Being Human 2012

November 13, 2011

“Being Human 2012″ – Symposium on scientific and philosophical insights into human nature 3/24/12.

We live at the dawn of a scientific revolution. Every day brings new findings from a broad range of disciplines – behavioral economics, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, social anthropology, philosophy – that promise to overthrow long-held biases and stories about what it means to be human.

The coming decades will bring a shift in our worldview as fundamental as any in the past five hundred years. As we use the tools of science to explore the nature of humanity, we are learning more and more about how our brains function and what motivates our behavior, built-in biases and blind spots.

These fresh insights are interesting scientifically, but they also evoke significant questions about our lived experience. These perspectives challenge our basic assumptions of who we are, both as individuals and as a society. [click to continue…]

Mindfulness Intervention for Stress Eating

November 12, 2011

This Clinical Study was created to test the correlation of mindfulness and stress-eating in overweight and obese women.

Mindfulness Intervention for Stress Eating to Reduce Cortisol and Abdominal Fat among Overweight and Obese Women: An Exploratory Randomized Controlled Study

Abstract

Psychological distress and elevated cortisol secretion promote abdominal fat, a feature of the Metabolic Syndrome. Effects of stress reduction interventions on abdominal fat are unknown. Forty-seven overweight/obese women (mean BMI = 3 1 . 2) were randomly assigned to a 4-month intervention or waitlist group to explore effects of a mindfulness program for stress eating. We assessed mindfulness, psychological distress, eating behavior, weight, cortisol awakening response (CAR), and abdominal fat (by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) pre- and posttreatment. Treatment participants improved in mindfulness, anxiety, and external-based eating compared to control participants. Groups did not differ on average CAR, weight, or abdominal fat over time. However, obese treatment participants showed significant reductions in CAR and maintained body weight, while obese control participants had stable CAR and gained weight. Improvements in mindfulness, chronic stress, and CAR were associated with reductions in abdominal fat. This proof of concept study suggests that mindfulness training shows promise for improving eating patterns and the CAR, which may reduce abdominal fat over time.

1. Introduction

Many of the adverse health effects of excess weight are associated with abdominal obesity independent of total weight. Visceral obesity, in particular, produces inflammatory molecules which promote insulin resistance and the Metabolic Syndrome [1]. Thus, abdominal adiposity is an important target for reducing risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) [2].

One modifiable risk factor that may contribute to abdominal adiposity is chronic psychological stress. Low socioeconomic status and job stress, two indicators of chronic stress, are associated with greater abdominal adiposity in cross-sectional and prospective studies [3–5]. Stress can impact abdominal adiposity through repeated activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, resulting in hypersecretion of cortisol. Cortisol binds to glucocorticoid receptors (GR) on fat cells activating lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that converts circulating triglycerides into free fatty acids in adipocytes [6]. Increases in cortisol in combination with increased levels of insulin mobilize amino acids and fatty acids from peripheral to abdominal regions for immediate use by the liver for gluconeogenesis and ketones for energy use by the brain [7, 8]. A greater density of GR’s are found on visceral compared to peripheral fat cells partly explaining why fat stores are redistributed to intra-abdominal regions in the presence of elevated cortisol [9–11].

Read the rest of the Article HERE.

Article Credit: Jennifer Daubenmier, Jean Kristeller, Frederick M. Hecht, Nicole Maninger, Margaret Kuwata, Kinnari Jhaveri, Robert H. Lustig, Margaret Kemeny, Lori Karan, and Elissa Epel from Hindawi.

Attachment Theory and Mindfulness

November 9, 2011

Sigh. Another pay-walled article, but even if you only read the abstract (which is free), you’ll get a sense of where this research on mindfulness and parent-child attachment is going. I, for one, am grateful.

Enjoy,
~ Marsha

Abstract

We initiate a dialog between two central areas in the field of psychology today: attachment theory/research and mindfulness studies. The impact of the early mother-infant relationship on child development has been well established in the literature, with attachment theorists having focused on the correlation between a mother’s capacity for self-regulation and connection (e.g., attunement) with children’s health and developmental outcomes. Because the transition to parenthood is often a stressful one, research has also focused on the importance of the mother’s external and internal support (e.g., self-awareness, recognition of needs) in promoting healthy mother-infant relationships. One promising field in relation to increased internal support is mindfulness, a practice shown to increase emotional regulation while decreasing stress and anxiety. Described as non-judgmental, present-moment awareness, mindfulness has received significant empirical attention over the past three decades and has recently been theorized as an important contributing factor in healthy mother–child relationships.

Read the rest of the Article HERE.

Article Credit: Rose Snyder, Shauna Shapiro and David Treleaven from SpringerLink

Mindfulness Associated With Urban Firefighters

November 8, 2011

This article is unfortunately behind a pay wall, unless you have access through an academic institution. But, being married to a retired firefighter-paramedic, I just had to provide the link!

Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
This study investigated the association between mindfulness, other resilience resources, and several measures of health in 124 urban firefighters.

METHOD:
Participants completed health measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and alcohol problems and measures of resilience resources including mindfulness, optimism, personal mastery, and social support. The Mindful Awareness and Attention Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003) was used to assess mindfulness. Participants also completed measures of firefighter stress, number of calls, and years as a firefighter as control variables. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted with the health measures as the dependent variables with 3 levels of independent variables: (a) demographic characteristics, (b) firefighter variables, and (c) resilience resources. [click to continue…]

Unlocking the Beneficial Components of Mindfulness Meditation

November 4, 2011

Britta Hölzel is a researcher who has worked and published as part of Sara Lazar’s lab at Harvard; Sara’s long been one of my mindfulness-meditation-brain-imaging heroes, and Britta has joined that list!

Enjoy,
~Marsha

Mindfulness meditation, an essential part of Buddhist and Indian yoga traditions, has recently been shown to have benefits for health and performance, including improved immune function, reduced blood pressure, and enhanced cognitive function.

Given the wide-ranging benefits of the technique, researcher Britta Hölzel, Ph.D., of Justus Liebig University and Harvard Medical School attempted to “unveil the conceptual and mechanistic complexity of mindfulness, providing the ‘big picture’ by arranging many findings like the pieces of a mosaic.”

By using a framework approach to understand the mechanisms of mindfulness, Hölzel and her co-authors point out that what we think of as mindfulness is not actually a single skill. Rather, it is a multi-faceted mental practice that encompasses several mechanisms.

According to the authors, mindfulness has four key components that may account for its effects: attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and sense of self. [click to continue…]

A History of Guided Imagery & Cancer: We’ve Come a Long Way

November 3, 2011

This one’s for those of you who don’t know about Belleruth Naparstek’s pioneering and diligent work in the filed of guided imagery and health, AND for those of you who do but want to hear an up-to-date perspective.

Guided visual imagery can be incredibly helpful, and like meditation, is garnering more and more solid research to support its use. I often recommend it when people aren’t yet ready to begin meditation.

Full disclosure: Belleruth’s guided visual imagery tapes and CDs have seen me through many a tough spot, including childbirth and surgery. I’ve been a huge fan of hers for years. (And I am thrilled that she’s written a really wonderful endorsement of my book!)

Enjoy,
~Marsha

When it comes to cancer and guided imagery, the past 30 years have seen some major shifts in attitude and the way we practice – much of it tied to larger forces of change.  It’s been a pretty fascinating ride.

As late as the 80’s, guided imagery was seen in much of the oncology community as unmitigated fruitloopery – irresponsible, crunchy granola magical thinking that belonged in the same trash bin as crystals, laetrile and the Psychic Friends Network.

I remember when I was researching my first batch of scripts targeting health conditions like arthritis, asthma, cancer and AIDS/HIV, the only physicians who would help me – who would sit down with me and give me medical information – were the ones who lived on my block.  I’m sure they were rolling their eyes on the inside, but they couldn’t hold up under the social pressure of being my neighbor and knowing that if they turned me down, they were going to have to look me in the eye on a regular basis when we met on the tree lawn, taking out the trash.  That was in 1989. [click to continue…]

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