Tori Hudson, N.D.
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 Meditation, visualization, and relaxation techniques are used by many women both as a primary form of pain management and also in combination with other therapies. My advice would be to seek the advice of a trained person to help you learn which method may be most appropriate and effective for you.
Nutrition
A healthy diet is fundamental to an effective menstrual cramps treatment program. In fact, something as simple as eating breakfast regularly was found to be inversely related to the incidence and severity of dysmenorrhea. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 That's why things like meditation and relaxation techniques may be helpful for reducing the red heat. Deep breathing, which helps counteract the Major Ager of a lack of nitric oxide, is more effective than any other therapy except estrogen. Yoga incorporates belly breathing and also offers poses that could help to lower blood pressure and heart rate. Vitamin E is anecdotally helpful, and if you are desperate, why not? And one big item that's often overlooked: the amount of saturated fat in your diet. |
| Both increase with age (because of declined immunity and the cellular damage that comes from the stress and depression prevalent in older adults). relaxation techniques like chi-gong appear to improve immunity in these two diseases, and likely in other infections as well. If chi-gong isn't your cup of tea, just meditate nightly, as we describe in the YOU Toolbox.
YOU Tip: Fuel Your Fighters. One of the best ways to pump up your immune system is by eating the foods and getting the nutrients that have been shown to improve your natural defenses. |
Rick Levy and Lou Aronica
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 Progressive relaxation techniques are often utilized as parr of a hypnotic induction but may be used at any time during hypnosis to promote further relaxation and deepen the trance state. Outside of hypnosis, PR techniques can be self-induced or utilized with the guidance of another person, such as a psychologist, social worker, or physical therapist. They reduce stress, anxiety, and physiological tension in the body and have the added benefits of lowering pulse rate and blood pressure.
Psychogenic—In medicine, of mental or emotional origin. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 Reducing stress with relaxation techniques or other methods may be helpful. Non-Westernized cultures have lower rates of acne, suggesting that diet may be a factor. There is some evidence that diets high in sugar increase insulin levels and reduce inherent retinoid levels, increasing the risk of acne. Data from the Nurses' Health Study of more than 47,335 women showed a 22% increase in severe acne in women who frequently drank milk as teenagers. There was no association with increased acne for those who frequently ate chocolate or drank soda. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 By teaching patients relaxation techniques, biofeedback helps them reduce or eliminate sleep problems.
Biofeedback devices give immediate feedback in the form of information about the biological system of the person being monitored, so that they can learn to consciously influence that system. For example, a person seeking to regulate their heart rate would train with a biofeedback device set up to transmit one blinking light or one audible beep per heartbeat. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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| Changing sleep habits is the second step in cognitive therapy: for example, using the bed and bedroom only for sleep (no working or TV watching in bed), setting and maintaining a regular sleep schedule, eliminating daytime naps, and minimizing or avoiding altogether caffeine, alcohol, stimulants, and heavy or extremely spicy meals four to six hours before going to bed. relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation often help. This technique involves alternately contracting individual muscles and relaxing with exhalation, progressing through the body one muscle group at a time. |
Michael T. Murray
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 The goal of relaxation techniques is to produce a physiological response known as relaxation response—a term coined by Harvard professor and cardiologist Herbert Benson, M.D., in the early 1970s to describe a physiological response. Although an individual may relax by simply sleeping, watching television, or reading a book, relaxation techniques are designed specifically to produce the relaxation response.
Table 10.1. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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 Devised by Professor Buteyko of Siberia this programme consists of specific relaxation techniques and shallow breathing to correct breathlessness and wheezing. The breathing pattern is adjusted using short breaths so the asthmatic can tolerate higher than usual carbon dioxide levels in the lungs. The programme aims for a short in and out breathing pattern which develops diaphragmatic breathing.
The Buteyko Method concentrates on not breathing through the mouth at all. |
| Whatever the activity, always keep your limitations in mind and conscientiously follow the breathing and relaxation techniques described in Chapter 6.
Swimming
Although we do not recommend one sport above another in this book, there is no doubt that swimming is an excellent activity for people with asthma. It has been called the complete sport for asthmatics and its benefits have resulted in it being used worldwide as a treatment for asthma.
Why is it so good? Swimming's many arm movements promote upper chest development and flexibility, and therefore better breathing. |
Marshall Editions
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 This does not mean slumping in front of the TV, but instead use some tried and tested formal relaxation techniques. Choose from meditation, progressive muscular relaxation, visualization techniques, or a system of movement such as T'ai chi. Alternatively, you may benefit
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Diet: Avoid foods that have a reputation for raising blood pressure. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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| As well as taking her puffer medication, Michelle was encouraged to take selected Bach flower remedies and spend some time on Controlled Pattern Breathing and relaxation techniques. The mustard, olive, larch and impatiens remedies were chosen for her. Michelle is now an entirely different girl and basically free of her symptoms.
Bach flower remedies have no side effects and can be used in conjunction with orthodox treatment. They are safe for babies and children. They are freely available in pharmacies, health food shops and natural therapy stores. |
Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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 The goal of relaxation techniques is to produce a physiologic response known as a relaxation response—a term coined by Harvard professor and cardiologist Herbert Benson in the early 1970s to describe a physiologic response that is just the opposite of the stress response. Although an individual may relax by simply sleeping, watching television, or reading a book, relaxation exercises are designed specifically to produce the relaxation response.
With the stress response, the sympathetic nervous system dominates. With the relaxation response, the parasympathetic nervous system dominates. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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| Psychological counseling and a variety of relaxation techniques including biofeedback, yoga, tai chi, Qi gong, and meditation can be helpful aspects of the treatment plan for anyone with past or present stress or depression.
In the last few years, there has been a lot of public health information available on the importance of avoiding alcohol while pregnant, but when it comes to the influence of alcohol consumption on female fertility, mild to moderate alcohol use has not been well studied. It seems, however, that alcohol does reduce conception rates with a dose-related connection. |
Ray D. Strand
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 He was gradually taken off the Imuran, and with the help of a psychologist who taught Mark some relaxation techniques, he was finally able to stop taking all pain medication as well. At last Mark was medication free and felt better than he Jiad since that day of his first attack.
Mark is now doing great and eating a normal diet. I was delighted to see the active fifteen-year-old again recently. What a frightening and painful experience he and his parents endured. A disease that for many offers little hope is manageable for Mark. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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| In many women, stress is the major cause of their high blood pressure. relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, biofeedback, meditation, yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, and hypnosis have all been shown to have some value in lowering blood pressure.43 Many recent studies on various stress reduction techniques have also shown improvement in blood pressure and other meas-
PREVENTION
Prevention of Heart Disease
• Get regular aerobic exercise for 30 minutes, 5-7 days per week.
• Increase fish, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, and nuts and seeds intake. |
Charles Barber
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 A group of patients, most of whom had suffered from breast cancer, were taught cognitive and relaxation techniques and exercise training. They met with a therapist only an average of ten times. The results, published in the lyrically entitled Journal of Pain, showed that those who underwent the CBT pain management training had improved rates in coping with pain, increased fitness, and lower rates of anxiety and depression.19
Cognitive-behavioral treatment is significandy associated with reducing criminal behavior, unlike psychotherapy, which has been shown to increase it. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 No wonder stress management is not only a major health goal for the twenty-first century, but big business as well: witness the mushrooming of high-end spas, yoga classes, relaxation techniques, and spiritual retreats.
The research on stress and its damaging effects is hardly new, and there's no deficit of techniques for dealing with it. But in the rush to try the latest, hippest technique for stress busting, let's not forget that the basics have been around for eons. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 Women were randomly assigned to two groups: in addition to standard medical therapy, one group received weekly group therapy, learned relaxation techniques, and were taught self-hypnosis; the other received the same medical care, but no therapy. The experiment succeeded: women in the experimental group reported less pain and stress. In itself, this was a noteworthy finding.
Ten years later, with mind-body notions in vogue, Spiegel examined what happened to the women from the two groups. |
| In this latter category are biofeedback, hypnosis, guided imagery, relaxation techniques, "lifestyle diet," and vitamin therapy, which, together accounted for less than 10% of total visits to alternative medical practitioners.
Four in ten of these treatments were disclosed to physicians (though we are as always skeptical of such self-reported data), a rate which did not change from 1990. Extrapolation to the U.S. population suggests that there were 629 million visits to alternative medical practitioners, compared with 427 million in 1990. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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| A basic premise of mind-body medicine is that chronic stress and other emotional issues contribute to illness and that relaxation techniques and learning positive ways of coping with these issues will improve your health. In this chapter, we examine how stress, suppressed emotions, and related lifestyle choices can contribute to sleep problems. We also explore a number of therapies that can help you change negative thought patterns into more healthful ones, deal with stress in a positive way, and incorporate habits for relaxation into your life. |
| In 1995, a panel of the National Institutes of Health announced that their review of the clinical data showed that meditation and other relaxation techniques (such as biofeedback and hypnosis) can be effective treatments for insomnia and chronic pain. The panel was made up of experts in behavior, pain and sleep medicine, nursing,
The Fight-or-Flight Response
Pioneering stress researcher Hans Selye, MD, a Canadian physiologist, noted a consistent pattern of response to stress and termed these the general adaptation syndrome, commonly referred to as the fight-or-flight response. |
| The idea of biofeedback training is that the person will learn how to relax during the sessions with the machine, then use those relaxation techniques by themselves, in daily life, whenever stressful situations arise. For insomnia, biofeedback can be successful if the practitioner uses the biofeedback machine that corresponds to the patient's type of insomnia, according to Melvyn Werbach, MD, an expert in both biofeedback and nutritional medicine. "Biofeedback is appropriate when insomnia is due to overactivation of the autonomic nervous system," Dr. Werbach says. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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| T'AI-CHI AND ASTHMA
Eliminating anxiety and stress, developing controlled diaphragmatic breathing and relaxation techniques, toning up the body and stimulating the circulation are t'ai-chi's aims, and are just what this book is all about too. T'ai-chi can provide all these elements in the quest for asthma relief and good health.
Feldenkrais Technique
Moshe Feldenkrais, a Russian-born Israeli trained in engineering and applied physics, was involved in France's atomic programme and British antisubmarine research. |
Gary Null and Amy McDonald
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 If you do go to the bathroom and have difficulty falling back to sleep, use some of the relaxation techniques."
Dr. James Pearl, who is a member of the Sleep Panel at the Presbyterian St. Luke Medical Center in Denver and in private practice as a psychologist, adds that many different organ system disorders can affect sleep. Foremost among them is sleep apnea. "If you or your sleeping partner experiences problems with snoring, it's important to explore whether there might be some kind of breathing disorder," Dr. Pearl says. |
John E. Sarno, M.D.
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 Many studies have attempted to prove that relaxation techniques lower blood pressure. Again, the results are all over the lot. A major review concluded that relaxation techniques were of minimal value in treating hypertension (Eisenberg et al., 1993). That review noted that studies that did show an effect tended to lack a comparison control group.
There is no doubt that in the moment the relaxation response, as popularized by Benson, does lower blood pressure. However, these techniques do not appear to provide a sustained effect. |
David De Angelis
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 Help your body and mind remain free from stress overloading; practice simple relaxation techniques and mental clearing. This will include respiration (Rebirthing, Vivation, Pranayama yoga), physical exercises (especially aerobics), progressive relaxation 0acobson), autogenous training (Schultz), and meditation (see Holt, Caruso, & Riley, 1978).
There are an endless number of techniques, and usually whatever has a positive impact on the nervous system is also useful: even the idea of walking in the woods and along the seashore has a rebalancing power. |
Lynne McTaggart
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 In a study of karate, using relaxation techniques before carrying out the intentions did not improve performance.21 It was useful only if the participant was nervous and needed to be calmed down in order to perform better.2223 Relaxation and hypnosis used with intention have worked to improve aim—say, for basketball shots or accuracy in chipping in golf. But as with Davidson's Buddhists, the most successful athletes manage to work themselves into peak intensity—a state of calm hyper-awareness. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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| Using relaxation techniques like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation can be useful in preventing asthma attacks. Still, for many individuals with chronic asthma, medication is a requirement.
Th-:r Bottom Line
Remove things in your environment that can trigger asthma attacks. Develop a good diet and exercise regimen. Use over-the-counter medications for allergies; do not waste money on prescription drugs for these. Do not use OTC medications for chronic asthma. As needed use beta-agonist and steroid inhalers for chronic asthma. |
Gary Null and Amy McDonald
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| I will probably have to give them some digestive enzymes to correct the poor protein metabolism, until they can do some relaxation techniques to get the blood supply back to the intestinal tract, which usually takes from three to six months. In the presence of candidiasis, I usually use some Nystatin, a prescription antifungal agent, to try to directly attack the Candida problem. |
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