Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

How Positive Emotions Lead to Better Health

May 8, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
happy-fingers

We’ve all experienced downward spirals, in which dark emotions lead to destructive behavior that damages our health, strains our relationships, and leaves us feeling even worse than when we started. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an uplifting equivalent to that destructive chain of events? Newly published research suggests there is. What’s more, this delightful dynamic helps explain the well-documented link between joy, appreciation, and good health. “Positive emotion, positive social connections, and physical health influence one another in a self-sustaining, upward-spiral ... Read More

More like this: Findings, Health
Tags: , , ,

Just Breathe

April 29, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
veteran-mindfulness

We’ve written in the past about soldiers learning to use mindfulness on the battlefield. But what about veterans back home? Tony King, a research assistant professor at the University of Michigan, started thinking about how vets might benefit from “mindfulness based cognitive therapy,” or MBCT, more than a decade ago. The therapy—which involves breathing, movement, and meditation—was originally developed for patients living with chronic and remitted depression. It focused on interrupting the constant spiral of negative thoughts and rumination that makes living with the disease a ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Meditation: Strong Preventative Medicine for Heart Patients

November 13, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

Meditation is usually thought of as a practice of healthy, well-off white people and Asians. But newly published research suggests it can produce hugely significant health benefits in a very different demographic group: African Americans with heart disease. A study that followed 201 African Americans for an average of five years found those who meditated regularly were far more likely to avoid three extremely unwelcome outcomes. Compared to peers participating in a health-education program, meditators were, in that period, 48 percent less likely to die, have a heart attack, or suffer a ... Read More

More like this: Findings, Health
Tags: , ,

Just Breathe: Confirming Meditation’s Benefits

June 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Profile of Face with Swirls

IN THE SPRING OF 1985 THINGS STARTED TO GO WRONG. A jittery teenager held a pistol to my wife’s head and robbed us a few blocks from our home in Houston. A few months later, I had too much to drink at a party and felt as though I was asphyxiating. At the emergency room, they decided I was just hyperventilating but the next morning I woke up feeling disoriented, with tingling extremities. Our doctor thought I had mononucleosis, so I spent the next three weeks resting, obsessing about what was wrong. Before long, I was taking antidepressants and seeing a therapist. We spent months unraveling ... Read More

More like this: Health, July-August 2012
Tags: ,

Study: Buddhist Meditation Promotes Rational Thinking

August 11, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

It's no secret that humans are not entirely rational when it comes to weighing rewards. For example, we might be perfectly happy with how much money we're making — until we find out how much more the guy in the next cubicle is being paid. But a new study suggests that people who regularly practice Buddhist meditation actually process these common social situations differently — and the researchers have the brain scans to prove it. Ulrich Kirk and collaborators at Baylor Medical College in Houston had 40 control subjects and 26 longtime meditators participate in a well-known ... Read More

More like this: Culture
Tags: , , ,

Transcendental Meditation Mitigates Depression

April 13, 2010 • By • 3 Comments

With a plethora of research suggesting otherwise, few would argue that meditation yields no health benefits. But the sheer number of claims regarding meditation's benefits is overwhelming: A quick Google search yields about 26,800 articles suggesting there are at least 100. While arguments that meditation helps you "attain enlightenment" or leads to "increased job satisfaction" are difficult to prove (after all, if it's your job to do something that you're morally opposed to, meditation isn't likely to make it more fulfilling), many of the practice's health advantages have been documented. ... Read More

More like this: Findings, Health
Tags: , , ,

Stress Decreases Effectiveness of Flu Vaccine

January 21, 2009 • By • 1 Comment

A meta-analysis of 13 studies examining the effectiveness of influenza vaccinations finds “a significant negative association between psychological stress and antibody responses” to the vaccine. This decreased effectiveness was seen in both elderly and youthful recipients of the purportedly protective injection. Researchers led by Anette Fischer Pedersen of Denmark's University of Aarhus looked at 13 studies, which included a total of more than 1,150 participants. Five of them compared antibody levels of caregivers (whose stress levels tend to be higher) with non-caregivers; the ... Read More

More like this: Findings
Tags: , , , , , ,

Brain Injuries Linked to Spirituality

December 18, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment

Two University of Missouri psychologists are proposing"a neurophysiological model of spiritual experience" that explains what is happening inside the brain when people experience feelings of selflessness and transcendence. The model “suggests that all individuals, regardless of cultural background or religion, experience the same neurophysiological / neuropsychological functions during spiritual experiences,” according to co-authors Brick Johnstone and Bret A. Glass. It also attempts to explain why these brain activities are interpreted in such different ways by people from different ... Read More

More like this: Findings, Health
Tags: , ,

Think on This: Meditation May Protect Your Brain

October 8, 2008 • By • 3 Comments

For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have claimed that the simple act of sitting down and following their breath while letting go of intrusive thoughts can free one from the entanglements of neurotic suffering. Now, scientists are using cutting-edge scanning technology to watch the meditating mind at work. They are finding that regular meditation has a measurable effect on a variety of brain structures related to attention — an example of what is known as neuroplasticity, where the brain physically changes in response to an intentional exercise. A team of Emory University ... Read More

More like this: Health
Tags: ,

Assessing Spirituality Behind Bars

May 9, 2008 • By • 1 Comment

The warden was skeptical, the prison chaplain downright hostile and at least one inmate volunteer said the experience was tougher than spending eight years on death row. Yet according to The Dhamma Brothers, a documentary currently being released around the country, the intense, 10-day Vipassana meditation program undertaken by nearly two dozen prisoners at Alabama's Donaldson Correctional Facility — a maximum-security prison — was a rousing success. "Meditation is a form of treatment that works well in prisons," said Jenny Phillips, the film's co-director and producer. "It's not a ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society
Tags: , , , , , ,