All you need is love--to help reduce pain

The following is from Rewiring the brain to ease pain, published November 15, 2011 in the Wall Street Journal Health Journal

One of Dr. Mackey's favorite pain-relieving techniques is love. He and colleagues recruited 15 Stanford undergraduates and had them bring in photos of their beloved and another friend. Then he scanned their brains while applying pain stimuli from a hot probe. On average, the subject reported feeling 44% less pain while focusing on their loved one than on their friend. Brain images showed they had strong activity in the nucleus accumbens, an area deep in the brain involved with dopamine and reward circuits


One technique is attention distraction, simply directing your mind away from the pain. "It's like having a flashlight in the dark—you choose what you want to focus on. We have that same power with our mind," says Ravi Prasad, a pain psychologist at Stanford.


Guided imagery, in which a patient imagines, say, floating on a cloud, also works in part by diverting attention away from pain. So does mindfulness meditation. In a study in the Journal of Neuroscience in April, researchers at Wake Forest taught 15 adults how to meditate for 20 minutes a day for four days and subjected them to painful stimuli (a probe heated to 120 degrees Fahrenheit on the leg).


Brain scans before and after showed that while they were meditating, they had less activity in the primary somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain that registers where pain is coming from, and greater activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, which plays a role in handling unpleasant feelings. Subjects also reported feeling 40% less pain intensity and 57% less unpleasantness while meditating.


"Our subjects really looked at pain differently after meditating. Some said, 'I didn't need to say ouch,' " says Fadel Zeidan, the lead investigator.


Techniques that help patients "emotionally reappraise" their pain rather than ignore it are particularly helpful when patients are afraid they will suffer further injury and become sedentary, experts say.


Cognitive behavioral therapy, which is offered at many pain-management programs, teaches patients to challenge their negative thoughts about their pain and substitute more positive behaviors.


Even getting therapy by telephone for six months helped British patients with fibromyalgia, according to a study published online this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Nearly 30% of patients receiving the therapy reported less pain, compared with 8% of those getting conventional treatments. The study noted that in the U.K., no drugs are approved for use in fibromyalgia and access to therapy or exercise programs is limited, if available at all.


Anticipating relief also seems to make it happen, research into the placebo effect has shown. In another NCCAM-funded study, 48 subjects were given either real or simulated acupuncture and then exposed to heat stimuli.


Both groups reported similar levels of pain relief—but brain scans showed that actual acupuncture interrupted pain signals in the spinal cord while the sham version, which didn't penetrate the skin, activated parts of the brain associated with mood and expectation, according to a 2009 study in the journal Neuroimage.


Experts stress that much still isn't known about pain and the brain, including whom these mind-body therapies are most appropriate for. They also say it's important that anyone who is in pain get a thorough medical examination. "You can't just say, 'Go take a yoga class.' That's not a thoughtful approach to pain management," says Dr. Briggs.

Optical illusion dampens arthritis pain

A small but interesting study reported By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times/For the Booster Shots blog , on November 15, 2011, 9:23 a.m. gives some hope for those with arthritis.

Seeing the movements of a healthy hand mirroring one's own movements plays a welcome trick on the brains of arthritis sufferers, a new study shows: It reduces the perception of pain. The observation, reported this week at the Society for Neuroscience's annual conference, could offer a safe, inexpensive means of dampening chronic pain by enlisting the brain's power of suggestion.

The small arthritis study, which tested just eight subjects, comes from the lab of UC San Diego neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran -- who first used mirror-based trickery to treat phantom-limb pain in patients who have had an amputation. In those studies, pain perceived to come from an absent limb resolved when subjects saw what appeared to be their own missing limb moving smoothly and performing tasks without pain.

In the study presented by UCSD neuroscientist Laura Case this week in Washington, eight subjects suffering from severe osteo- or rheumatoid arthritis sat in front of a mirrored box and extended one of their hands. A researcher extended his hand over the subject's hand and asked the subject to move her hand slowly. The researcher, meanwhile, mimicked the subject's hand movement.

The subject, seeing only the researcher's hand in the mirror, saw a young, healthy hand performing movements fluidly and without pain or difficulty. And when asked about their hands' level of pain after the exercise, subjects rated their pain, on average, 1.5 points lower, on a scale of 1 to 10, than it had been at the outset. Some had a 3-point reduction in pain, said Case.

And there was more than one way to trick the brain's perception of pain, the researchers found. They also saw subjects rate their pain as lower when they held objects in their hands that appeared smaller and lighter than they actually were.

Case said it's not clear what trickery, exactly, made subjects feel less pain; it may have been the sight of "their" hand (actually, the researcher's) as a young, healthy hand with no arthritic deformities that made them feel better. It might have the appearance of the effortless movement that suggested a lack of pain. Then again, it may have been the exercise, which usually loosen's pain's grip, said Case.

Case and her colleagues are currently testing the mirror-based treatment on a larger population of patients with arthritic and other chronic pain. With roughly 50 million Americans suffering the pain and stiffness of arthritis, therapy that enlists the brain's willingness to see and feel a sick body as healthy -- even if it is an illusion -- could be an important treatment. Unlike non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which come with a long list of short- and long-term risks, mirror therapy is non-invasive, safe and relatively cheap. All it takes is a mirror, a healthy body stand-in and a brain

Do you have a list of things to do today?

Look at your list of things to do for today.

 

Ask yourself how did each of those "to-do" items get there?  Who put them on your list? and why did you allow them to be put on your list.

There are very few of us who are 100% in charge of our schedules - we have bosses, spouses, kids, family members, clients and others who need our attention. But I want you to look at the priorities you have chosen  for today and ask this one question:

 Are these items "urgent" or "important"?

Yes, things can be urgent AND important, but they are usually not both, we get trapped into believing that what we do is  both important or urgent. So if we beleive what we have to do is both urgurent and important and we fall short of time, or energy what happens? People fall into the trap of only dealing with the "urgent" items - items that aren't really important in the grand scheme of things, but are urgent because someone or something else is banging on their door asking for their attention.

Please be sure that you don't ignore the really important things. The things that never present themselves as urgent until it is too late.  

  You know what I'm talking about.

• Spending time with loved ones
• Proper nutrition
• Sufficient exercise
• Dreaming of the future you want and then moving in the direction of those dreams.

This is YOUR life.  Live it on purpose!

Zen and mindfulness

A friend of mine talked to me about the concept of mindfulness and I thought it was interesting so I thought I would explore the idea. Here is some of what I found out.

Life exists only in the present moment, to lose the presence is to lose life," says Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.

One of his followers, Jerry Braza, the author of "The Seeds of Love",  explains that we are each a gardener in the garden of consciousness.

Braza believes that it is our duty to go back to our gardens and to choose, plant and tend the best seeds. Each of us should know exactly what's going on in our own gardens and try to put everything in order, restoring the beauty and harmony.

Then, we need to grow the seeds of compassion, love, joy and loving kindness.

Braza discusses two kinds of consciousness: store and consciousness (the soil and the seeds, or things below the soil) and mind consciousness (the visible garden, or things above the soil). Whether or not our meditation can develop fast depends on the quality of the seeds that lie deep in our consciousness. Too many weeds, or stress and it's difficult to get focused.

City dwellers would almost certainly see a distinction between the inner world and outer world. But the two worlds are one and the same and affect each other, according to the Zen master. You cannot understand the outer world without thoroughly discovering the inner.

That's when mindfulness comes in useful. And Braza simply makes it more practical for those of us stuck in the rat race. Mindfulness defined in Pscychology Today  is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience

Braza recommends a slow walk, a visit to a park, or sitting on the porch or balcony as a way to discover "noble silence", or a unifying of body, speech and mind. There are other tips on reaching mindfulness such as:

1. Use a reminder of the string-around-your-finger variety. Wear your watch upside-down, put a quarter in your shoe, or put a smudge on one of the lenses of your glasses. When you notice it, let that serve as a reminder for you to notice your surroundings, become aware of your senses and your bodily sensations, and bring your focus into the present.
2. Practice slowing down time by attending to the subtleties of experience in the here and now. Take a minute and go get a handful of grapes. Now eat one—but don't just pop it in your mouth.  Instead, imagine you've never seen a grape before. Look it over carefully. Consider its shape, weight, color, and texture. Rub the grape gently across your lips, noticing how it feels. Before you eat it, peel it, as you listen to this song by Nancy Wilson. Now put the grape in your mouth, and roll it around slowly with your tongue. Notice how it feels in your mouth. Take a small bite, noting the flavor. Next, chew the grape slowly, focusing on its taste and texture. Then swallow, and follow its path down your throat as far as you can. You can have a few more—but remember to focus on what each one looks, tastes, and feels like on your lips, in your mouth, and down your throat 
3. Focus on the soles of your feet. Here's a good trick to return to mindfulness if you feel angry or aggressive. Shift all your attention to the soles of your feet. Move your toes slowly, feel the weave of your socks and the curve of your arch. Breathe naturally and focus on the soles of your feet until you feel calm.

But whatever you do, be mindful every step of the way. That's the goal of mindfulness, or mindful awareness. "Mindfulness is bringing our whole being to everything we do," he explains. This means you don't need to be in a retreat at a Buddhist temple in order to practise or maintain mindful awareness of the reality. It's very important to stop, rest and renew in order to be in tune with the present moment.

But how does meditation practice benefit us?

In this slowing of the mind, thoughts are present, but his mind is not as "reactive" to them in solitude and the natural environment.

Buddhism holds, but to rigorously train oneself to relinquish bad mental habits. Rather than being an end in itself, meditation becomes a tool to investigate your mind and change your worldview. You're not tuning out so much as tuning up your brain, improving your self-monitoring skills.  "Whatsoever a man soweth, that he shall also reap." "Who harms not self, naught can harm," says The Bible.  Daily habits are an outgrowth of our beliefs. Educate yourself and revolutionize your thoughts to help you change your living habits. Enthusiasm is what generates change.

"You stop being always projected outside. You start looking in and seeing how your mind works, and you change your mind, thought by thought," explains Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk, scientist and French interpreter for the Dalai Lama.

Then there's "interbeing", or oneness with all. You'd be successful once you see flowers blooming in your garden. In Buddhism, we believe mindfulness leads to concentration and concentration leads to insight.

Readers will find much to reflect on, especially on the subject of the inner garden. After all, this seems the only place to find understanding and compassion. While we'd all like to do a walking meditation in the woods, pick wildflowers along the way as well as bamboo branches for flower arrangements, the majority of us cannot afford the time to enjoy that environment.

So it is incumbent on each of us to find our own gardens, and appreciate the peace and miracle of where we are.