to our spirit.  There are many ways to give. Explore new avenues for giving of yourself to others: family, friends, colleagues, coworkers, and strangers. The purest and easiest way is to be fully present with a person when you are together.

Committing random and conscious acts of kindness and volunteering on a regular basis, particularly when engaging in the acts from a place of spiritual awareness, are remarkable ways to experience optimal well-being.

The Kindness Diaries

A couple of weeks ago, my sister shared a powerful program with me, The Kindness Diaries, currently airing on Netflix.  It’s a powerful series, capturing the highlights of one man’s journey across the globe seeking and sharing random acts of kindness.

While we don’t have to travel as Leon did, committing acts of kindness can make a difference in our lives and those we touch.

Here’s a link to his website http://www.leonlogothetis.com/

Study Find Benefits of Doing Good

Laboratory-based experiments have shown that providing support can help individuals cope with stress, increasing their experiences of positive emotion. To investigate whether this holds true in daily  functioning in the real world, researchers at Yale University and UCLA  Ansell and co-authors Elizabeth B. Raposa (UCLA and Yale University School of Medicine) and Holly B. Laws (Yale University School of Medicine) conducted a study in which people used their smartphones to report on their feelings and experiences in daily life.

The results indicated that helping others boosted participants’ daily well-being. A greater number of helping behaviors was associated with higher levels of daily positive emotion and better overall mental health.

Significantly, their helping behavior also influenced how they responded to stress. People who reported lower-than-usual helping behavior reported lower positive emotion and higher negative emotion in response to high daily stress. Those who reported higher-than-usual levels of helping behavior, on the other hand, showed no dampening of positive emotion or mental health, and a lower increase in negative emotion, in response to high daily stress. In other words, helping behavior seemed to buffer the negative effects of stress on well-being.

“It was surprising how strong and uniform the effects were across daily experiences,” says Ansell. “For example, if a participant did engage in more prosocial behaviors on stressful days there was essentially no impact of stress on positive emotion or daily mental health. And there was only a slight increase in negative emotion from stress if the participant engaged in more prosocial behaviors.”

So the next time, you’re feeling out of harmony with the world, please remember, you can make a difference, one that will help another and yourself.  That is the beauty of sharing kindness.

Sources:

Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being: Chapter 9

The article abstract is available online: “Prosocial Behavior Mitigates the Negative Effects of Stress in Everyday Life” and access to other Clinical Psychological Science research findings http://cpx.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/12/10/2167702615611073.abstract

Study Reveals How to Have A Bigger Brain and Your Improve Memory

People who eat a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, nuts and fish may have bigger brains, according to a recently published study in the  online issue of Neurology.

“People with greater brain volume have been shown in other studies to have better cognitive abilities, so initiatives that help improve diet quality may be a good strategy to maintain thinking skills in older adults,” said study author Meike W. Vernooij, MD, PhD, of the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. “More research is needed to confirm these results and to examine the pathways through which diet can affect the brain.”

The study included 4,213 people in the Netherlands with an average age of 66 who did not have dementia.

Participants completed a questionnaire asking how much they ate of nearly 400 items over the past month. Researchers looked at diet quality based on the Dutch dietary guidelines by examining intake of foods in the following groups: vegetables, fruit, whole grain products, legumes, nuts, dairy, fish, tea, unsaturated fats and oils of total fats, red and processed meat, sugary beverages, alcohol and salt. Researchers ranked the quality of diet for each person with a score of zero to 14. The best diet consisted of vegetables, fruit, nuts, whole grains, dairy and fish, but a limited intake of sugary drinks. The average score of participants was seven.

All participants had brain scans with magnetic resonance imaging to determine brain volume, the number of brain white matter lesions and small brain bleeds. The participants had an average total brain volume of 932 milliliters.

Information was also gathered on other factors that could affect brain volumes, such as high blood pressure, smoking and physical activity.

Researchers found after adjusting for age, sex, education, smoking and physical activity that a higher diet score was linked to larger total brain volume, when taking into account head size differences. Those who consumed a better diet had an average of two milliliters more total brain volume than those who did not. To compare, having a brain volume that is 3.6 milliliters smaller is equivalent to one year of aging.

Diet was not linked to brain white matter lesions or small brain bleeds.

For comparison, researchers also assessed diet based on the Mediterranean diet, which is also rich in vegetables, fish and nuts, and found brain volume results were similar to those who adhered closely to Dutch dietary guidelines.

Vernooij said the link between better overall diet quality and larger total brain volume was not driven by one specific food group, but rather several food groups.

“There are many complex interactions that can occur across different food components and nutrients and according to our research, people who ate a combination of healthier foods had larger brain tissue volumes,” Vernooij said.

She noted that because the study was a snapshot in time, it does not prove that a better diet results in a larger brain volume; it only shows an association.

Limitations of the study include that diet was self-reported and relied on someone’s ability to remember what they ate over one month, and the study was conducted in a Dutch population and therefore other populations may not have similar results.

Sources

http://www.newswise.com/articles/for-older-adults%2C-a-better-diet-may-prevent-brain-shrinkage

http://n.neurology.org/content/early/2018/05/16/WNL.0000000000005691

Is Stress Interrupting Your Sleep? Here’s a Solution

We know that stressful events certainly prevent a good night’s sleep.  Researchers at the Japanese Sleep Institute found that the active component rich in sugarcane and other natural products may stop stress and improve the chances of having sound sleep.

In today’s world ever-changing environment, demanding job works and socio-economic factors enforces sleep deprivation in human population. Sleep deprivation induces tremendous amount of stress, and stress itself is one of the major factors responsible for sleep loss or difficulty in falling into sleep. Currently available sleeping pills does not address stress component and often have severe side effects. Sleep loss is also associated with certain other diseases including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, depression, anxiety, mania deficits etc.

The research group led by Mahesh K. Kaushik and Yoshihiro Urade of the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS), University of Tsukuba, found that octacosanol reduces stress and restores stress-affected sleep back to normal.

Octacosanol is abundantly present in various everyday foods such as sugarcane (thin whitish layer on surface), rice bran, wheat germ oil, bee wax etc. The crude extract is policosanol, where octacosanol is the major constituent. Policosanol and octacosanol have already been used in humans for various other medical conditions.

In the current study, authors made an advancement and investigated the effect of octacosanol on sleep regulation in mildly stressed mice by oral administration. Octacosanol reduced corticosterone level in blood plasma, which is a stress marker. The octacosanol-administered mice also showed normal sleep, which was previously disturbed due to stress. They therefore claim that the octacosanol mitigates stress in mice and restores stress-affected sleep to normal in mice. The sleep induced by octacosanol was similar to natural sleep and physiological in nature. However, authors also claimed that octacosanol does not affect sleep in normal animals. These results clearly demonstrated that octacosanol is an active compound that has potential to reduce stress and to increase sleep, and it could potentially be useful for the therapy of insomnia caused by stress. Octacosanol can be considered safe for human use as a therapy, because it is a food-based compound and believed to show no side effects.

Octacosanol/policosanol supplements are used by humans for functions such as lipid metabolism, cholesterol lowering or to provide strength. However, well-planned clinical studies need to be carried out to confirm its effect on humans for its stress-mitigation and sleep-inducing potentials. “Future studies include the identification of target brain area of octacosanol, its BBB permeability, and the mechanism via which octacosanol lowers stress,” Kaushik says.

A sugarcane field in Okinawa. Whitish layers of sugarcane (left lower panel) abundantly contain octacosanol.

Sources:

http://www.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/research-list/p201709050930

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170905111357.htm

Kaushik MK, Aritake K, Takeuchi A, Yanagisawa M, Urade Y. (2017) Octacosanol restores stress-affected sleep in mice by alleviating stress. Scientific Reports 7: 8892
doi:10.1038/s41598-017-08874-2

The Self-Healing Personality

We all experience varying degrees of stress in our daily life. It is also quite common to have been prescribed a tranquilizer, to help you cope with stress. Juggling between a load of tasks and things to worry about has become a daily routine in all our lives. But amidst this stressful life that you’re living, did you ever stop to think how you need to take better care of yourself? Did you ever stop to think about taking charge? Have you ever tried to destress?

Stress is not always a bad thing! Stress is a natural reaction- a little of bit of stress is what keeps us going. This type of “acute” or “good” stress is what brings out the best in us in a project, or when faced with a deadline or challenge. It is also what helps us get through emergencies. However, how we perceive and respond to stress is the key to taking control. It can be the difference between maintaining our health and developing a stress related disease. More than 80 per cent of all doctor visits are stress related. When we are exposed to prolonged or undefined stress, or when several sources co-exist, it is much harder for us to recover and return to our normal state.

Our bodies created a response to life threatening situations. Fear triggers an immediate surge of hormones that prepares the body to run or fight. On the short term basis, that is an excellent, protective mechanism from which the body recovers. However, dealing with stress on a continuous basis, in a way that constantly causes the release of these stress hormones, can lead to depletion of our adrenal glands. Negative emotions actually trigger a cascade of physiological responses, including the release of norepinephrine, a chemical messenger known to suppress immune function. Also, the long term and extra release of stress hormones such as cortisol impacts the immune system by depressing the production of antibodies and messing up how our bodies function.

Chronic (dis)tress is known to cause high blood pressure and heart problems. It is also common to experience migraines, back pain and much more. As you can see, negative stress renders the body more susceptible to a variety of diseases physical and/or psychological problems. Unfortunately, some people have learned to suppress their emotions. emotions. Others try to relieve their stress by smoking, overeating, gambling, excessive shopping or even taking illicit drugs. These responses are at best temporary diversions and provide a brief sense of relief and it leaves the person worse off than they were initially.

The most significant aspect of a self-healing personality is the ability to respond to stress in a healthy manner.   How do we start reacting positively toward stress? The answer is to learning how to view your stressful situation in a different way, meaning, controlling and managing your  perceptions.

Stress occurs when we feel we don’t have the capacity to cope with a situation.We feel overwhelmed, and that perception triggers the release of stress hormones, which will cause our cells and body great harm over the long haul.  Therefore, a perceptual shift is one that will allows you to face the challenge, without essentially feeling controlled, defeated or doomed by it. While most people believe they have no choice when dealing with the stresses that occur in our daily lives, both large and small, expected and unexpected, the fact remains that we do.

Kindness & Health

 

How are you feeling about what’s going on in the world?  I know a lot of people have been experiencing more fear, uncertainty, and despair, for a variety of reasons.  I want to share with you something that can help you and our world.

Several years ago while walking through the parking lot of a major big box store, I saw a beautiful little boy sitting in a shopping cart being pushed by his mother. His arms were outstretched as if to embrace everyone in his presence, and as they approached me, he turned his joyful smile in my direction. As he looked at me, beaming, he held out his arms toward me. I felt his heart embracing me, as though he’d actually wrapped his arms around me, and I also felt my heart returning his embrace.

It all happened in just a few seconds, but it was a powerful and beautiful moment that I will never forget.

His mother looked and me and said, “He’s like this everywhere we go. He just wants to love the world. It’s so embarrassing.”

“Don’t be embarrassed,” I replied. “He’s beautiful.”

I believe babies and young children are our purest and most accessible example of spiritual engagement. They live entirely in the moment and are always express their truth. Upset one moment, they can become happy with lightning speed. It’s not until much later in life that we linger in sadness.

Children haven’t experienced enough involvement with the external world to displace their natural awareness of love, and they are naturally and openly connected to their spirits. There are no prolonged interfering thoughts or emotions that separate them from their spirits. They remind us of who we are and of the beauty that lies within us. Over time, however, that engagement with spirit dwindles, and as adults, we shift our focus to the physical realm. Still, spirit remains the core of our being and waits for our conscious return to it.

And lovingkindness, is the doorway to our spirit.  There are many ways to give. Explore new avenues for giving of yourself to others: family, friends, colleagues, coworkers, and strangers. The purest and easiest way is to be fully present with a person when you are together.

Committing random and conscious acts of kindness and volunteering on a regular basis, particularly when engaging in the acts from a place of spiritual awareness, are remarkable ways to experience optimal well-being.

The Kindness Diaries

A couple of weeks ago, my sister shared a powerful program with me, The Kindness Diaries, currently airing on Netflix.  It’s a powerful series, capturing the highlights of one man’s journey across the globe seeking and sharing random acts of kindness.

While we don’t have to travel as Leon did, committing acts of kindness can make a difference in our lives and those we touch.

Here’s a link to his website http://www.leonlogothetis.com/

Study Find Benefits of Doing Good

Laboratory-based experiments have shown that providing support can help individuals cope with stress, increasing their experiences of positive emotion. To investigate whether this holds true in daily  functioning in the real world, researchers at Yale University and UCLA  Ansell and co-authors Elizabeth B. Raposa (UCLA and Yale University School of Medicine) and Holly B. Laws (Yale University School of Medicine) conducted a study in which people used their smartphones to report on their feelings and experiences in daily life.

The results indicated that helping others boosted participants’ daily well-being. A greater number of helping behaviors was associated with higher levels of daily positive emotion and better overall mental health.

Significantly, their helping behavior also influenced how they responded to stress. People who reported lower-than-usual helping behavior reported lower positive emotion and higher negative emotion in response to high daily stress. Those who reported higher-than-usual levels of helping behavior, on the other hand, showed no dampening of positive emotion or mental health, and a lower increase in negative emotion, in response to high daily stress. In other words, helping behavior seemed to buffer the negative effects of stress on well-being.

“It was surprising how strong and uniform the effects were across daily experiences,” says Ansell. “For example, if a participant did engage in more prosocial behaviors on stressful days there was essentially no impact of stress on positive emotion or daily mental health. And there was only a slight increase in negative emotion from stress if the participant engaged in more prosocial behaviors.”

So the next time, you’re feeling out of harmony with the world, please remember, you can make a difference, one that will help another and yourself.  That is the beauty of sharing kindness.

Sources:

Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being: Chapter 9

The article abstract is available online: “Prosocial Behavior Mitigates the Negative Effects of Stress in Everyday Life” and access to other Clinical Psychological Science research findings http://cpx.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/12/10/2167702615611073.abstract

Can Fruits and Vegetables Protect Your Emotional Well-Being?

Eating a Mediterranean diet or other healthy dietary pattern, comprising of fruit, vegetables, legumes, and nuts and low in processed meats, is associated with preventing the onset of depression, according to research. A large study of 15,093 people suggests depression could be linked with nutrient deficits.

A healthy diet heavy in vegetables, fruits and nuts is associated with preventing the onset of depression.

Eating a Mediterranean diet or other healthy dietary pattern, comprising of fruit, vegetables, legumes, and nuts and low in processed meats, is associated with preventing the onset of depression, according to research published in the open access journal BMC Medicine. A large study of 15,093 people suggests depression could be linked with nutrient deficits.

Following extensive research into diet and its effect on our physical health, researchers are now exploring the link between nutrition and mental health. This is the first time that several healthy dietary patterns and their association with the risk of depression have been analyzed together.

The researchers compared three diets; the Mediterranean diet, the Pro-vegetarian Dietary Pattern and Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010. Participants used a scoring system to measure their adherence to the selected diet, i.e. the higher the dietary score indicated that the participant was eating a healthier diet.

Food items such as meat and sweets (sources of animal fats: saturated and trans fatty acids) were negatively scored, while nuts, fruits and vegetables (sources of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals respectively) were positively scored.

Lead researcher, Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, says “We wanted to understand what role nutrition plays in mental health, as we believe certain dietary patterns could protect our minds. These diets are all associated with physical health benefits and now we find that they could have a positive effect on our mental health.”

“The protective role is ascribed to their nutritional properties, where nuts, legumes, fruits and vegetables (sources of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals) could reduce the risk of depression.”

The study included 15,093 participants free of depression at the beginning of the study. They are former students of the University of Navarra, Spain, registered professionals from some Spanish provinces and other university graduates. All are part of the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) Project, a cohort study started on 21st December 1999. The cohort has been used to identify dietary and lifestyle determinants of various conditions, including diabetes, obesity and depression.

Questionnaires to assess dietary intake were completed at the start of the project and again after 10 years. A total of 1,550 participants reported a clinical diagnosis of depression or had used antidepressant drugs after a median follow-up of 8.5 years.

The Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 was associated with the greatest reduction of risk of depression but most of the effect could be explained by its similarity with the Mediterranean Diet. Thus, common nutrients and food items such as omega-3 fatty acids, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and moderate alcohol intake present in both patterns (Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 and Mediterranean diet) could be responsible for the observed reduced risk in depression associated with a good adherence to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010.

Almudena Sanchez-Villegas says, “A threshold effect may exist. The noticeable difference occurs when participants start to follow a healthier diet. Even a moderate adherence to these healthy dietary patterns was associated with an important reduction in the risk of developing depression. However, we saw no extra benefit when participants showed high or very high adherence to the diets.

So, once the threshold is achieved, the reduced risk plateaus even if participants were stricter with their diets and eating more healthily. This dose-response pattern is compatible with the hypothesis that suboptimal intake of some nutrients (mainly located in low adherence levels) may represent a risk factor for future depression.”

A limitation of this study was that the results are based on self-reported dietary intake and a self-reported clinical diagnosis of depression. More research is needed to predict the role of nutrient intake for neurophysiological requirements and identify whether it is minerals and vitamins or proteins and carbohydrates that cause depression.

Story Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150916215535.htm

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/bc-fav091415.php

Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, Patricia Henríquez-Sánchez, Miguel Ruiz-Canela, Francisca Lahortiga, Patricio Molero, Estefanía Toledo, Miguel A. Martínez-González. A longitudinal analysis of diet quality scores and the risk of incident depression in the SUN Project. BMC Medicine, 2015; 13 (1) DOI: 10.1186/s12916-015-0428-y

Is Laughter the Best Medicine?

In the face of significant stress, medical students face increasing anxiety and laughter is a viable tool to immediately reduce stress.

Have you ever caught someone else’s boisterous laughter?  Of course you have! Stronger bonds are formed when laughter is shared, and nothing beats the feeling of happiness when you indeed share a great laugh with another. Did you know that laughter is also now confirmed as a powerful medicine?

A continuously expanding body of medical research recognizes the benefits of laughter in terms of preventing and reversing disease caused by the impact of stressful events on our lives. This finding isn’t actually as new as it appears to be.  Throughout history, and for thousands of years, sages have recognized the importance of laughter, as recorded in the ancient scriptures. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” says the Bible (Proverbs 17:22).

The Healing Laughter Revolution

In 1964 when the contemporary idea of humor therapy was reborn for our time.  Shortly after a trip to the Soviet Union, Norman Cousins, former editor of Saturday Review, was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a progressive, degenerative disease of collagen tissue often affecting the spine. His doctors indicated heavy metal poisoning as a possible cause of his illness.

Mr. Cousins, on the other hand, suspected that a stress-induced condition of adrenal exhaustion lessened his body’s ability to tolerate repeated toxic exposure to diesel exhaust fumes during his travels. He then recalled reading about a research that concluded negative emotions caused biochemical changes that had deleterious effects on the body. He theorized that positive emotions might create changes in the body that would enhance his recovery process. With the assistance of his very open-minded physician, he checked into a hotel and laughed for hours watching Marx Brothers and Three Stooges movies, while an IV infused with large amounts of vitamin C flowed into his veins.

He reported that watching the films decreased his pain and helped him to sleep better. Significant changes in his blood chemistry were recorded. The sedimentation rate (an indicator of inflammation) was taken daily, before and after “laughter” sessions; significant decreases were noted after. Cousins’ controversial personal account was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. It prompted an outpouring of disbelief and heated discussion within medical circles.

His book, Anatomy of an Illness, became a best-seller and is now considered a classic in the world of mind-body medicine. So if you feel like catching someone else’s contagious laughter, by all means do so! Nothing’s wrong with letting out a hearty laugh every now and then. Furthermore, you could already be doing your health a big favor in the process.

The 1998 film, “Patch Adams,” starring Robin Williams, triggered a flurry of attention and renewed interest in the use of laughter as therapy? Based on a true story, Williams portrayed a doctor who saw and used humor as an important component of medical treatment.

Health tip: Laugh several times a day.  Children laugh over three hundred times a day, while adults, usually laugh under twenty times daily.

Is This More Important than Reducing Stress?

While reducing our responses to stress is important, a Stanford University research psychologist shares a unique perspective, indicating that stress can make us stronger, smarter and happier – if we learn how to open our minds to it.

Stanford psychologist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.,  says that viewing stress more positively seems to encourage people to cope in ways that help them thrive.

If people actually embrace the concept of stress, it can make them stronger, smarter and happier, a Stanford expert says.

“Stress isn’t always harmful,” said Kelly McGonigal, a business school lecturer at Stanford and program developer for the Stanford Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. “Once you appreciate that going through stress makes you better at it, it can be easier to face each new challenge.”

The Stanford News Service interviewed McGonigal, recently published a new book, The Upside of Stress, on the subject.

 

Embracing Stress

The initial study on stress mindsets, which was conducted by Stanford psychology Assistant Professor Alia Crum.  It found the perspective that stress is a helpful part of life, rather than as harmful, is associated with better health, emotional well-being and productivity at work – even during periods of high stress.

This study reminds me of the groundbreaking research conducted over 30 years ago by Susan Kobialka, Ph.D., who determined that one of  three protective “Hardiness” traits (against stressful circumstances) is viewing stress as a challenge (the other two are commitment and a sense of control).

Your perspective matters because it changes how your body respond to stress.  Also, perceiving  stress as harmful unhealthy coping responses, whether it’s getting drunk to “release” stress, procrastinating to avoid stress, or imagining worst-case scenarios.

Another study found that simply having the goal to avoid stress increased the long-term risk of outcomes like depression, divorce and getting fired, by increasing people’s reliance on harmful coping strategies. A more positive stress perception encourages coping in ways that will help you to thrive, whether it’s tackling the source of stress, seeking social support or finding meaning in it.

 

So Should You Tell Yourself Stress is Good For You?

In the course of researching his book and developing her own stress mindset interventions,  Dr. McGonigal discovered that the most helpful mindset toward stress goes beyond a generally positive attitude toward stress. The three most protective beliefs about stress are: 1) to view your body’s stress response as helpful, not debilitating – for example, to view stress as energy you can use; 2) to view yourself as able to handle, and even learn and grow from, the stress in your life; and 3) to view stress as something that everyone deals with, and not something that proves how uniquely screwed up you or your life is.

The emerging science on stress mindsets shows that it is possible to change all of these attitudes, even if we are used to thinking of stress as harmful.  For example, when you feel your heart pounding from anxiety, you think about how your body is trying to give you the energy you need to rise to the challenge. More importantly, changing any one of these attitudes can help you thrive in the face of ordinary stress as well as chronic or even traumatic stress.

 

When is Stress Harmful?

There is a reason stress has a bad reputation, and part of it is the evidence that chronic and traumatic stress can increase the risk of illness, depression and early mortality, among other things.

Choosing to see the upside of stress isn’t about denying the fact that stress can be harmful. It’s about trying to balance your mindset so that you feel less overwhelmed and hopeless about the fact that your life is stressful. We rarely get to choose the stress in our lives, and it isn’t realistic to think we can avoid stress. Given that life is going to be stressful, what do you gain by focusing on the fear that the reality of your life is killing you?

Psychologists have found that the ability to embrace stress requires a high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. You have to be able to understand that two seemingly opposite things can be true at the same time. It can be true that going through something stressful can make you sick or depressed, and it can also be true that the same stressful experience can ultimately make you stronger, more compassionate and more resilient over time.

 

What Should You DO When a Stressful Situation Occurs?

Stress is most likely to be harmful when the following conditions are present: it feels against your will, out of your control and utterly devoid of meaning. If you can change any of these conditions – by finding some meaning in it – you can reduce the harmful effects of stress.

The relationship between stress and meaning can be very helpful to understand. A 2013 study asked a broad national sample of adults in the U.S to rate how much they agreed with the statement, “Taking all things together, I feel my life is meaningful. “The researchers then looked at what distinguished people who strongly agreed with the statement from those who did not.

Surprisingly, every measure of stress that the researchers asked about predicted a greater sense of meaning in life. People who had experienced the highest number of stressful life events in the past were most likely to consider their lives meaningful. People who said they were under a lot of stress right now also rated their lives as more meaningful. Even time spent worrying about the future was associated with meaning.

One of the researchers’ main conclusions from this study is, “People with very meaningful lives worry more and have more stress than people with less meaningful lives.”

Rather than being a sign that something is wrong with your life, feeling stressed can be a barometer for how engaged you are in activities and relationships that are personally meaningful.

 

Additional Stress Mindset Tips

Dr. Konigal adds, one simple mindset reset that can help us face and find the good in the stress in our lives is to view it as an opportunity to learn and grow. The ability to learn from stress is built into the basic biology of the stress response. For several hours after you have a strong stress response, the brain is rewiring itself to remember and learn from the experience.

Stress alters your brain an imprint on your brain that prepares you to handle similar stress the next time you encounter it. Psychologists call the process of learning and growing from a difficult experience stress inoculation. Going through the experience gives your brain and body a stress vaccine.

This is why putting people through practice stress is a key training technique for NASA astronauts, emergency responders, elite athletes and others who have to thrive under high levels of stress.

An abundance of literature has pointed toward a clear link between stress and performance. This association is critical for understand the contextually-dependent nature of testing, diagnosis, and assessment, which can be influenced by such intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

Research in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) suggests that cognitive reappraisal, or the ability to change one’s thoughts in the presence of emotionally-charged stimuli, can improve responses to stressful situations such as test-taking. However, this body of work does not adequately address the role of stress mindset, or how one views the nature of stress itself and whether thoughts need to be changed in the first place.

A recent study (Crum, Akinola, Martin, & Fath, 2017) suggests that one’s overall mindset about the nature of stress is related to differential patterns of hormone production, emotional experience, attention biases, and cognitive flexibility (thinking with flexibility). The initial findings of the study were published on January 27 in the journal Anxiety, Stress, & Coping.

Stress mindset is the overarching belief that stress is either enhancing or debilitating for cognitive, psychological, affective, and hormonal outcomes. Individuals who hold a “stress-is-enhancing” mindset see daily life stressors as challenges for which they have adequate resources to meet expected demands. Those who hold a “stress-is-debilitating” mindset see stressors as overwhelming events for which they are lacking internal resources to meet external pressures. Specifically, individuals who endorse stress as a challenge, rather than as a problem, on a measure of stress mindset (Crum, Salovey, & Achor, 2013) tend to have better health, greater life satisfaction, lower cortisol reactivity (the “stress” hormone), and are more receptive to performance feedback by others.

 

Watch Dr. McGonigal’s Ted Talk on Stress

Sources;

http://news.stanford.edu/2015/05/07/stress-embrace-mcgonigal-050715/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23437923

https://mbl.stanford.edu/instruments/stress-mindset-measure

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wkki7v5b3zpr356/Stress%20Mindset%20Measure_with%20Instructions.docx?dl=0

References

Charney, D. S. (2004). Psychobiological mechanisms of resilience and vulnerability: Implications for successful adaption to extreme stress. American Journal of Psychiatry 161(2). Pp. 195-216.

Crum, A., Akinola, M., Martin, A., & Fath, S. (2017). The Role of Stress Mindset in Shaping Cognitive, Emotional, & Physiological Responses to Challenging & Threatening Stress. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping. 

Crum, A., Salovey, P. & Achor, S. (2013). Rethinking Stress: The Role of Mindsets in Determining the Stress Response. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Frye, C. A., & Lacey, E. H. (1999). The neurosteroids DHEA and DHEAS may influence cognitive performance by altering affective state. Physiology & Behavior 66(1). Pp. 85-92.

Kirschbaum, C., Pirke, K. M., Hellhammer, D. H. (1993). The “Trier Social Stress Test” – a tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Neuropsychobiology, 28(1-2), Pp. 76-81.

 

Researchers Discover A Hidden Stress Benefit

Please use photo http://drelaine.com/researchers-discover-a-hidden-stress-benefit/

Stress is a vital response, needed to prepare us for dangerous situations. Without it, we can’t  survive. It triggers several biochemical responses that mobilizes the organism and enables it to manage threatening situations. The so called fight or flight response has been repeatedly called into question, due to the results of behavioral studies. Newer findings revealed that humans show an increase in prosocial behavior under stress. In their investigation, Claus Lamm and his team from the University of Vienna shed light on the neural processes underlying this behavior.

In an experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), participants were exposed to acute stress while trying to empathize with another person. At the same time, their brain activity was measured using fMRI. The researchers focused especially on stress-related changes of neural activity in the so-called “empathy network”.

A total of 80 male participants were asked to empathize with others while solving difficult tasks under time pressure, all the while receiving negative feedback on their performance. The effects of this psychological stress induction were measured through cortisol increase. Subsequently, participants were shown photos of painful medical procedures performed on the hand, and asked to vividly imagine the pain of the depicted patient. For some photos, participants received the additional information that the patient’s hand had been under anesthesia during the procedure. This required them to distinguish between their automatic aversive reaction to the image and the actual feelings of the patient, and thus intended to measure the participants’ ability to take the patient’s perspective and to regulate their own emotions. In the following, the researchers used the “dictator game”, a game developed in behavioral economics, to measure prosocial behavior. In this game, participants had to distribute a sum of money in whichever ratio they wanted between themselves and a stranger.

The results showed that the neural empathy network reacted more strongly to images of painful medical procedures when under stress. However, their neural reaction was equally strong when participants knew that the procedure was in fact not painful, speaking for a lack of perspective taking under stress. Additionally, neural activation correlated with the amount of money shared in a prosocial manner – the stronger the brain’s reaction to others’ pain, the more money the participant shared with the stranger.

Claus Lamm summarizes the findings as follows: “Based on their neural responses, stressed participants had a stronger emotional reaction to the pictures. However, this implies that they also ignored complex information about the actual situation the shown person was in. Our results thus support the hypothesis that humans show more empathy and are more prone to helping others when they are under stress, but that their perspective taking skills might deteriorate. In some circumstances, the stronger emotional response might thus result in aid that is uncalled for or inappropriate, for example when one’s first impression of another’s mental state does not match their actual emotion – e.g. when someone is crying out of joy. Hence, depending on the context and situation, stress can be either beneficial or detrimental in social situations.”

Sources:

Increased neural responses to empathy for pain might explain how acute stress increases prosociality L. Tomova; J. Majdandzic; A. Hummer; C. Windischberger; M. Heinrichs; C. Lamm Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2016; doi: 10.1093/scan/nsw146

http://www.newswise.com/articles/stress-can-increase-empathy
https://academic.oup.com/scan/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/scan/nsw146

6 Profoundly Simple Ways to Reduce Your Stress

It seems like today we are more stressed than ever, without any relief in sight.  Throughout history, our ancestors around the globe, recognized the connection between stress, emotions, attitudes, physical health and long term well-being.

The presence of unmanaged emotional stress increases the risk of developing heart disease and cancer six times in comparison to standard risk facts including obesity, high cholesterol, lack of exercise, and hypertension.  But the good news is-it is far more responsive to intervention.

Also, according to a government report and the American Stress Institute-it’s also the cause of 90-95% of all doctor’s office visits.

Haven’t you seen people do all of the right things and still get sick? They exercised, ate the right food, and you wondered what happened to them? Clearly something else was going on.  They probably ignored their emotions which wreaked havoc on their health.  Then they went to their doctors to get treatment for their symptoms.

A study found that men who complain of high anxiety are up to six times more likely to suffer sudden death than calmer men.  While a twenty year study at the Harvard School of Public health involving over 1700 men conducted at the found that worry about social conditions, health and personal finances all significantly increased the risk of heart disease.

Did you know that more heart attacks occur on Monday morning?  They do  because of the extremely stressful emotional changes caused by not wanting to go to work on the dreaded Monday morning, after a weekend off!

Whatever you feel is REAL to your cells, even if you know it isn’t true.  Every thought, feeling and emotion you experience triggers the release of matching chemicals that affect all of your cells. It’s normal to have emotional ups and downs, that’s part of being human.  However, it’s your ongoing emotional trend that affects your health.  So if you’re trending with ongoing stress and anxiety—you’re trending in the direction of dis-ease.

The most important question I learned to ask my patients is, “What’s making you sick?” Everyone knew. Over 95% identified an extremely difficult, stressful emotional situation, usually involving a family member as the cause. Even though they knew the cause, they didn’t know what to do about it.  It’s not our jobs, or our relationships, or the news that’s making us sick.  It’s how we respond to them.  We always have a choice. We can choose a healthier response.

The rest of my patients identified chronic stress as the problem, and didn’t understand how it was now causing the disease, since it had been going on for so long.  I reminded them that it takes years of cigarette smoking, to cause cancer, and it doesn’t happen after smoking one pack.  The same is true of stress. It can take years to create a disease.

So we must interrupt the stress response. Here’s a few effective ways to immediately interrupt the stress response.

  1. Take Theanine. This is my favorite recommendation.  Theanine is a powerful stress interrupter.  It is the best nutrient interrupter I have ever found! It is an amino acid extract from green tea, and biochemically stops the stress response, without any side effects.
  2. Taking B complex- or adaptogenic herbs-Rhodiola, Ginseng, Ashwaganda,
  3. Stress is also linked to magnesium deficiency
  4. Or you can close your eyes and focus on a very pleasant memory for a few minutes.
  5. Another way is to laugh. Laughter is one of the easiest ways to interrupt the flow of toxins. Call a friends, and ask them to tell you a joke or you can watch a comedy. Watch a funny movie.
  6. What always work is deep breathing.

How to Breathe Properly:

Place one hand over the middle of your abdomen and the other hand in the middle of your chest. Now breathe regularly.

Which hand moved?

If the hand on your abdomen moves, you’re breathing properly.  If the hand on your chest moves, your breathing is a little shallow.  If both move, you need to focus more on breathing from your abdomen.

Most breathe primarily with our chest muscles, which sends a survival mode signal to your brain that something’s wrong.  The healthy way, involves the diaphragm. Your abdomen drops when you inhale and pulls in when you exhale.  Practice this for a few days and you’ll notice a difference in how you feel.

You will feel better. You’re detoxifying through breathing and you will feel better.

These profoundly simple tools s will help you to go from feeling overwhelmed and anxious to feeling empowered balanced and competent.

Source:

SuperHealing Secrets with Dr. Elaine Ferguson