Mind-body medicine offers an array of strategies that support the body’s natural ability to heal itself. In addition, it can:
- Give you a greater sense of control over your health care
- Improve body awareness
- Improve quality of life
- Help reduce your need for medication
- Lessen both physical and emotional pain
- Allow you to choose treatments from the widest array of proven approaches possible
Some mind-body medicine methods include biofeedback, cognitive behavioral therapy, guided imagery, meditation, meditative movement therapies such as tai chi and yoga, and other relaxation techniques. They can be used alone or in combination. Also, there is substantial overlap between them. For example, many guided imagery exercises begin with progressive muscle relaxation and involve deep breathing and meditation, while various forms of meditation incorporate breathing exercises and imagery.1
- Biofeedback: Biofeedback is used to help you become aware of normally involuntary body processes and then consciously control them. These processes include heart rate, muscle tension, stomach acidity, respiration patterns or rate, blood pressure, body temperature and brain activity. Sensors measure the physiological effects of your thoughts, emotions, attitudes, perceptions, and mental processes and feed the information back in real time. A therapist coaches you to control the reaction. Biofeedback can help patients relax or activate muscles, adjust blood flow and change their heart rates. It has been successfully used to treat headaches, circulatory disorders, high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmias, irritable bowel syndrome and nausea, insomnia, chronic pain, asthma, hot flashes, incontinence and epilepsy, and to retrain muscles after injury.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy: CBT is a form of psychotherapy. It helps you examine pessimistic and distorted thought patterns, replace them with less stress-inducing alternatives, and finally, translate those more positive thoughts into everyday behavior. It has proven to be effective in treating depression, anxiety insomnia and pain.
- Guided imagery. Also called visualization, guided imagery teaches you to use your imagination to focus your mind. It allows you to become deeply relaxed while conscious. There are active styles of guided imagery, where the patient mentally creates the image(s), as well as more passive styles in which a guide describes the images while the patient listens.1 Proponents believe that by lowering stress, this technique can lead to improvements in blood pressure and immune system function. When patients are able to envision potentially stressful events, such as an upcoming surgery, in positive ways they are better able to manage anxiety.
- Meditation: Meditation is used to put the body in a state of deep rest by stilling the mind. The goal is to achieve a sense of calm, peace and emotional stability. There are two basic categories – concentration practices and mindfulness. In the concentration type of meditation, you focus on an object or word or phrase (mantra); in the mindfulness type of meditation, you strive for awareness of your present thoughts, emotions and physical sensations. Research has shown that the ability to concentrate attention can promote deep relaxation in the body, and that the ability to be more mindful in each situation can help break the destructive habitual reactions to stress.3 Other studies have shown that meditation:
- Reduces the brain’s reaction to pain and increases pain tolerance. It has been shown to be helpful for chronic back pain and pain associated with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.4
- Strengthens the immune system by helping the body produce antibodies against illness.5
- May enhance memory and attention. Parts of the brain’s cerebral cortex, which tends to thin with age, tends to thicken in people who have practiced meditation about 40 minutes a day for several years.6
- Can significantly reduce the severity of congestive heart failure.7
- Can control high blood pressure.8
- Meditative movement therapies: Therapies that are based on the controlled movement of the body and conscious breathing, such as tai chi and yoga, can reduce stress and anxiety. They help you release tension, strengthen weak muscles and stretch tight ones, and improve balance and stability. There are many types – some gentle and some physically strenuous. Studies have been done to determine if these therapies can help patients with conditions such as asthma, heart disease, arthritis, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorder, etc. but results are not totally clear. A 2004 analysis of 47 studies on tai chi uncovered reported benefits in balance and strength, cardiovascular and respiratory function, flexibility, immune system, symptoms of arthritis, muscular strength, and psychological effects. However, the reviewers noted that limitations or biases existed in most studies, that it was difficult to draw firm conclusions about the benefits reported and more research is needed.9
- Other relaxation techniques: These include techniques such as deep breathing (also referred to as conscious respiration), progressive muscle relaxation and autogenic training.
- Deep breathing is a quick and easy stress reliever and can be done anytime, anywhere. With it you can ease tension headaches, help lower your heart rate and blood pressure and improve symptoms from asthma or other lung problems. It is a core component of most other relaxation techniques.
- Progressive muscle relaxation. With this technique you simply isolate one muscle group at a time, create tension in those muscles for a few seconds, then consciously relax them. It is usually done by progressing from your toes to your head. It is particularly helpful in easing muscle pain, reducing anxiety, and helping you fall asleep more easily.
- Autogenic training. This technique consists of a series of mental exercises where you “tell” your body to relax and control breathing, blood pressure, heartbeat, and body temperature. Practitioners believe that it works in ways that are similar to hypnosis and biofeedback.
1 Hilary Tindle, M.D., M.P.H.; Dealing with Chronic Pain: The Mind Body Solution.
2 Duke Integrative Medicine.
3 Duke Integrative Medicine. Commonly Asked Questions About Meditation & Stress Reduction
4 Los Angeles Times, Doctor’s orders: Cross your legs and say ‘Om’; Andrea R. Vaucher, October 29, 2007.
5 Psychosomatic Medicine; Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. 2003 Jul-Aug;65(4):564-70.
6 Jeremy Gray, et.al., NeuroReport 16: 1893-1897; November 28, 2005.
7 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Penn Study Shows Transcendental Meditation Can Help Combat Congestive Heart Failure; Press Release, March 12, 2007.
8 University of Kentucky, Meditation Impacts Blood Pressure, Study Shows, Press release, March 14, 2008.
9 Chenchen Wang, MD, MSc; Jean Paul Collet, MD, PhD; Joseph Lau, MD; The Effect of Tai Chi on Health Outcomes in Patients With Chronic Conditions A Systematic Review; Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:493-501.
