Mind Your Health: Using Mindfulness to Heal Your Body

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Los Angeles, CA (USA) -- Scientist and meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn includes in his pages of “Full Catastrophe Living” a horrifying story that speaks powerfully about the mind-body connection.

When renowned cardiologist Bernard Lown was in training to become a physician, he had in his clinic a patient, “Mrs. S.,” who had a narrowing of one of the valves on the right side of her heart, the tricuspid valve. She was in mild congestive heart failure; however, she functioned well enough to maintain her job as a librarian and do household chores.

She would come to the weekly cardiac clinic run by Dr. S. A. Levine, a well-respected professor of cardiology at the Harvard Medical School and at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, to receive digitalis and injections of a mercurial diuretic. One week Dr. Levine greeted Mrs. S. warmly, as he usually did — the two had an affable relationship — and then he turned to the entourage of visiting physicians and said, “This woman has TS.” With those words he abruptly left.

Dr. Lown describes what happened after that:

No sooner was Dr. Levine out of the door than Mrs. S.’s demeanor abruptly changed. She appeared anxious and frightened and was now breathing rapidly, clearly hyperventilating. Her skin was drenched with perspiration, and her pulse accelerated to more than 150 a minute. In reexamining her, I found it astonishing that the lungs, which a few minutes earlier had been quite clear, now had moist crackles… I questioned Mrs. S. as to the reasons for her sudden upset. Her response was that Dr. Levine had said that she had TS, which she knew meant “terminal situation.” I was initially amused at this misinterpretation of the medical acronym for “tricuspid stenosis.” My amusement, however, rapidly yielded to apprehension, as my words failed to reassure and as her congestion continued to worsen. Shortly thereafter she was in massive pulmonary edema. Heroic measures did not reverse the frothing congestion. I tried to reach Dr. Levine, but he was nowhere to be located. Later that same day she died from intractable heart failure.

The story is as tragic as it is inspiring: If this woman’s thoughts could induce congestive heart failure, then they also hold incredible healing powers.

In his book, Kabat-Zinn discusses a hundred or so scientific studies that suggest that our thoughts, emotions, and life experiences can very definitely influence our health. The practice of mindfulness, in particular - moment-to-moment awareness and cultivating an attitude of non-striving and non-doing - can bolster our immune system, determine which genes in our chromosomes are turned on, lower blood pressure, regulate emotions under stress, reduce pain, increase our stamina, and make us much more fun to be around.

For example, researchers at the University of Wisconsin looked at the effects of an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course (MBSR) founded by Kabat-Zinn 35 years ago. The course was delivered in a corporate setting during working hours with healthy, but stressed-out employees.

The researchers found that brain scans of those that participated in the course showed activity suggesting they were handling negative emotions like anxiety and frustration more effectively (or more emotionally intelligently) than the group that was on the waiting list for the course. There was right-sided to left-sided movement within the prefrontal cerebral cortex that is involved in the expression of emotions.

The study also found that the people who completed the eight-week training in mindfulness showed a significantly stronger antibody response in their immune system after given a flu vaccine (at the end of the eight weeks of training) than did those who were on the waiting list.

Another study conducted at UCLA and Carnegie Mellon University showed that participating in an MBSR program reduced expression of genes related to inflammation, measured in immune cells sampled from blood draws. The mindfulness training also lowered C-reactive proteins in participants, which is an indication of inflammation - a core element of many diseases.

Given that on any given day, I am battling symptoms of one or more of five health conditions - bipolar disorder, Raynaud’s phenomenon, thyroid disease, pituitary tumor, and aortic-valve regurgitation - I thought I should enroll in Kabat-Zinn’s eight-week course offered at our local hospital (taught by a trained MBSR instructor). So every Friday I show up for Getting-Life-Under-Control school, where I’m taught coping skills geared for those of us with colorful childhoods and blessed with fragile mental-health genes, or for anyone who wants to look as calm as the Dalai Lama.

The twelve of us in this course are taught things like how to transform an automatic or habitual stress reaction to a mindfulness-mediated stress response, how to disengage from the emotional, alarm reaction of our automatic nervous system and be able to see with a perspective that breeds calm. The class consists of many sessions of formal meditation, where we choose an anchor for our thoughts - our breath, or sound, or an emotion - and return to that anchor over and over, learning to gently let go of any thought or thought pattern outside the present moment, such as judging, planning, or analyzing.

My illnesses haven’t disappeared. I am far from being cured. However, I’m beginning to heal. Kabat-Zinn makes that important distinction in his book.

He acknowledges that “there are few outright cures for chronic diseases or for stress-related disorders,” however, “it is possible for us to heal ourselves — to learn to live with and work with conditions that present themselves in the present moment. Healing implies the possibility that we can relate differently to illness, disability, even death, as we learn to see with eyes of wholeness.”

At the very least, I think I am communicating with my body well enough these days that if a doctor told me I had TS and walked away, I would blame his rudeness on an empty stomach, say something impolite, and then go on to think about something else.

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Originally published on Sanity Break on Everyday Health.

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Application of Buddhist principles can help reduce stress and improve mental health

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Colombo, Sri Lanka -- With the rapid spread of Buddhism in the western United States, boosted by increased immigration from Asia, Americans should consider applying Buddhist principles to solve their everyday problems. Although Buddhism has two major sects - Theravada and Mahayana - both agree on the crux of Buddhist philosophy based on the Four Noble Truths (FNT), the Noble Eightfold Path (NEP), and the associated 12-factor formula of conditioned genesis (paticca samuppada).

Buddhist population worldwide range from 350 million to 1 billion. The 2010 religious census estimated the Buddhist population in the U.S. at 1 million, mostly located in metropolitan areas with population greater than a million. The census found San Jose, California, to be the most Buddhist city in the country with approximately 1.25 percent identifying as a Buddhist adherent.

Buddhism, in contrast to the three major Abrahamic religions, is not interested in conversion. Buddha was an enlightened human being who discovered the path to nirvana the state of non-existence. Adherents of all religions can practice Buddhist principles without incurring the wrath of the omniscient God because they have universal universality.

Here is how the FNT are relevant to our problems. First truth: [Existence is] dukkha (“suffering” both mental and physical). Second truth: Samudaya [the cause] of dukkha is tanha/trsna (“thirst”/greed) conditioned by avijja (“ignorance” of the reality of self), upadana (clinging), and a cluster of other mental, biological, and physical factors.  Third truth: Nirodha (cessation) of dukkha is possible by following the path to nirvana. Fourth truth: Magga (the path) or the NEP provides the way to nirvana,

The original Pali terms is used in this essay because no single word in English can capture the connotative depth of the terms that Buddha used.

Buddha concluded that no sentient being could avoid ongoing dukkha in his/her bhavacakra (wheel of becoming), which rotates from fetus to birth, and then experience jaramarana (sickness, old age, and death) within the ambit of samsara (cyclic existence).

Buddha illustrated the operational dynamics of the first three noble truths in his paticca samuppada formula. The bhavacakra of every sentient being took a circular form because it had no beginning or end. He did not answer questions on the First Cause or expand on the nature of nirvana because they were beyond human comprehension. He gained his insights by purifying his mind and   using the techniques of bhavana (meditation) to comprehend the causes and effects of existence.

Buddha identified a cluster of 12 mental, biological, and physical nidanas (conditioned factors) that invariably engendered dukkha in the samsara. He surmised that living beings should follow the NEP, also called the Middle Path, to control their tanha (“thirst”/greed/desire/craving), which is interconnected, interdependent, and interactive with all other nidanas. In particular, tanha was reinforced by the impact of the five nidanas surrounding it - phassa (contact), vedana (feeling), upadana (clinging), and bhava (becoming).

Bhava identifies a sentient being as a namarupa (name and form)—a composite of panca skanda (five aggregates), where rupa stands for the physical form, and nama for the mental/nonphysical aggregates of feelings (18 types), perceptions (six types), mental formations (50 types), and consciousness (six types). These five interdependent aggregates are in continuous flux (anicca). Because every existing thing, both mental and physical, is anicca, the presumption of a permanent soul (atta) is inaccurate. The reality of existence is asoulity or no self (anatta). Thus, no person is the same except for the duration of the present moment, and the addiction to think in terms of the first person singular (I, me, my, mine) will merely prolong an organism’s dukkha in samsara. The three marks of existence, Buddha said, are anicca, anatta, and dukkha.

Descartes’ assertion Cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) led to the belief that mind and body were two independent static nidanas. But Buddha had correctly seen more than 2100 years earlier that at one’s death the panca skanda discarded its rupa component while the four nama components remained intact in a state of flux until the cluster entered a new rupa in samsara (cyclic existence) depending on its karma (volitional actions). This is what is called punarbhava (rebirth or re-becoming). It is different from Hinduism’s re-incarnation.

The preceding sketch of the crux of Buddhism enables us to solve our everyday problems in ways that are alien to Western culture:

Before rushing into committing any physical or mental action (karma), meditate on its short-and long-term consequences on every sentient being in your environment, including your adversaries.  You can reduce your dukkha by realizing your asoulity (anatta) and impermanence (anicca).

Train yourself to control the three roots of evil: greed and desire; ignorance or delusion; hatred and destructive urges, which are embedded in your five aggregates (panca skanda). Use systems thinking, applying the principle that all elements in the system are interdependent, interconnected, and interactive.

Follow the middle path to tone down excessive emphasis on individualism, which breeds selfishness, self-righteousness, egotism, arrogance, etc. The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution cannot pass muster under Buddhist principles. Buddhism does not endorse weapons for individual protection or use of guns for pleasure hunting.

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Gunaratne is professor of mass communication emeritus at MSUM. He is the author of an autobiographic trilogy. He conducts a Buddhist discussion group in Moorhead once a month on the second Saturday evening.

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Sri Lanka's Buddhist Monks' Health At Risk

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Worshippers are being told to give fewer sweet treats to monks amid fears that their diet is too rich.

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lankans are being urged to cut down on offerings of sweets and cakes to the country's Buddhist monks after it was found that half the nation's holy men are at risk of poor health due to a diet rich in sugar and oil.

Devotees provide the monks with their food - and book up to a year in advance for the chance to cook for them.

The food is made with great care and is often extremely rich, but this has led to the alarming statistic that 50% of the island's 40,000 monks are at risk of diabetes, compared to the national average of 10%.

The venerated monks are also at higher risk of heart disease, the health ministry says.

Officials have now come up with new guidelines to encourage devotees to donate low-sugar, healthier food for the monks' diet instead.

The average daily intake of 12 teaspoons of sugar should be reduced to a maximum of eight, according to the new guidelines, while salt should also be sharply reduced.

Alms should not include more than one dish containing cooking oil, the ministry added.

"Diabetes and other non-communicable diseases among Buddhist monks can be reduced if the faithful follow the new diet guidelines," it said.

Buddhism is the majority religion amongst Sri Lanka's 20 million people, who believe offering meals, cakes, biscuits and sweets to monks will bring them good karma in this life as well as in the next.

Buddhists who believe in reincarnation also offer food to monks in an attempt to transfer good luck to departed loved ones.

But the ministry says the offerings should consist of long-grain rice, three vegetables and two types of fruit rather than cakes and sweet things.

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Health, wealth and vegetables

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Wuhan, China -- Religion and ancient customs all play a part when the Chinese opted for a meatless meal in the past. But now, as Thomas Hayes and Sarah Marsh find out, the reasons are often much closer to heart.

<< The eat-more-vegetables, kill-no-animals movement is gathering strength across China, like this outpouring of support in Wuhan city, Hubei province. [Photo by Deng Jia/for China Daily]

Vegetarianism is not new to China. When times were harder, rural communities ate mostly roots and greens, with meat slaughtered only on festive days.

With the spread of Buddhism, many Chinese adopted a meatless diet, often subscribing to the belief that all life is sacred and should not be taken.

Even those who do not take to vegetarianism full-time would go meatless on the first and 15th of each lunar month, these being sacred days, especially for those who worship the Goddess of Mercy.

No meat is served on certain days of the Lunar New Year as well, to accumulate good karma for the coming year.

According to John Kieschnick, reader in Buddhist studies at the University of Stanford, there are important religious traditions related to Chinese eating.

"In ancient China," he says, "Most of the instances of vegetarianism were a symbol of renunciation for a period of mourning upon the death of a parent. Buddhism also played a large role in the kind of altruism associated with vegetarianism, and eating meat at certain times came to be connected with bad karma."

Some of these influences survive today, although they are only one ingredient in the vegetarian melting pot.

China's status as a developing country means that social attitudes to meat are changing extremely quickly.

Yue Miao, 42, a journalist in Beijing who has been a vegetarian since 2005, told us that when her parents were growing up in the 1950s and 60s they could expect to eat meat perhaps once a year.

Over decades of economic growth, meat has come to be seen as a symbol of material prosperity.

Now, though, China, especially in its wealthier provinces, may have reached the stage where meat consumption is widespread enough for it to no longer carry the same weight as a symbol of success.

Great advances in infrastructure and logistics mean that many more kinds of food are easily accessible to ordinary people, and this certainly includes vegetarian cuisine.

Western influences on Chinese vegetarianism are also being manifested, often in tandem with and related to these symbols of progress and increasing wealth.

It is no coincidence that vegetarianism has seen such success in wealthy Western nations where the social prestige of regularly eating meat has long worn off.

Laura Fanelli opened her restaurant The Veggie Table about one year ago. Idyllically situated in a hutong opposite the Yonghegong Lama Temple, it may be tempting to identify a Buddhist vibe running through the establishment.

Yet according to Fanelli, The Veggie Table is not motivated by any spiritual agenda, but instead by reasons such as food safety. In her opinion, there are simply "no arguments in favor of eating meat".

Health concerns about food in China over recent years are a major factor in the number of people now turning to vegetarian alternatives.

Fanelli's own vegetarianism is motivated by a strong belief about the personal health benefits it entails.

The Veggie Table's clientele are a mixture of men and women, and are made up of expats and foreign tourists along with local Chinese.

Health is perhaps the major factor in the rise of vegetarian restaurants and lifestyles in China.

The groundbreaking study on health, The China Study, published in 2004, gathered research in the 1980s from 130 Chinese villages across many regions and counties, and used it to draw radical conclusions about the effects meat and dairy products can have on our health.

The study, directed by Cornell University, also included a research team at the University of Oxford headed by Sir Richard Peto and a team at the Chinese Academy of Medicine headed by Li Junyao. China Daily spoke to one of its authors, T. Colin Campbell, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus at Cornell University.

"It is not only meat that causes health problems but dairy and eggs as well," Campbell says. "It is the collective activities of many nutrients in these foods that increase heart disease, diabetes, obesity, many cancers and other diseases."

This research remains a source of controversy in the West, but its importance is beginning to be understood in China; the text itself was mentioned by Wang Rui and other vegetarian restaurant owners in Beijing.

Campbell also acknowledges the social currents at work, suggesting that in developing countries meat and other high-fat products "indicate social status for many people".

In China, as elsewhere, this kind of status is still of huge importance. However, the costs to healthcare systems, and the environmental damage caused by consuming high-fat, high-protein diets may be significant.

The recent rise in vegetarianism is just one of the many factors that indicate an increased awareness of healthy eating in China.

In some respects, this narrative conflicts with a desire for more wealth and the very best standard of living typical of a rapidly developing economy. Campbell, however, points toward winds of change, saying that he senses an increasing awareness of the importance of health over wealth.

"They are beginning to become aware that spending one's lifetime acquiring money is of little or no value if one gets sick and dies early."

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Bill Clinton Turns to Buddhism to Improve His Health

"Ever since his heart scare, Bill has looked for ways to help him relax," a source told RadarOnline in an exclusive report.

"He has a hectic life, he travels a lot on business as an ambassador for the U.S. and needs something to keep him sane," the person presumably close to Clinton added. "Meditation offers him that, he has a mantra that he likes to chant and after every session he feels transformed and full of positive energy."

"It's definitely doing him the world of good – he feels fitter and stronger than ever," the source concluded.

According to the Times of India, Clinton has even hired a Buddhist monk to aid him in his spiritual studies.

Clinton reportedly has sought to improve himself both spiritually and physically after surviving a wave of health scares, relating mostly to his poor diet and weight, in the mid-2000s.

The former president also has become an advocate for veganism after he underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2004 to unblock four clogged arteries. He also received two stents, or mesh scaffolds, in a fifth artery in 2010 at the New York Presbyterian Hospital.

"I essentially concluded that I had played Russian roulette," Clinton told CNN's Sanjay Gupta regarding his previous poor health in an Aug. 2011 interview.
"I was lucky I did not die of a heart attack," the 42nd president added.
Clinton's current diet consists primarily of fresh fruit and vegetables, although he reportedly occasionally eats fish.

The former president, 65, currently travels the world speaking on the importance of international diplomacy and environmental responsibility through the Clinton Foundation, established with the stated mission to "strengthen the capacity of people throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence."
Clinton was raised a Southern Baptist, and many critics claim that he ebbed and flowed in his religious beliefs throughout his terms as president.

"You know, Bill Clinton knew the language. Bill Clinton could talk like a Southern Baptist evangelist when he wanted to. But they hated what he was doing with it, because they were in fundamental disagreement with him about so many very important social issues," Richard Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, has told PBS Frontline.

Read more at http://global.christianpost.com/news/bill-clinton-turns-to-buddhism-to-improve-his-health-79617/#b5PzK53eQiG0Kmkw.99

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Practices Derived from Buddhist Meditation Show Real Effectiveness for Certain Health Problems

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New Delhi, India -- According to a report in the July Journal of Psychiatric Practice, mindfulness practices including Zen mediation have helped to resolve mental and physical health problems.

”An extensive review of therapies that include meditation as a key component - referred to as mindfulness-based practices - shows convincing evidence that such interventions are effective in the treatment of psychiatric symptoms and pain, when used in combination with more conventional therapies,” according to Dr William R. Marchand of the George E.

Mindfulness based therapies or exercises show clear results of health benefits. Mindfulness is described as “the practice of learning to focus attention on moment-by-moment experience with an attitude of curiousity, openness, and acceptance. In other words a part of practicing mindfulness is simply experiencing the present as it is rather than trying to change anything.

Dr. Marchand focused on three techniques: Zen meditation, a Buddhist spiritual practice that involves the practice of developing mindfulness by meditation. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) a combination of Buddhist mindfulness with meditation related to yoga as well as stress coping stretegies. The third type of technique he reviewed is Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), which combines MBSR with principles of cognitive therapy.

As a result of Dr. Marchand’s study it has been revealed that MBSR is effective in reducing stress and promoting general psychological health in patients with various medical or psychiatric diseases.

These practices in addition help to affect mental and physical health in that they impact brain function in structure, which they believe is the reason for the practices helping decrease stress levels as well.

The use of such mindfulness practices are promising and overtime should be used consistently in clinical settings.

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