Age is supposed to bring wisdom, but sometimes we can learn important life lessons from children.

A study by researchers at Jacksonville University and the University of California, Davis, published in the journal Child Development, showed that even kindergarteners know that thinking positively will make you feel better.

In the study, researchers looked at 90 kids from five to ten years of age. The children listened to six illustrated stories in which two characters feel the same emotion after experiencing something positive (getting a new puppy), negative (spilling milk), or ambiguous (meeting a new teacher).

Following each experience, one character has a separate optimistic thought, framing the event in a positive light, and the other has a separate pessimistic thought, putting the event in a negative light. Researchers described the subsequent thoughts verbally, then asked the children to judge each character’s emotions and provide an explanation for those emotions. They were most interested in the degree to which children predicted different emotions for two characters in the same situation.

Children as young as five predicted that people would feel better after thinking positive thoughts than they would after thinking negative thoughts. They showed the strongest insight about the influence of positive versus negative thoughts on emotions in ambiguous situations. And there was significant development in the children’s understanding about the emotion-feeling link as they grew older.

The researchers gave a similar test to the subject’s parents and found that while the children’s innate level of hope and optimism played a role in their ability to understand the power of positive thinking, their parents’ views on the topic played an even larger part.

“The strongest predictor of children’s knowledge about the benefits of positive thinking – besides age – was not the child’s own level of hope and optimism, but their parents’,” reported Christi Bamford, assistant professor of psychology at Jacksonville University, who led the study when she was at the University of California, Davis.

The findings point to parents’ role in helping children learn how to use positive thinking to feel better when things get tough, Bamford noted. “In short, parents should consider modeling how to look on the bright side.”

No chiropractor – or any other wellness provider for that matter – can deny the fact that stress is probably the single greatest deterrent to good health and long life. Ample research has been done to show that chronic stress (and even some incidents of short-term acute stress) can affect nearly every system in the body and suppress cellular immunity.

Last year, a study found that stress can also wreak havoc on the trillions of bacteria that work and thrive inside the digestive system – bacteria which play a significant role in triggering the innate immune system to stay slightly active, and thereby prepared to quickly spring into action in the face of an infection.

“Since graduate school, I’ve been interested in how stress affects the bacteria naturally in our bodies,” explained Michael Bailey, an assistant professor of dentistry and member of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University. “Even though we’ve known that stress changes these bacteria, we didn’t really understand what that meant or if there was any sort of biological function associated with effects on these bacteria.”

The new study appeared in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.

Bailey and colleagues turned to mice to better understand the roles that bacteria play in immune balance. They ran a series of experiments using a common stressor for these animals. For two hours daily for six days, an aggressive mouse was placed in a cage of a group of more docile mice.

At the end of the string of experiments, blood samples were taken from both stressed animals and matched mice from a control group, along with samples of material from inside each animal’s intestine. The blood samples were analyzed to detect the levels of two biomarkers used to gauge stress: a cytokine called interleukin-6 (IL-6) and a protein called MCP-1 that summons macrophages, or scavenger cells, to the site of an infection.

From the intestinal samples, Bailey’s team could determine the relative proportion of at least 30 types of bacteria residing there.

Compared to the control mice, the stressed animals showed two marked differences: The proportion of one important type of bacteria in the gut – Bacteroides – fell by 20-25% while another type – Clostridium – increased a similar amount. Also, levels of the two biomarkers, IL-6 and MCP-1, jumped 10-fold in the stressed mice, compared to controls.

The researchers then treated stressed mice with broad-spectrum antibiotics that could kill as much as 90% of the intestinal bacteria for a short period. When they again looked at the two immune biomarkers in the stressed mice, they saw only a doubling of IL-6 and MCP-1 – an increase only one-fifth as much.

“We know now that if we knock the population of bacteria down with antibiotics, we don’t have the same innate immune response,” Bailey said. “That showed that the bacteria are involved in the ability of stress to prime the innate immune system.”

He said that the research shows that some of the changes in systemic immunity in the body can be influenced by changes in these bacterial colonies, a result that reinforces the idea that they have a broader effect on the immune response.

The next step, the researchers say, is to better understand the roles that the bacteria play in activating the immune system, and to determine if other factors are playing a key role in the process.

For the medical community, that step will likely involve the development of new drugs but for chiropractors and other wellness providers the next step is (as always) to get to the root of the problem: addressing the stress itself and the subluxations caused by that stress. Regular adjustments – along with patient education and other wellness approaches like massage, yoga, and meditation – will go a long way to helping patients reduce the physical, mental and emotional stress that impacts so negatively on their health. By making sure we provide that education and access to the proper care, we’ll help them avoid the use of drugs that can exacerbate the problem.

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FYI:

To learn about a new online assessment tool that can measure stress along with other indicators of wellness, visit IOMwellness.com. IOM is helping doctors around the country attract new patients, evaluate their total well-being, and perform accurate outcome measurements. It’s been endorsed by leading chiropractic coaches, including Drs. Dennis Nikitow (Certainty Practice), CJ Mertz (Full Potential Leadership), Jason Lord (Housecall), Mike Reid (Chiropractic Masters), Tedd Koren (Koren Publications), Kevin Pallis and Ed Plentz (The New Renaissance), and many others.

by Terry A. Rondberg, DC, president, World Chiropractic Alliance

I’ve written often before about the many physical, mental and emotional benefits of meditation (see list of previous posts below), so it’s of great interest that another research study has added to the mountain of evidence.

The latest, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that being able to focus on the present moment triggers specific brain activity that can impact on health and well-being.

“Many philosophical and contemplative traditions teach that ‘living in the moment’ increases happiness,” the investigators concluded. “However, the default mode of humans appears to be that of mind-wandering, which correlates with unhappiness, and with activation in a network of brain areas associated with self-referential processing.”

They studied brain activity in experienced meditators who engaged in different forms of meditation (Concentration, Loving-Kindness, Choiceless Awareness).

“We found that the main nodes of the default-mode network (medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices) were relatively deactivated in experienced meditators across all meditation types,” they stated. “Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis revealed stronger coupling in experienced meditators between the posterior cingulate, dorsal anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (regions previously implicated in self-monitoring and cognitive control), both at baseline and during meditation. Our findings demonstrate differences in the default-mode network that are consistent with decreased mind-wandering. As such, these provide a unique understanding of possible neural mechanisms of meditation.”

The research generated quite a bit of online interest, including a report on a CNN Health blog.

“The study does not address the issue of cause: Is meditation changing the brain, or do people who already have these brain patterns get interested in meditation?

‘Emerging data from our group and others suggests that some things thought to be result of meditation might be cause of meditation,’ said Dr. Charles Raison, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

If some people are just better at keeping their minds from wandering, that would also be consistent with the Buddhist idea that your capabilities are the result of your Karmic path, so meditation may be better suited to some people than others, Raison said.

Someday, if brain scans become cheap enough, one day there might be a test to see who can benefit most from mindfulness training, Raison said.

In the meantime, scientists should explore these open questions by doing longitudinal studies, Raison said. That would involve assigning some people to meditate and some people to not meditate, and following the groups over time to see whether a change in brain activity patterns is visible.”

SOURCE: Published online before print November 23, 2011, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1112029108 PNAS November 23, 2011 abstract online

Previous TCJ/WCA Health Update posts on meditation include:

Hypertension patients rejecting medicine in favor of alternatives

Effects of meditation on brain function explored

MDs using ‘mindfulness’ to relieve pain

UCLA focusing on ‘mind-body’ connections

Yoga classes were found to be more effective than a self-care book for patients with chronic low back pain at reducing symptoms and improving function, but they were not more effective than stretching classes, according to a study published online this week by the Archives of Internal Medicine.

“Despite the availability of numerous treatments for chronic back pain, none have proven highly effective, and few have been evaluated for cost-effectiveness,” the authors provide as background information.

“Self-management strategies, like exercise, are particularly appealing because they are relatively safe, inexpensive, and accessible and may have beneficial effects on health beyond those for back pain. One form of exercise with at least ‘fair’ evidence for effectiveness for back pain is yoga, which might be an especially promising form of exercise because it includes a mental component that could enhance the benefits of its physical components.”

Karen J. Sherman, Ph.D., M.P.H., from Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, and colleagues designed a study to determine whether yoga is more effective than conventional stretching exercises or a self-care book for primary care patients with chronic low back pain.

A total of 228 adults with chronic low back pain were randomized to 12 weekly yoga classes (92 patients) or conventional stretching exercise classes (91 patients), or a self-care book that provided information on causes of back pain and advice on exercising, lifestyle modifications and managing flare-ups (45 patients).

The main outcomes measured were back-related functional status and how much the back pain was bothering the patients. Telephone interviews were conducted at baseline, and at six, 12, and 26 weeks after randomization.

“Back-related dysfunction declined over time in all groups,” the authors report. Compared with the self-care group, the yoga group reported superior function at 12 and 26 weeks (average difference, -2.5 and -1.8, respectively) and the stretching group reported superior function at six, 12 and 26 weeks (-1.7, -2.2, -1.5, respectively). “There were no statistically or clinically significant differences between the yoga and stretching groups” at any time point, the authors note.

“We found that physical activity involving stretching, regardless of whether it is achieved using yoga or more conventional exercises, has moderate benefits in individuals with moderately impairing low back pain. Finding similar effects for both approaches suggests that yoga’s benefits were largely attributable to the physical benefits of stretching and strengthening the muscles and not to its mental components.” The benefits of these approaches may last several months, the authors conclude.

In an accompanying commentary, Timothy S. Carey, M.D., M.P.H., from Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, writes, “The study by Sherman et al in this issue is an excellent example of a pragmatic comparative effectiveness trial.”

“This research now represents best evidence for stretching therapies. Support by payers for these therapies will be very helpful through partial financial support for the classes. Such support will encourage patients to utilize the classes, representing a value-based reimbursement policy.”

“We physicians should refer our patients for exercise, practitioners should work to standardize treatments, and payers should encourage these treatments through minimization of copayments for therapies that have both effectiveness and modest cost. Comparative effectiveness research, when well conducted, can assist us in making these clinical and policy recommendations.”

SOURCE: Archives of  Internal Medicine. Published online, October 24, 2011. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.524. Abstract

More and more, patients show up to appointments with hypertension expert John Bisognano, MD, PhD carrying bags full of “natural” products they hope will help lower their blood pressure. And like most physicians, Bisognano doesn’t always know if these products will do any good, or if they’ll cause any harm.

“Right now we’re seeing a cultural shift where an increasing number of people want to avoid standard pharmaceuticals,” said Dr. Bisognano, professor of medicine and director of Outpatient Cardiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “We’re also seeing a growing number of patients who require a large number of drugs to control their blood pressure and are looking for something else to help manage it.”

In an effort to better educate health care professionals and patients, Bisognano and Kevin Woolf, MD, a cardiology fellow at the Medical Center, conducted the most comprehensive review to date of the evidence behind a wide range of non-drug interventions for the treatment of high blood pressure. The review is featured in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension.

“Patients have different backgrounds and different approaches to living their lives,” said Dr. Woolf. “This is where the art of medicine comes in; getting to know patients and what they will and will not embrace can help physicians identify different therapies that suit their patients’ habits and that will hopefully make a difference for them.”

Bisognano, who is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension, and Woolf emphasize that all patients with hypertension should adhere to the low-salt, low fat, high fiber DASH diet, which includes lots of fruits and vegetables, and follow an exercise and weight loss regimen – lifestyle modifications recommended by the American Heart Association. Any alternative options should be considered for use in addition to these lifestyle changes.

Among the alternatives studied were dietary supplements, particularly the coenzyme Q10. Patients with hypertension tend to have lower levels of the enzyme, and a meta-analysis – an overarching analysis of past studies – found that treatment with coenzyme Q10 supplements significantly reduced blood pressure.

Woolf also found that potassium helps lower blood pressure, and there’s evidence that increasing the amount of potassium we get through the foods we eat could carry some of the same mild benefits as taking supplements.

The researchers also examined herbal remedies, identifying mistletoe extract, used in traditional Chinese medicine, as one herb used to treat hypertension. Mistletoe extract reduced blood pressure in animal studies, but Woolf cautions that it may be toxic at high doses. The extract from Hawthorn, a type of tree, is also used, but provides only a slight reduction in blood pressure. Conversely, Woolf uncovered a handful of herbal remedies – St. John’s wort, ephedra/ma huang, yohimbine, and licorice – that may increase blood pressure.

Finally, the researchers looked into acupuncture and meditation and concluded that while there’s no conclusive evidence that either lowers blood pressure, acupuncture does reduce blood pressure compared to placebo in patients also taking anti-hypertensive medications. Other techniques that may provide some benefit include Zen Buddhist meditation and Qi Gong.

Their examination did not include recent research into the ability of chiropractic care to reduce high blood pressure.

SOURCES: University of Rochester Medical Center press release; “Nondrug Interventions for Treatment of Hypertension,” by Kevin J. Woolf and John D. Bisognano. Journal of Clinical Hypertension, September 2011 DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-7176.2011.00524.x Abstract online