“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light”. Plato
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Meditation Decreases Anxiety
It has been known for ages that meditation can decrease anxiety but until now the brain regions involved in the process have remained a mystery. Fadel Zeidan from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has recently shed some light on the process. They selected 15 healthy volunteers with no history of meditation or anxiety disorders….
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Yoga Improves Brain Function More Than Aerobic Exercise
A team of researchers led by Professor Neha Gothe from the University of Illinois recently studied the effects of yoga on mental function. Their subjects performed 3 different sessions: A 20-minute Hatha yoga session with progressions from sitting to standing and then lying in a meditative position whilst focussing on breathing A 20-minute aerobic…
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Mr Smith
There’s a story about an old WWII veteran, Mr Smith. He was so proud of his contribution to his country, he wore his uniform until the day he died. On the first of each month he would receive a little pension from the government and he’d make quite a ceremony of receiving that little cheque….
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Yoga Helps Lower Blood Pressure
A new study by Cohen et al. at the University of Pennsylvania has found that yoga can help lower blood pressure. In fact, it was more effective than a supervised diet/weight reduction and walking programme. The patients did yoga 2-3 times a week for 24 weeks and lowered both their systolic and diastolic pressures by…
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Can Antibiotics Cure Low Back Pain?
Last week I picked up a copy of Metro and came across an article entitled “Back pain ‘cured with a £114 dose of antibiotics’”. The story has also been covered by theguardian, The Times and the NHS. It’s based on the results of 2 studies published in the European Spine Journal by Hanne B Albert…
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Three Stonemasons
During the early years of the fourteenth century the foundations of a magnificent cathedral were being laid in central Europe. The Clerk of Works was a monk who was charged with the task of supervising the work of all the labourers and artisans. This monk decided to carry out a study into the working practices…
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Stress Management Could Help Decrease Pain
A recent study by Dr. Pierre Rainville and Étienne Vachon-Presseau from the University of Montreal has shed some light on the relationships between stress, the brain and pain. Their study compared 16 patients with chronic back pain with a control group of 18 healthy subjects. They found that back pain patients had higher levels of cortisol than…
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Physiotherapy Is As Good As Surgery For Meniscal Tears
Last week Yahoo! News reported that physiotherapy was as good as knee surgery. The claims were based on results of a recent study by Jeffrey Katz, Professor of Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard University. The randomised controlled trial involved symptomatic patients aged 45 years or older with a meniscal tear and evidence of mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis on…
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Dwelling On Stressful Events Can Increase Inflammation
A new study by Zoccola and colleagues found that people that were asked to dwell on a stressful event had higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP is produced in the liver and its blood levels rise in response to inflammation e.g. infections, injuries, rheumatic or other inflammatory diseases, etc. Patients with high CRP…