Music Therapy

27 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Creativity, Health, Journaling, Wellness, Yoga

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Most everyone enjoys listening to music. Some of us play music as well. Music has a therapeutic effect and can be used to enhance or even change how we feel. According to the American Music Therapy Association: Music Therapy is an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals. After assessing the strengths and needs of each client, the qualified music therapist provides the indicated treatment including creating, singing, moving to, and/or listening to music. Through musical involvement in the therapeutic context, clients’ abilities are strengthened and transferred to other areas of their lives. Music therapy also provides avenues for communication that can be helpful to those who find it difficult to express themselves in words. Research in music therapy supports its effectiveness in many areas such as: overall physical rehabilitation and facilitating movement, increasing people’s motivation to become engaged in their treatment, providing emotional support for clients and their families, and providing an outlet for expression of feelings.
As a Creative Arts Therapist I use music to support individuals and groups when they are engaged in a therapeutic process. Whether it’s movement, art or guided meditation the music enhances focus for the participants. I often hear people report that the music helped them to get in touch with feelings and/or explore them on a deeper level.

Potassium can reduce stroke risk

26 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by in food, Health, Wellness

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Increasing potassium in our diets as well as cutting down on salt will reduce blood pressure levels and the risk of stroke, research in the British Medical Journal suggests.

One study review found that eating an extra two to three servings of fruit or vegetables per day – which are high in potassium – was beneficial.

A lower salt intake would increase the benefits further, researchers said.

A stroke charity said a healthy diet was key to keeping stroke risk down.

While the increase of potassium in diets was found to have a positive effect on blood pressure, it was also discovered to have no adverse effects on kidney function or hormone levels, the research concluded.

As a result, the World Health Organization has issued its first guidelines on potassium intake, recommending that adults should consume more than 4g of potassium (or 90 to 100mmol) per day.

The BMJ study on the effects of potassium intake, produced by scientists from the UN World Food Program, Imperial College London and Warwick Medical School, among others, looked at 22 controlled trials and another 11 studies involving more than 128,000 healthy participants.

Where to find potassium

Plate of seafood

Potassium is an important mineral that controls the balance of fluids in the body and helps lower blood pressure.

It is found in most types of food, but particularly in fruit, such as bananas, vegetables, pulses, nuts and seeds, milk, fish, chicken and bread.

It is recommended that adults consume around 4g of potassium a day (or at least 90-100mmol).

That is equivalent to five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

Our early ancestors would have had a diet very high in potassium – but food processing has markedly reduced the potassium content of food.

It is thought that the average potassium consumption in many countries is below 70-80mmol/day.

The results showed that increasing potassium in the diet to 3-4g a day reduced blood pressure in adults.

This increased level of potassium intake was also linked to a 24% lower risk of stroke in those adults.

Researchers said potassium could have benefits for children’s blood pressure too, but more data was needed.

Addictive Social Media Behavior

25 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by in Addiction, Research, Social Media

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Plenty of research has demonstrated that the addictive quality of social media is very real. And according to a new study, heavy social media use may also contribute to a different type of addiction.

Psychologists at the University of Albany found that not only is social media (particularly Facebook) itself potentially addictive, those who use it may also be at greater risk for impulse-control issues like substance abuse.

The researchers surveyed 253 undergraduate students, asking questions about their social media use, Internet addiction, emotion regulation and alcohol use. They found that roughly 10 percent of users experience “disordered social media use,” meaning that they exhibit addictive behaviors in the way they use platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. To assess disordered social media use, the researchers included questions that reflected modified diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence, such as, “How good does Facebook make you feel?” and “Do you check Facebook first thing when you wake up in the morning?”

Those who were struggling with social media addiction were more likely to report Internet addiction (as measured by scores on the Young Internet Addiction Test), challenges with emotion regulation (such as poor impulse control), and drinking problems.

Psychologist Julia Hormes, who led the study, said that Facebook was found to have especially addictive properties. The respondents spent an average of one-third of their online browsing time on Facebook, and 67 percent received Facebook push notifications on their phones.

“New notifications or the latest content on your newsfeed acts as a reward. Not being able to predict when new content is posted encourages us to check back frequently,”Hormes said in a statement. “This uncertainty about when a new reward is available is known as a ‘variable interval schedule of reinforcement’ and is highly effective in establishing habitual behaviors that are resistant to extinction. Facebook is also making it easy for users to continuously be connected to its platform, for example by offering push notifications to mobile devices.”

The researchers hypothesize that disordered social media use is likely a symptom of poor emotion regulation skills, which heightens susceptibility to a variety of types of addiction.

“Our findings suggest that disordered online social networking may arise as part of a cluster of risk factors that increase susceptibility to both substance and non-substance addictions,” Hormes said.

The new findings join a growing body of research investigating the addictive potential of Internet social media use. MRI data has shown that the brains of compulsive Internet users to exhibit similar changes to those seen in people with alcohol and drug addictions. Harvard research conducted in 2012 provided some insight into why using Facebook in particular seems to be so highly addictive. Disclosing information about ourselves, the researchers found, is intrinsically rewarding. It activates the Nucleas Accumbens, a brain area that also lights up when cocaine or other drugs are ingested. But it’s not just posting on Facebook that’s addictive — it’s also receiving all those likes and comments. Another study found that receiving positive feedback about ourselves also activates the brain’s reward centers.

However, Hormes’ and other research can’t be taken as conclusive evidence that disordered social media use constitutes a full-blown addiction.

“The question of whether or not disordered online social networking use can be considered a ‘true’ addiction is a tough one,” Hormes said in an email to the Huffington Post. “I think the answer really depends on your definition of ‘addiction.’ Many people think of addictions as involving ingested substances. However, if we think about addiction more broadly as involving some kind of reward then it is easier to see how behaviors may be addictive.”

The new findings were published in the December issue of the journal Addiction.

Brain’s happiness region

22 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by in Happiness, Health, Research

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Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence,” the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once said. But how does one reach this goal? According to a new study by researchers from Japan, a person’s happiness may depend on the size of a specific brain region.

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Researchers found people who were happier had larger gray matter volume in the precuneus region of the brain.

Study leader Dr. Wataru Sato, of Kyoto University in Japan, and colleagues publish their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.

The definition of happiness has been debated for centuries. In recent years, psychologists have suggested that happiness is a combination of life satisfaction and the experience of more positive than negative emotions – collectively deemed “subjective well-being.”

But according to Dr. Sato and his colleagues, the neurological mechanisms behind a person’s happiness were unclear.

“To date, no structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigation of the construct has been conducted,” they note.

“Identification of the neural substrates underlying subjective happiness may provide a complementary objective measure for this subjective construct and insight into its information-processing mechanism.”

Meditation may boost happiness by targeting precuneus brain region

To address this research gap, the team used MRI to scan the brains of 51 study participants.

After the scans, subjects were asked to complete three short questionnaires that asked them how satisfied they are with their lives, how happy they are and how intensely they feel positive and negative emotions.

260291_10151674843907518_1073142538_nThe researchers found that individuals who had higher happiness scores had larger gray matter volume in the precuneus of the brain – a region in the medial parietal lobe that plays a role in self-reflection and certain aspects of consciousness – than their unhappy counterparts.

What is more, the researchers found that one’s happiness may be driven by a combination of greater life satisfaction and intensity of positive emotion – supporting the theory of subjective well-being.

“These results indicate that the widely accepted psychological model postulating emotional and cognitive components of subjective happiness may be applicable at the level of neural structure,” they add.

These findings, the researchers say, indicate that individuals may be able to boost their happiness through practices that target the precuneus, such as meditation:

“Previous structural neuroimaging studies have shown that training in psychological activities, such as meditation, changed the structure of the precuneus gray matter.

Together with these findings, our results suggest that psychological training that effectively increases gray matter volume in the precuneus may enhance subjective happiness.”

Dr. Sato adds that, while further research is required, these current findings may be useful for developing psychological programs that boost a person’s happiness

Therapy dogs

20 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Health, Relaxation, Stress, Therapy Dogs

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A therapy dog is a dog trained to provide affection and comfort to people in hospitals, retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, hospices, people with learning difficulties, and stressful situations, such as disaster areas.
Therapy dogs come in all sizes and breeds. The most important cha

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racteristic of a therapy dog is its temperament. A good therapy dog must be friendly, patient, confident, gentle, and at ease in all situations. Therapy dogs must enjoy human contact and be content to be petted and handled, sometimes clumsily.
A therapy dog’s primary job is to allow unfamiliar people to make physical contact with it and to enjoy that contact. Children in particular enjoy hugging animals; adults usually enjoy simply petting the dog. The dog might need to be lifted onto, or climb onto, an individual’s lap or bed and sit or lie comfortably there. Many dogs contribute to the visiting experience by performing small tricks for their audience or by playing carefully structured games. In hospice environments, therapy dogs can play a role in palliative care by reducing death anxiety.

Meditation helps students

18 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by in Health, Meditation, mindfulness, Wellness

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A study of students in California universities showed that those who practiced a bit of meditation in their personal lives performed better on tests. This applied to students who practice the art of Zen, as well as those who simply meditate for a few minutes before class.

The research, published in the journal Mindfulness, showed that meditation worked best for first year students, which led researchers to speculate that younger students tend to struggle with concentration more. 118ba-260291_10151674843907518_1073142538_n

Professor Robert Youmans, of George Mason University in Virginia, co-lead the study with University of Illinois doctoral student Jared Ramsburg. According to Professor Youmans:

“One difficulty for researchers who study meditation is that the supposed benefits of meditation do not always replicate across different studies or populations, and so we have been trying to figure out why. This data from this study suggest that meditation may help students who might have trouble paying attention or focusing. Sadly, freshmen classes probably contain more of these types of students than senior courses because student populations who have difficulty self-regulating are also more likely to leave the university.”

The researchers said that coaching students on proper meditation could improve academic results. Ramsburg’s own personal experiences inspired him to undertake the study (he is a Buddhist).

“I think that if mindfulness can improve mental clarity, focus and self-discipline, then it might be useful in a variety of settings and for a variety of goals.”

For anyone uncomfortable with meditation (even though it is not necessarily a religious practice), Ramsburg says that taking long walks in the morning before you start your day could inspire the same outcome.

“Basically, becoming just a little bit more mindful about yourself and your place in the world might have a very important, practical benefit – in this case, doing better in college.”

One of the newest employees is a golden retriever

15 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by in dogs, Pets

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One of the newest employees at Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children has four legs. While her training is highly skilled – she was specially chosen to work in a hospital setting because of her demeanor – her job description is pretty simple: to love and be loved. And in her first few weeks on the job, she’s already made a tremendous difference for her patients, both children and adults, and for the hospital staff who have overwhelmingly embraced her.

Aster is in demand throughout the hospital on a consult basis. “The hard part is when we’re walking down the hall and someone says, ‘Oh, can you come say hi?’” says Stefani, who loves watching faces light up when they see Aster.

She regularly visits children in the emergency department, radiation/imaging, pediatric intensive care, general pediatric unit and neonatal intensive care, where she doesn’t visit with premature babies but does provide family and sibling support. She also visits adult patients in the intensive care and antepartum units.

On an average day, the hospital has 200 pediatric patients, so “we’re filtering through a lot of requests,” says Elizabeth.

The hospital still has its volunteer-driven pet therapy program, in which trained dogs make short visits with patients. “They see way more patients than Aster and I can see,” says Stefani. “Aster and I have medically based goals: reducing pain, helping patients ambulate after surgery, being present in bereavement and trauma. We’re both employees here, which opens the door for us to provide treatment-based services.”

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Asteroid, a young golden retriever, is one of the most popular employees at the hospital. (Photo courtesy of Huntsville Hospital for Women and Children)

Meditation helps students

13 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Health, Meditation, mindfulness, Wellness

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A study of students in California universities showed that those who practiced a bit of meditation in their personal lives performed better on tests. This applied to students who practice the art of Zen, as well as those who simply meditate for a few minutes before class.

The research, published in the journal Mindfulness, showed that meditation worked best for first year students, which led researchers to speculate that younger students tend to struggle with concentration more.

Professor Robert Youmans, of George Mason University in Virginia, co-lead the study with University of Illinois doctoral student Jared Ramsburg. According to Professor Youmans:

“One difficulty for researchers who study meditation is that the supposed benefits of meditation do not always replicate across different studies or populations, and so we have been trying to figure out why. This data from this study suggest that meditation may help students who might have trouble paying attention or focusing. Sadly, freshmen classes probably contain more of these types of students than senior courses because student populations who have difficulty self-regulating are also more likely to leave the university.”

The researchers said that coaching students on proper meditation could improve academic results. Ramsburg’s own personal experiences inspired him to undertake the study (he is a Buddhist).

“I think that if mindfulness can improve mental clarity, focus and self-discipline, then it might be useful in a variety of settings and for a variety of goals.”

For anyone uncomfortable with meditation (even though it is not necessarily a religious practice), Ramsburg says that taking long walks in the morning before you start your day could inspire the same outcome.

“Basically, becoming just a little bit more mindful about yourself and your place in the world might have a very important, practical benefit – in this case, doing better in college.”

Study cools idea behind hot yoga

13 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Health, Relaxation, Stress, Wellness, Yoga

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A small study sponsored by the American Council on Exercise is one of the first to look at whether hot yoga offers any more bang for your buck than traditional yoga. The study recruited 20 healthy men and women between 19 and 44, each of whom took a 60-minute yoga class in both a room heated to 21 C and one heated to 31 C. The classes were taken 24 hours apart and were led by the same instructor and featured the same poses.

Each subject wore a heart-rate monitor and swallowed an ingestible core body temperature sensor before taking part in the class. Core body temperature was recorded five minutes before the class, every five minutes during the class and five minutes after the class.yoga_cobra_small.jpg

Heart rate was recorded every minute, with subjects also ranking their perceived rate of exertion on a scale from 6 to 20.

In the end, the researchers, who hailed from the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, noted very little difference in the core temperature and heart rate of the participants despite the difference in temperature between the two classes. Core temperature for the hot yoga participants was 37.6 C versus 37.4 C for the cooler studio.

As for the intensity of the workouts, both yoga practices would be classified as “light exercise,” with heart rate averaging about 56 per cent of maximum during the regular yoga class as compared to 57 per cent of maximum heart rate during the hot yoga class.