Monthly Archives: August 2019
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Posted: August 29, 2019Categories: Update from Health Journeys
On vacation, I had a set of the N.O.W. speakers in my living room, a gift from the developer, Michael Joly.
It’s no secret that I love these things. When you press the PLAY buttons on them, each speaker randomly selects a tone sequence from about 120 of them, and whatever gets played on one syncs up with whatever is on the other speaker. You never know what you’re going to hear, which is why you can’t get so familiar with the sounds that you stop listening to them. So clever.
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Posted: August 26, 2019Categories: Hot Research
Researchers from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, NC, conducted a randomized controlled pilot comparing the viability of two mind-body workplace stress reduction programs - one therapeutic yoga-based and the other mindfulness-based - in order to set the stage for larger cost-effectiveness trials. Additionally, 2 delivery venues of the mindfulness-based program were evaluated (online vs. in-person).
Group differences were examined over time on perceived stress and secondary measures to clarify which variables to include in future studies: sleep quality, mood, pain levels, work productivity, mindfulness, blood pressure, breathing rate, and heart rate variability. -
Posted: August 20, 2019Categories: Update from Health Journeys
I first met Traci Stein in the late nineties when she was Mehmet Oz’s point person for mind-body research & evaluation at Columbia Presbyterian.
In those pre-TV show days, Mehmet was trying out various techniques like guided imagery, when not inventing valves out of esoteric pig parts or doing CABG surgeries on beloved NY luminaries like Joe Torre, manager of the Yankees.
Traci was amazing to work with from the very start – smart, diligent, accommodating, responsible, considerate, and insanely productive.
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Posted: August 13, 2019Categories: Update from Health Journeys
A few years ago, Laureen Campana, RN, MPH, NP, then President-Elect of HSACCC (the Health Services Association of the California Community College system), and coordinator of student health at Columbia College, approached me after a session of guided imagery training I’d given at the U of Arizona Integrative Medicine Fellowship program.
Part of my talk showed the research on how guided imagery and meditation were associated with significantly reduced stress, anxiety, depression; and improved sleep, concentration, and performance. Many of the studies were done with college and university students (they’re sitting ducks for investigators, as we all know).
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MD Anderson’s Department of Palliative, Rehabilitation and Integrative Medicine recently evaluated the impact of 4 different integrative, mind-body therapies on the symptom distress of cancer patients and their caregivers.
They looked at guided meditation, yoga, massage therapy, & acupuncture.