Category Archives: Mind Body

Is Laughter An Effective Appetite Stimulant?

    Laughter is a very complex and amazing physiologic process.  Throughout the ages it’s known to have a positive impact on health.    During the late seventies, over thirty years ago, Norman Cousins shared his amazing healing experience using laughter to treat his autoimmune disorder. Laughter is a highly complex process.  His ground-breaking work, ...…

How Meditation Helps Insomnia

  A study conducted at Northwestern Memorial Hospital found that meditation is an effective behavioral treatment for insomnia. The findings were reported at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.   Insomnia affects more than 35-70 million Americans, and the same approximate rate, 10-20 per cent of the population are impacted in Europe. ...…

Meditation Rapidly Improves Brain Functioning

Brain research imaging studies conducted a few years ago have demonstrated that meditation can cause significant improvements in sections related to concentration.  Conventional wisdom has led to the notion that a considerable amount of time and training was involved in order to achieve this effect.  This perceived time requirement has been a barrier for many ...…

Acupuncture Eases Dental Patient’s Anxiety

Acupuncture needles placed into two specific spots on the head may reduce anxiety levels of highly nervous dental patients, according to a study published in Acupuncture in Medicine.   The needles induce relaxation and reduce fear that paralyzes some people facing dental treatments, say researchers from England and Denmark.   The acupuncture treatment was performed ...…

Yoga Improves Workplace Well-being and Resilience

Recent research has indicated concern for the degree of stress and emotional well-being among university staff. This study examined the effectiveness of yoga in enhancing emotional well-being and resilience to stress among university employees.   British researchers conducted a randomized clinical study, involving 48 people.  They were either placed into a yoga program, or wait ...…

Massage Therapy May Relieve Depression

The authors of the review of several massage studies, acknowledge difficulties with research on the effects of massage, including the fact that it’s impossible to “blind” study participants or care providers to whether a person is receiving massage or a comparison treatment.   Nevertheless, they say there is “good evidence to suggest that massage therapy ...…

The Write Way to Health-Part 3: The Journey to Greater Inner Awareness

  Prior to Dr. Pennebaker’s research, Jungian scholar Dr. Ira Progoff, the creator of holistic depth psychology, developed a journaling technique. Since the program was developed over thirty years ago, more than 200 workshop leaders have been trained and certified, and more than 175,000 individuals have participated in his workshops. Dr. Progoff passed away in ...…

Blood Pressure Changes and Emotional Distress

Don Morris, MD a researcher at the University of Michigan’s Neuropsychiatric Institute conducted a study involving 62 nursing students and 17 student pilots were interviewed for 30 minutes to determine the presence of emotional instability.   The groups were followed for 12-18 months and 4-6 months respectively.    The nursing students were experiencing some emotional stress ...…

Does Music Reduce Pain and Anxiety After Surgery?

    Music therapy, the use of music in a health care setting is a rapidly growing technique throughout many hospitals in the US. It is clinical and evidence based use of music interventions   Children, teens, adults and seniors and a wide variety of physical disabilities, acute and chronic pain and mothers in labor ...…

Therapeutic Touch Reduces Stress in Nursing Home

  Over the last decade numerous studies have been published regarding the effectiveness of Therapeutic Touch, a form of Laying on of Hands developed in the early 1970s by Dolores Krieger, Ph.D., RN, a professor at New York University School of Nursing, and Dora Kunz, a well known  healer.     In the beginning, Krieger ...…