Using the Mind to Heal the Body: Imagery for Injury Rehabilitation

Dryw Dworsky, Ph.D. & Vikki Krane, Ph.D. 
Bowling Green State University :

Being injured is no fun! Often it means that athletes and exercisers are in pain and they are not able to participate in the sport they love. Often when we think of being injured, it means that we need to wait for the body to heal. However, what if you learned that you might be able to speed up the healing process? Research suggests that maintaining a positive attitude and using mental skills are related to a shorter rehabilitation.

(source: www.appliedsportpsych.org/resource-center/injury-&-rehabilitation/articles/imagery)

Mental Health: Think it Out

(6 proven ways to use your mind to heal your body)

The man who walked into Dr. Herbert Benson's Boston office was a mess. He was a stress case at work, he suffered awful headaches, and his stratospheric blood pressure did not respond to high doses of prescription medicines.

But rather than throw more drugs at him, Dr. Benson, an M.D. who works at a Harvard-affiliated health center called the Mind/Body Medical Institute, prescribed a 10- to 20 minute daily dose of what he calls the "relaxation response": a calming exercise of muscle relaxation and controlled breathing.

"He found that, slowly and inexorably, the headaches became less profound," Dr. Benson says. "Eventually, they totally disappeared. His hypertension, which required relatively high doses of two medications, dropped so significantly that he needed only a fraction of the dose of one medication. This man gained a new perspective."

Stress is the number-one mental culprit in the delay of wound healing. Ohio State researchers studied 11 dental students, taking a chunk of flesh from the roofs of their mouths during summer vacation.

Then, 3 days before the first exam of the next school term, they took a chunk from the opposite side of each student's mouth. On average, the wounds took 40 percent longer to heal during stressful exam time than during the carefree days of summer.

"You can become a victim of the environment or the mind," says William Malarkey, M.D., director of Ohio State's clinical research center and a member of the Center for Stress and Wound Healing, "or you can proactively change the environment of your mind."

(source: www.menshealth.com keyword: think it out)

Just Breathe...

For many people life seems to be moving faster and there never seems to be enough time to get it all done.  Stress seems to increase as time decreases and brings its friends fear, doubt and worry to the party too.  Soon the mind is racing and it shows no signs of slowing down.  This is the reality for many people today but, this is the perfect time to breathe easy! Click to read the full article.

Rebecca Lobo writes about Al helping almost cure ASU Women’s Basketball player Danielle Orsillo’s asthma!

Click to link to see the article http://espn.go.com/ncw/blog/_/name/ncwexperts/id/4031410/ventin-trenton