Advances in Mind-body Medicine

A 54-year-old postmenopausal woman was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACCA) of the right breast. She had complaints of pain in the upper quadrant of the right breast, stress, disturbed sleep, and depression. Her self-reported pain intensity using the visual analog scale (VAS) was 8 and her perceived stress scale value was 19. Her depression score on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was 12. Her quality of sleep, evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), was 18. She was given integrated naturopathy and yoga therapy for 43 days...

Stress is a key contributor to several major life-threatening illnesses including depression and cardiovascular disease. Behavioral strategies that enable individuals to regulate stress responses can lead to improved health and well-being. Such practices may also help reduce required clinical interventions, ease pressure on the National Health Service (NHS), and reduce the need for medical and psychological treatments. This study explores the effects of a novel mind-body therapy for stress reduction and enhanced well-being...

CONTEXT: Qigong, a mind-body practice in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), can improve cognitive functions, emotional balance, attention, multitask management, stress-coping, and well-being. One limitation of Qigong research is a lack of adequate controls. OBJECTIVE: The current study intended to evaluate whether a single 5-min practice of a White Ball (WB) Qigong exercise could improve the perceptual auditory attention, divided and focused, in adults and whether obtaining potential effects would require a minimum level of training...

CONTEXT: Mental health practitioners have postulated that smartphone addiction is a disorder characterized by maladaptive and problematic behavior, and treatment modalities are scarce. Yoga has been found to be a viable tool for addiction treatment and other psychiatric conditions, but no specific validated module is currently available for smartphone addiction. OBJECTIVE: The study intended: (1) to develop a yoga-based intervention for smartphone addiction, based on the ancient literature of yoga and a modern literature review; (2) to validate the developed module with experts from different schools of yoga; and (3) to test the module's feasibility and efficacy for young adolescents, with the objective of creating biopsychosocial well-being...

CONTEXT: Higher Brain Living (HBL) is a light-touch therapy, which practitioners claim can increase well-being. Although studies have suggested that its component elements-light touch, focused breathing, and positive self-talk-can increase well-being for specific populations in specific contexts, no empirical research has occurred on HBL's efficacy. OBJECTIVE: The study intended to measure the effects of HBL therapy on the well-being of individuals who have received it...

CONTEXT: Yoga is beneficial in enhancing mental health and consequently cognitive growth. Some studies have show that yoga practice can improve cognitive functioning in children. OBJECTIVE: The study intended to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based yoga intervention on the cognitive abilities-attention and memory-of adolescents. DESIGN: The research team conducted a one-group, pretest-posttest study. SETTING: The study occurred at a rural residential school in Udupi, Karnataka, and South India...

CONTEXT: Aging can contribute to a decrease in physical activity as a result of metabolic dysfunction and hormonal imbalance that can cause degenerative joint disease and aging-related inflammation. As age advances, a decrease in muscle mass, muscle strength, and flexibility can impair physical function. OBJECTIVE: The study intended to evaluate the effects of an integrated yoga module in improving the flexibility, muscle strength, and quality of life (QOL) of older adults...

Context: With obesity a mounting global issue, efficacious treatments can make a contribution to both personal and public health. Prior clinical trials have demonstrated that an evidence-based method, Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), can produce a durable weight reduction. Objective: The study evaluated whether Skinny Genes, a six-week online program applying EFT to emotional eating, was associated with behavioral change and reductions in weight. Design: A pre-post outcome study design evaluated the results of a convenience sample of participants enrolled in an online weight loss course...

BACKGROUND: Preexisting patient characteristics may influence the outcome of mindfulness training, and a composite predictive index may be most informative in predicting outcome. PRIMARY STUDY OBJECTIVE: To develop a predictive index from baseline patient characteristics to determine which characteristics are associated with improvement following mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) vs health education and to examine whether intreatment variables-reflecting adherence to the mindfulness intervention-predicted clinical outcome...

CONTEXT: Obesity is associated with chronic diseases, including metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Fasting is commonly employed by obese people to reduce their weight. Likewise, yoga and naturopathy (YN) that include liquid fasting (LF) have been shown to be beneficial in reducing weight for people with metabolic disorders. However, the safety of LF during YN treatments and its effects on metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors haven't yet been reported. OBJECTIVE: The study intended to evaluate the safety of LF during YN treatments and its effects on metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors in people with obesity...

INTRODUCTION: Our research dealt with the evaluation of the effectiveness and risk factors present in interventions based on mindfulness meditation. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between participant factors-the presence of physical illness, mental illness and trauma, aversive childhood experiences; program factors-the intensity and frequency of meditation; and teacher factors -competence. Subsequently, we evaluated how they affect the occurrence and interpretation of meditation experiences...

CONTEXT: The paper reports a case of trauma treated by the Move to Emptiness Technique (MET), which is a therapy to alleviate patient's physical or psychological symptom related to trauma by combining Qigong with imagery, metaphor and suggestions. OBJECTIVE: To introduce MET and report treating a patient with trauma using MET. INTERVENTION: The patient was guided to visualize a symbolic object that represented the physical or psychological symptom of the traumatic experience, and visualize moving the symbolic object to the farthest possible space of "emptiness", where the object became imperceptible...

Is consciousness an organizing force in the universe? 4 fundamental forces have been described as governing our universe: gravitational, electromagnetic, and the strong and weak nuclear forces, while a fifth force has been speculated to exist. Supporting evidence for the hypothesis that consciousness is an organizing force is found in the sciences of yoga, parapsychology (psi), and quantum physics. The relevance of consciousness in healing and medicine is discussed.

Context: Diabetes is a metabolic disease, with high mortality, and is characterized by increased glucose levels in the blood occurring due to poor pancreatic insulin secretion or development of insulin resistance in the body. Type 2 DM (T2DM) represents 90% of diabetic cases, and its pathogenesis involves a genetic correlation with insulin resistance, β-cell dysfunction, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Objective: The current study intended to examine the pathophysiology of T2DM, including factors influencing insulin resistance and beta (β)-cell dysfunction as well as the genetic factors that indicate susceptibility to T2DM...

CONTEXT: Opioid use disorder (OUD) involves excessive use of opioids-such as heroin, morphine, fentanyl, codeine, oxycodone, and hydrocodone-leading to major health, social, and economic consequences. Yoga lifestyle interventions have been found to be useful as adjunct therapies in management of substance use disorders and chronic pain conditions. OBJECTIVE: The research team intended to develop, validate, and test for feasibility a yoga program for OUD patients that could reduce opiate withdrawal symptoms-such as pain, fatigue, low mood, anxiety and sleep disturbances-and cravings associated with drugs...

CONTEXT: Students are vulnerable to developing anxiety, a psychiatric disorder closely related to emotional stress, when systematically stressed by classes, homework, and evaluations. Qigong integrates physical, respiratory, and mental exercises, inducing vegetative biofeedback with significant effects on physiological regulation. OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to assess the potential effects of specific Qigong exercises on students' anxiety levels and evaluate the feasibility of practical integration in a daily school context...

Objective: Body integrity dysphoria (BID) is an intense need/desire to live in a disabled body, particularly due to a limb amputation or paraplegia. The investigators observed that significantly more people affected by BID wish to change their gender compared with the average population. The aim of this study was to find out whether gender identity (ie, typical male or female behavior) was less pronounced in a group of participants with BID than in a parallel control group of non-BID participants...

A database of peer-reviewed journal articles exploring the emerging sub-specialty known as "energy psychology" was assessed. This paper focuses on the 245 clinical trials, meta-analyses, systematic evaluations, and theory pieces examining energy psychology protocols that include tapping on acupuncture points (acupoints), the most frequently used and investigated intervention in energy psychology. The review derives 6 premises about the method's efficacy, speed, durability, and physiologic effects that have enough empirical support (at least 6 clinical trials each) to serve in delineating and making claims about the approach...

While most healthcare providers are generally aware of the role stress plays in disease development, few are attuned to a phenomenon I call "Cultural Stress," which compounds all of life's other stressors. Cultural Stress is the constant, pervasive, ever-increasing stress of modern living. It includes overexposure to technology at the expense of in-person relationships; 24-hour connectivity, which blurs the boundaries between work and personal life; on-demand delivery of goods and services, which severs neighborhood and community relationships and results in long sedentary hours in front of our screens; the pace of technological change, which contributes to professional, economic, and social insecurity; our global economic system, which sows uncertainty as it outsources jobs overseas or to new technologies; environmental contaminants, noise, crowding, and various new sources of radiation; changes to our diet, which has become heavily reliant on a few processed commodities (corn, wheat, sugar, and soy); and changes to our urban development and transportation patterns, which result in less physical activity and more hours spent sitting in long commutes...

Aim: The purpose of this article is to enhance our understanding of prayer healing by studying a case which was described as a 'remarkable healing' by a medical assessment team at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre (UMC) in the Netherlands. Method: This retrospective, case-based study of prayer healing investigated numerous reported healings using both medical files and patient narratives. A medical assessment team evaluated the associated medical files, as well as any experiential data...