Health Benefits of Meditation by Jenni Sunde, guest author
Meditation, when used as a health tool, can significantly increase an individual’s sense of well-being, while simultaneously reducing stress. Abundant research has shown that meditation can lower blood pressure, ease chronic pain, reduce stress and depression, improve concentration, and even boost the immune system. All of this from the basic practice of sitting and quieting the mind. There are so many external stressors in today’s society that finding a way to slow down and focus the mind will do wonders for the body.
Charles L. Raison, MD is the clinical director of the Mind-Body program at Emery University School of Medicine in Atlanta and has participated in a study on just how meditation can improve physical and emotional responses to stress. What he has found is that stress reduction is the key component of the health benefits of meditation. No matter who the patient is they will benefit from stress reduction because it will enable their minds and bodies to better handle any health issues that may be present. Even if the only concern is an inability to sleep, meditation can help with that too.
Stress is a contributor to all major modern killers like cancer. When you think about it, it is actually quite hard to have a disease that does not include or create stress in some way. In severe cases, stress can even be a cause of the ailment. Finding a way to minimize or remove stress altogether can only be of great benefit to the entirety of a person’s health.
Many people view meditative practices as hippy dippy techniques, and don’t give them adequate credit for their proven positive impact on overall health. Many are under the impression that sitting with legs crossed fingertips touching saying “ohm” is the only way to practice meditation, when in reality the only requirement of the practice is to narrow your mental focus and still the body. This does not necessarily require a specific posture, although some are known to be more effective than others. You can find alternative ways to achieve the same end. Some popular, less demanding methods include counting breaths, staring at a candle, or sitting quietly – the only real challenge is finding a way that works for you.
It feels like common sense that taking ten or twenty minutes out of your day to sit quietly, breathing deeply is a great way to unwind and relax, but so many people are unable or unaware of the benefits of meditation. Call it mediation, call it sitting, call it quiet time; taking a moment to focus your energy and calm the mind will reduce stress, promote well-being, and help bring you back into the present which is all your ever have anyway. People that live in the present experience a greater sense of well-being, and are much less prone to stress. Try for yourself and experience the health benefits of medication personally.
About the author: Jenni Sunde is a freelance fashion writer and pop culture junkie. Jenni specializes in all things lifestyle-related. From home and design to health and beauty. With her love of art and all things beautiful, she delights in sharing her sense of style from her life to your computer monitor. Her title pegs her as an editor at a website that specializes in providing people with a car insurance quote, but her passion leads her into writing with a little more substance and a lot more heart.
The FDA released a warning about an over the counter product called Que She marketed as an “all natural” herbal supplement to help with weight loss. The FDA states that this supposedly all natural supplement actually contains four drugs, one of which have been previously marketed by prescription but withdrawn from the market because of health risks. The product contains fenfluramine, part of the one-time very popular Fen-phen weight loss plan that was shown to cause heart valve problems and was withdrawn from the market and the cause of a giant class-action lawsuit. It also contains sibutramine (brand name Meridia), a controlled substance and weight loss drug recently associated with an increased risk of stroke and heart attack in patients with cardiac disease. Also found was propranolol, a beta-blocker and ephedrine, a stimulant. This is just one more reminder that the unregulated herbal supplement market can be a place where unscrupulous marketers can try to hide potentially dangerous drugs in seemingly harmless products. No combination product of these four drugs could have ever passed FDA scrutiny to become an approved product to bring to market if the actual ingredients were revealed to customers. The FDA recommends anyone who has this product should immediately stop using it.
I trust that anyone interested in DrPullen.com is bright enough not to believe that a product called Magic Power Coffee could improve their sexual performance, but a name like that might tempt you to try it. Hey, we all could use a little magic in the morning couldn’t we? It looks like this product has a chemical related to Viagra, that can lead to severe hypotension when taken with nitrates or other medications, and is one to just avoid. The FDA recommends discarding any of this that you have, and seeing your doctor if you have used the product and had any ill effects. Coffee’s magic ingredient is caffeine. It’s best to take your coffee straight or maybe with cream and sugar. Skip the brands with untested drugs added.
I’ve been invited to be a regular contributor to HCPLive.com. This is a loose collection of on-line medical writers, and does a good job of presenting lots of viewpoints. This is exciting news for drpullen.com
I frequently have patients ask me about using medical marijuana. Unfortunately they are not the patients I think would benefit most from its use. I found a very good article in Psychiatric News that discussed the issue in detail and with good balance. The evidence is scant, but suggests some usefulness of medical marijuana for limited conditions.
Pravastatin is the lowest potency statin that is widely used in the US to lower LDL cholesterol. It is often tolerated even in patients where other statins cause muscle pain. Red Yeast Rice extract is a well tolerated supplement that has been touted to lower LDL cholesterol. A study published in the Jan 15th issue of Am. Journal of Cardiology compares 2400 mg twice daily Red Yeast Rice extract with 20 mg twice daily pravastatin in a small group of patients who did not tolerate more potent statins. It turns out that both regimens are equally well tolerated and equally effective. Both reduce LDL levels by about 30%, and both are not tolerated by <10% of patients in this difficult population where another statin was already not tolerated.
Somehow Dr. Oz gets on my nerves. He is personable, dynamic, and charismatic, but I just don’t like or trust him. Jealous? I don’t think so. From the start some of his ideas seemed a bit off target. Where does a cardiothoracic surgeon get the experience and fund of knowledge to be an authority on general medicine. Here is an interesting blog post on the Healthwise Everything Health blog.
The newest media Doc on the block is Dr. Mehmet Oz. When he was first seen on Oprah, he seemed engaging and answered some interesting questions in a real and professional way. The audience loved his blue scrubs and boyish clean cut open style.
That was then.
Let’s face it…the media spotlight seems to corrupt even the best physicians. Dr. Oz now has his own show and website and production company. That is a pretty big infrastructure to maintain and we know that the public is fickle. So what does he do?
This article originally published in KevinMD.com addresses the issues related to celebrity medical advice. Even celebrity physicians sometimes seem more interested in personal notoriety than giving helpful advice. If you have a couple of minutes, click through to the original Slate article.
By: Kevin, M.D. | January 14, 2010
Celebrities are given an increasing number of platforms to disseminate medical advice these days, but is that really a good thing? Not when that information is false, or misleading.
I saw an interesting snippet on the evening news last night about Ginkgo Biloba being shown not to improve health. Besides it not working, one thing was very interesting to me. Currently almost all of the herbal and alternative medication remedies have far too little research that would come close to meeting FDA requirements for a new prescription drug to make claims of efficacy, the US is starting to fund major studies on alternative medications. I think this is great news. Right now I really have to tell patients that I just don’t know if the (fill in the blank here really) that they are taking or are considering taking really helps. On the one hand placebo is powerful medication, and I will rarely tell a patient that something that they believe helps really does not help. On the other hand I see patients with very limited financial situations spending real money on supplements and remedies that have little or no proof of benefit. I hope to see more well done studies on this topic. Read Reuter’s article about this study on FoxNews.com.
For ideas on ways to possibly improve memory and brain function, especially in old age, see this article. Ginkgo doesn’t work: Are there better ways to save your brain? Unfortunately most of them require more effort than swallowing a couple pills. All drugs have potential side effects. What we all probably need to do is manage our diet and exercise to improve our lipid type and try to prevent diabetes.
Health Benefits of Meditation
Health Benefits of Meditation by Jenni Sunde, guest author
Meditation, when used as a health tool, can significantly increase an individual’s sense of well-being, while simultaneously reducing stress. Abundant research has shown that meditation can lower blood pressure, ease chronic pain, reduce stress and depression, improve concentration, and even boost the immune system. All of this from the basic practice of sitting and quieting the mind. There are so many external stressors in today’s society that finding a way to slow down and focus the mind will do wonders for the body.
Charles L. Raison, MD is the clinical director of the Mind-Body program at Emery University School of Medicine in Atlanta and has participated in a study on just how meditation can improve physical and emotional responses to stress. What he has found is that stress reduction is the key component of the health benefits of meditation. No matter who the patient is they will benefit from stress reduction because it will enable their minds and bodies to better handle any health issues that may be present. Even if the only concern is an inability to sleep, meditation can help with that too.
Stress is a contributor to all major modern killers like cancer. When you think about it, it is actually quite hard to have a disease that does not include or create stress in some way. In severe cases, stress can even be a cause of the ailment. Finding a way to minimize or remove stress altogether can only be of great benefit to the entirety of a person’s health.
It feels like common sense that taking ten or twenty minutes out of your day to sit quietly, breathing deeply is a great way to unwind and relax, but so many people are unable or unaware of the benefits of meditation. Call it mediation, call it sitting, call it quiet time; taking a moment to focus your energy and calm the mind will reduce stress, promote well-being, and help bring you back into the present which is all your ever have anyway. People that live in the present experience a greater sense of well-being, and are much less prone to stress. Try for yourself and experience the health benefits of medication personally.
About the author: Jenni Sunde is a freelance fashion writer and pop culture junkie. Jenni specializes in all things lifestyle-related. From home and design to health and beauty. With her love of art and all things beautiful, she delights in sharing her sense of style from her life to your computer monitor. Her title pegs her as an editor at a website that specializes in providing people with a car insurance quote, but her passion leads her into writing with a little more substance and a lot more heart.