Humor and the Immune System

There is a definite healing power found in humor and laughter. Science is now finding proof to support the Bible verse, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” (Proverbs 17:22) The medical profession is finally recognizing humor as a true mode of healing as increasing scientific research proves its positive effects on the body. The healing power of humor has spread to private practice, long-term care facilities, and hospice care in the corporate world.

The nature of laughter truly proves that it is the best medicine. The breathing experienced when laughing increases the breath rate which also increases the amount of oxygen circulated through the blood. It provides limited conditioning to the muscles and also muscle relaxation. Some findings show that laughter also offers relief of muscle pain. The effect on the cardiovascular system involves an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, increase in circulation, and an overall increase in oxygen to all the body cells. Other benefits include strengthening of the heart, improved digestion, and reduced allergic reaction.

Humor has a definite positive impact on health. It is comparative to aerobic activity in its physical benefits, providing the body with a full inner body workout. It also encourages a broad perspective, and flexibility or adaptability in coping with intense situations. Research shows that it has positive effect especially on people suffering from heart disease. In fact, it has an overall strengthening effect on the immune system. It elevates growth hormones, and decreases stress hormones providing stress relief. Psychologically, it helps to increase self-esteem and optimism. It also increases longevity, and who does not want a longer, happier life?

Spirituality and Resiliency

In our textbook, Bruno Cortis asks, "How can health be without spirituality? Can the body live without the soul that makes it? The spiritual powers within far surpass any others; transcendent, they lift all of humanity."

Spirituality not only lifts all of humanity but it also effects the rate a which people are able to heal. In a study done on successful business executive and other prominent people, researchers found a correlation between good spiritual health and good physical health. The people who had a sense of spirituality reported a more complete recovery from minor illness than the national average.

Another study was performed on 300 terminally ill and non terminally ill hospitalized adults. The patients with the greatest spirituality showed a more resilient emotional health. They all had low fear of death, low discomfort, decreased loneliness, emotional adjustment, and positive death perspectives.

A panel of experts carefully reviewed many studies in medical literature and found that spirituality and religiousness were related to greater subjective well being, life satisfaction, and marital satisfaction. It also caused less depression, delinquency, and drug/alcohol use.

Spirituality helps people have better health and resiliency because they often have a needed social support that can carry them through times of bad health and give them something to live for. People also have faith in a supreme being who is always there for them and is always looking out for their well-being. They have an identity of a child of god and it gives them something to live for because they have that reassurance that the right thing will happen in their lives.

"Keep on the Sunny Side"

According to our textbook, optimism " is an active priority of the person, not merely a reflex that prompts us to 'look on the sunny side.'"

Numerous studies have shown that optimists live longer. Other benefits include:

• Better health (less risk of chronic disease)
  
• Stronger immune system
• Better healing/recovery
  
• Better coping skills
• And more!
  

Are you an optimist? Some characteristics of optimistic people:

• See the good in situations
• Are less stressed--they cope pro-actively with challenges
• Possess the "3 C's of Hardiness": Commitment, Control, & Challenge
• Commitment--optimists don't give up. They are known for their perseverance.
  
• Control--optimists believe outcomes are in their control so they "put forth greater effort to attain the desired outcome."
• Challenge--optimists are not victimized by their circumstances.
• Expect things to go their way
• Focus on the things they have control of
• "Take reality into account but do everything possible with the reality they find."
• Approach the world in an active productive way
• Take better care of their health--Result: better health and longevity!

Children are generally optimistic, so we feel that pessimism is learned. How do we combat this in our own lives? Some suggestions from the book include:

• Be aware of your attitude
• Choose one area of your life in which to become more optimistic
• Set goals small enough to achieve quickly--pick a reward
• Seek out optimistic people
• Stay flexible

Once you've found some optimism of your own. Share it with others!! How to be an optimistic friend:

• Be consistent, positive, and responsive.
• Encourage not generalizing from specific failures. Instead see failure as a challenge to do better.
  
• Help them set realistic goals and encourage problem solving.
• Encourage humor as a way of coping.
• Challenge pessimistic views.
• Be a role model yourself of realistic optimism.

"...it is far better to pursue a remote and even unlikely goal than to deprive oneself of the forward motion that goals provide....Nothing I have learned is less theoretical than the way the entire world seems to open up when courage and determination are connected to truly important aims."--Norman Cousins

Enjoy the music--it is increasing your lifespan!

Characteristics of the Disease Prone Personality

Research has established a relationship between personality type and susceptibility to heart disease. People with personality type A seem to be more prone to heart disease, are typically more driven, impatient, energetic and ambitious. In contrast, people with personality type B, seem to take life more slowly, are usually more relaxed and less likely to develop heart disease.

Psychologists have now identified a "type C." (cancer-prone) personality which may be characterized as someone who responds to stress with depression and a sense of hopelessness. Type C personalities have a tendency to be introverted, respectful, eager to please, conforming and compliant.

There has been some evidence to suggest that your personality type may have some relationship to your chance of surviving cancer. Those who respond with a "fighting spirit" or sense of denial seem to do better than the type C personalities who seem to accept their fate passively. A Stanford University (in the USA) professor named David Spiegel discovered that cancer patients who joined a support group which fostered a "fighting spirit" had a tendency to live on average, 18 months longer than those who were not in such a group.

Disease Prone-Personality

A disease prone personality appears to be well supported. Reseasrch has suggested that personality has effects on disease (specifically cancer and heart disease). For example, percieved stress can lead to health health problems, as well as depression, anger, and feelings of helplessness. Several studies have demonstrated long-term disease incidence could be significantly reduced by implementing a treatment that aimed to promote healthier stress behaviours (emotional expression) in individuals characterised as having unhealthy personalities.
http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/915/2/02Chapter1.pdf

Coping with Mental Illness in a Family

According to the text "depression has been called the common cold of mental illness". Also neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine are chemicals in the brain and when they are at abnormal levels, depression can result. Symptoms can include unpleasantness, fear and loss of control. (Mind Body Health, 200)

Although depression can be inherited, there are no direct lines from family member to family member. "Whether one has a genetic vulnerability or not, episodes of depression often are triggered by a stressful life event: the loss of a job, the end of an intimate relationship, the death of a loved one" (Shape, April, 2003 , Annie Murphy Paul). However if one does has a family history of such illness, they must be diligent in the way they react to situations.

Trying to adjust to a mental illness in a loved one can be devastating, and can cause great tension and anxiety in a family. However, over time one can gain knowledge and learn skills to more effectively cope with a mental illness in a family.

· One of the most important and helpful things a family member can do to support a loved one with a mental illness is to learn as much about the disorder as possible.
· Remember that you cannot cure the disorder, and that no one is to blame.
· Despite your best efforts, the disorder may not get better or improve. Just remember that you may have to renegotiate your emotional relationship.
· It is not okay for you to be neglected. You have emotional needs as well.
· Acknowledge the courage your loved one has in dealing with their mental disorder.
· Love them but hate the disease
· Always remain positive
· Praise all progress
· Confide in other family members and work as a team to help your loved one.
· Remember, you can’t take care of another when you are not taking care of yourself.
· Make sure to encourage your loved one to seek help.
· Be understanding. Remind you family member that you love them, and are there to help.

Here are some links:

http://www.namidupage.org/support/coping_tips.html
http://www.epigee.org/mental-illness-tips-4family.html

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/bipolar_disorder_family_friends_support.htm

AHHHHHH Stress! It's killing me!

Your alarm did not go off this morning because you forgot to actually enable the alarm. You needed to wake up early to finish studying for that killer test that is at 8:00 in class and you just found out there is also an assignment due in one of your other classes. You didn't do well on the test and just barely finished the assignment 3 minutes before class. After class, you realize you left your other assignment home and your bike tire is flat. The list goes on. When you get home that night, you realize your head is throbbing, your neck and shoulders are very tense and sore. What do you do?

Here are some suggestions:

• Stretch your neck and roll your shoulders
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• take a hot shower or bath
• say a prayer!

Lucky for us, BYU provides many free services that can help with stress

• Career and Counseling Center: http://ccc.byu.edu/counseling/stresslab.php This website is a great resource for managing stress.
• Career and Counseling Center: Offers a free session of Biofeedback once a week. To find out more, visit the counseling center or visit the web page for the feedback lab http://ccc.byu.edu/counseling/stressfaq.php
• Women's services: Check out the women's services, They have a lot to offer!
  

If you have anything to say, please comment!

When the body attacks itself: Autoimmune diseases

Living well with a Chronic Illness

Living with a chronic autoimmune disease can be a frustrating and difficult task. One frustration is that it may take a long time for the doctors to figure out that is wrong. It can take as little as one month to as long as a few years. You may have questions, but there are no solid answers. During this time, it is important to have a solid support group. This may be family and friends, or even just your doctor.

After you are diagnosed, this may be a stressful time, but think of it as a door being opened. This is exciting because now you know what you are fighting and some of the stress can be put aside and forgotten. Try not to think about the "old you" but think about all the things you can still do and focus on those. Think of this new time as a challenge, not a defeat. You may be surprised at what you learn and where this road takes you.

Once you have been diagnosed it is important to tell your family and very close friends. They will be your support when you have rough times. However, it may not bee a good idea to tell everyone about your situation. Telling people may cause others to feel uncomfortable and lead them to think/act differently toward you. Try to avoid this. If it comes up, don't make it seem weird, but don't bring it up yourself. Live your life as normally as possible.

Living well is not impossible now that you have this disease. Living well can still be a goal and is achievable. There may be some changes that you have to make and some adjustments that have to be made, but that is the case whenever there is a new challenge in your life. Like what was mentioned before, think of this as a challenge, not a defeat. Use it to make yourself better. Do what is necessary to get the proper care from your health care team, and do your part to understand your capabilities and limitations.

Therapies can be used to help reduce the pain, swelling, and inflammation that you experience. Today the main therapy used is medication prescribed by a physician. Some individuals may even experience a full remission from their disease with the proper medical care. Whatever your therapy, try to maintain a good attitude, perform positive activities, and try to accomplish mind over matter.

The Mind Body Connection

Science is proving the profound connection between the mind and body, and the effects they have on each other. According to one physician, as much as 90 percent of all physical ailments stem from emotional issues. Research shows that medicine is not capable of healing alone; there must be a mix of positive emotion and thinking involved to truly heal. The research also shows that negative emotions such as hatred, violence and ingratitude can overcome the body’s healthy disposition and create disease.

So, how do we acquire stable emotional health to combat the potential negative toll on the body? A sign of a person who is emotionally healthy is one who is aware and in control of his/her thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We should strive to learn and practice healthy ways to cope with the stress and problems of daily life. Emotionally sound people have a sense of self and deeply-rooted self esteem.

The following four ways are suggestions on how to improve emotional health:
1. Express your feelings in appropriate ways
2. Live a balanced life
3. Calm your mind and body
4. Take care of yourself

Another way we can see the connection of the mind and body is through religion. Throughout history we see that healing powers has always been connected with religion and spiritual relations.Know a days studies have shown that people that have a religious affiliation are better prepared to cope with stress. Religion helps people to be more socially engaged, have healthier lifestyles (non drinkers and smokers, among other things), and are more hopeful and positive. This positive attitude and faith based life helps increase the bodies immunity and helps people cope with the stress of life better.



There have been numbers of research suggesting there is a mind-body connection, and because of this it is important to keep our minds, healthy and positive.

Salk, developer of the first polio vaccine said,"The mind, in addition to medicine, has powers to turn the immune system around.

The power of attitude is very real, some examples of how attitude has affected health:

• More than 4,000 years ago, Chinese physicians noted that physical illness often followed episodes of frustration.

• The Greek physician, Galen, observed during the second century A.D. that melancholic women were much more prone to breast cancer than women who were cheerful.

"Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens; not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst...a spark that creates extraordinary results."
It is important to keep our minds positive, because it greatly affects not only our health and body, but also everything around us.

The Field

Einstein taught us about relativity, Newton informed us of the world of physics, Darwin revolutionized the science world with his theory of evolution, and Galen was an amazing anatomist. Although these men were amazing and their contributions to science can’t be minimized, we are beginning to understand that their discoveries are limited to the physical world. Thanks to the amazing new research going on we now know that the world is much more than simply what is tangible. The Field combines the truth of science and the truth of religion into a unified vision of the world.

We have begun to realize what God has revealed to prophets long ago.

Weiner Heisenberg basically summed his theory up to everything is communicating with everything. We are all connected and we are all communicating through frequencies. Non-locality is the ability of a quantum entity to influence another quantum particle instantaneously over distance despite no force or energy being exchanged. These particles once in contact retain the connection even when separated so that one's actions will ALWAYS influence the other. In a huge way, medical science has overlooked these powers and their ability to heal simply because they don’t fully understand them and haven’t figured out how to control them like they can control a person's chemistry. If people who call themselves healers would exhaust all possible healing techniques we would have people living longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives.
“The consciousness of human beings has incredible powers, to heal ourselves, to heal the world – in a sense, to make it as we wish it to be.”

“There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes” (D&C 131:7). There are powers at work in the universe such as spirit, pure energy, and from a restored truth perspective, priesthood. Things like prayer, positive thinking and positive attitudes can access these powers.

When family and loved ones are away from us we are able to connect with them through prayer. As we pray for and in their behalf, they can reap the benefits and blessings of that prayer even though they may be miles away from each other. Many of us can say we have had personal experiences with the power of prayer, and studies have shown that the power or prayer has helped patients to recover and to live longer.

Another thing to keep in mind is that positive and negative thoughts or feelings can be transmitted to other things. The individual having the thoughts and feelings is NOT the only one influenced by them. Rather they can have far reaching effects and influence other people and things such as plants. Chinese Ouigong did healing studies and believed that his positive energy was being transferred through electromagnetic fields to his patient. In his studies this particular way of healing had worked and did show significant improvement in the patient.

Having a group of friends is also a big part of being healthy. Isolation from self, community, and the spirit rather than physical conditions is one of the greatest contributors to disease; therefore illness is isolation.

“The Field” is very much like the mind/body/spirit aspect of health. It is a quantum science that is beginning to evolve and expand just as the concept and ideas of mind/body health. We as humans are influenced and influence everything around us through words, actions, thoughts, and feelings. Essentially it is up to us to determine our overall health. As we express a hope and desire to be/become well, we will. We need to view our health as something we can determine and decide, something we have control over.

Healing and the New Physics

According to the New Physics our knowledge of what governs events at the sub-atomic level is not nearly what we assumed it would be. So, why is this important to our health? According to Niels Bohr the workings of conscious thought occur on such a minute scale, involving such infinitesimal exchanges of energy, that only a quantum mechanical explanation could properly account for the actual phenomenon of consciousness. In more basic terms, our conscious mental activity can affect not only our physical body but other physical bodies in the universe. The belief is that thoughts, attitudes and healing intentions of one person can influence the body of another. This means when we fast and pray for our loved ones those thoughts and feelings can be transferred to them and actually changes them. This is true of all our thoughts all of the time, not only when we fast or pray. A principle of New Physics is that each of our bodies is in dynamic relationship with the universe and every other body via sub quantum contact. When someone smiles at you there is a change that occurs within you. Thoughts have the same impact. The mood a person is in because of their thoughts can be felt by someone observing them. That is the idea of the New Physics at work!

Another new idea that comes from the New Physics is the idea of connectedness. Unlike the New Physics, Newtonian physics focuses on the relationship between separate parts. If there is no separation then the spiritual and physical bodies are constantly affected by one another. In order to achieve our greatest growth we must integrate the spiritual and physical, because it is only when they are unified toward change that progress can be made. David Bohm a quantum physicist believed that we possess the ability to listen to our bodies, and thus harness the disease process to redirect our lives and to acknowledge and accept the oneness of our own being. When we fast we are mastering the physical body and giving the spirit more strength. It is at this time that we need to listen to our body as a whole and evaluate the way we feel and then to make changes in accordance.

We have more power than we realize to change the way we feel and the way others feel. Another principle of New Physics is that all reality is interconnected at the deepest levels. We cannot avoid the impact that we have so we should focus our efforts on becoming whole and finding happiness so that others can feel of our being.

Chatroom Discussions

Welcome to the BYU Mind Body Health discussion blog. We will be using this blog as a meeting place for discussion of topics you will study outside of the class. You will be divided into groups and given a topic to reasearch for that week. You group will develop a post that will show your understanding of the topic of interest and you will be given time in class to present this to your classmates. Feel free to use pictures, video, or any other media supported by blogger. But remember, the point of this assignment is to study, and present a given Mind Body topic. So the main focus will be on your topic, not your blogging skills.