Archive for October, 2016
Happy Halloween!
We want to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween.
Remember Trick-or-Treat in Plain City is Monday, October 31 from 6 to 8 pm.
Trick-or-Treat in West Jefferson is Monday, October 31 from 5:30 to 7 pm.
For a full listing of trick-or-treat times throughout Central Ohio, visit The Columbus Dispatch site HERE.
We think our good friend and Cuban mama, Veronica Taylor, looks fabulous in her Halloween costume. Sending lots of kisses out to Mama Veronica.
To everyone else, please have a safe and happy evening collecting goodies throughout the Village.
Meditation. Part Two. By Our October Student Pharmacist, Andrea Lee.
In part one of this meditation series, we defined and discussed meditation.
Hopefully, you have acquired a basic way to begin your meditation practice. To encourage you, in this part of the series, we will talk about tips to help you further develop your basic technique and address some common issues that you might run in to. These ideas will help you start meditating with greater ease.
Then, we will discuss the evidence that is available that supports the effectiveness of this activity.
Tips while starting out:
- Your mind may wander to other thoughts during meditation and that is okay. Allow your thoughts to wander, but bring your mind back to your breath and think “in” and “out” when appropriate.
- Start meditating by being aware of five breaths. You can use your fingers to keep count.
- If five breaths are difficult and, you find your mind wandering more than you would like, you can reduce this to three breaths.
- Slowly increase the number of breaths to beyond ten and see if you can meditate for one minute or more.
- Slowly increase your time from one minute to five minutes with a goal of 10-15 minutes.
- You can reflect on your experience and write down what you noticed while you meditated in a journal or log book.
- It is important to not feel guilty if your mind wanders a lot, or you feel sleepy. If this happens, allow it to happen and guide the mind back to the breath.
Here are some practical places to meditate so that you can incorporate meditation into your daily activities:
- Right before you go to bed
- Right after you wake up
- In a quiet room
- In the restroom behind a closed and locked stall
- On public transit or on a bus
- In an office behind a closed door where you will not be disturbed for 30 minutes
- In your car in a quiet area
- At the park
- Right after yoga class on your yoga mat
- In a comfortable chair or on your couch
In a three day experiment where patients were monitored for their anxiety and mindfulness levels, patients were told to just follow their breath for the first day. On the second day, they extended their focus to follow their breath for longer periods of time. By the third day, participants were encouraged to scan their body and focus on all the sensations they experienced throughout their whole body. As you can see, this experiment gradually progressed each participant to more advanced levels of mindfulness.
You might ask how does meditation do all this? A recent study evaluated the use of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and how it relates to short and long term improvement in pain relief. The degree of back pain, and its impact on functionality, as well as pain bothersomeness were measured. With a commitment of two hours a week, patients in the study participated in relaxation, yoga, and meditation. As a result, “high[er] levels of mindfulness [were] linked to decreased pain perception and overall better functioning.”
Mindfulness can uncouple the body’s sensing of pain and the emotional stress that comes along with chronic pain and thus reduce suffering caused by pain overall. Benefits were seen as soon as three days with pain almost halved on a 0 to 10 pain scale.
How meditation eases pain:
- Physically uncouples the sensation of pain and the emotional effect of experiencing pain
- Lowers stress levels has an analgesic effect
- Produces less depressive symptoms
- Causes an acceptance of pain and lowered avoidance
- Allows more focus towards goals that are reasonable to achieve
How meditation and mindfulness can directly benefit you and your overall health:
- Lower anxiety
- Improve symptoms of depression and hopelessness
- Foster a greater sense of relaxation
- Lower your stress levels
- Increase your quality of life
- Improve self-regulation
Having a meditation practice will definitely help you. It is additionally optimal to make it part of your regular pain management regimen. Hopefully, you will find yourself reaching less for the pain medication on the countertop, but rather returning to mindfulness found through your own breath.
Resources:
Cherkin DC, Sherman KJ, Balderson BH, et. al. Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Usual Care on Back Pain and Functional Limitations in Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2016 Mar 22-29;315(12):1240-9. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.2323. http://jamanetwork.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/journals/jama/fullarticle/2504811. Accessed October 11 2017.
Chiesa A, Serretti A. Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review of the Evidence. THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE
Volume 17, Number 1, 2011, pp. 83–93 DOI: 10.1089/acm.2009.0546
Morone NE, Greco CM, Moore CG. A Mind-Body Program for Older Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2016 Mar;176(3):329-37. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.8033. http://jamanetwork.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2495275. Accessed October 12 2017.
Zeidan F, Emerson NM, Farris SR, .Mindfulness Meditation-Based Pain Relief Employs Different Neural Mechanisms Than Placebo and Sham Mindfulness Meditation-Induced Analgesia. J Neurosci. 2015 Nov 18;35(46):15307-25. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2542-15.2015. http://www.jneurosci.org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/content/35/46/15307.long. Accessed October 10 2017.
Zeidan F, Gordon NS, Merchant J, Goolkasian P. The effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on experimentally induced pain. J Pain. 2010 Mar;11(3):199-209. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2009.07.015. Epub 2009 Oct 22.
http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/science/article/pii/S1526590009006919 Accessed October 11 2017
Meditation for Pain. Part One. By Our October Student Pharmacist, Andrea Lee.
Did you know that meditation can relieve pain in your body?
You may have heard the word “meditation” and confused it for a religious ritual. However, meditation can actually be an every day activity that has health benefits. Meditation can also contain a spiritual component where you build a habit to harness mindfulness and awareness of your physical body.
Meditation is not complicated or supposed to be an esoteric activity restricted to a religion. It can be as simple as becoming aware of your own breath in and breath out.
Mirriam Webster defines meditation as a way “to engage in mental exercise (as concentration on one’s breathing […]) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness.”
For health benefits, meditation is the simplest way to develop mindfulness. Developing mindfulness can directly benefit increasing your pain tolerance and emotional and physical acceptance of pain.
Today, we will delve into exactly how meditation may benefit you in relieving pain symptoms you may experience.
I have a family history of arthritis and was diagnosed with an early onset of arthritis in my right knee. Unfortunately, because I was afraid to make things worse when I walk or run, the new way that I walked after my diagnosis resulted in new pain that developed in the joints of my pelvis. Since then, I have practiced meditation as a way to become aware of my body, how I walk in a way that doesn’t worsen my new pain, and to lessen my overall pain in my hip and knee from day to day.
How do you do it?
Here are easy first steps to start a meditation practice to help build mindfulness:
- First pick a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for about 30 minutes.
- Wear comfortable clothing.
- Sit straight up either supported by a chair or Indian style.
- You may also lay down or lay at a slight incline.
- Close or relax your eyelids.
- Take a deep breath in and notice the cool sensation and think “in”.
- Then exhale and notice the warm sensation and think “out”.
- Breathe normally, but maintain the thoughts “in” when you breathe in and “out” when you breathe out.
- Do this for about six breaths. Slowly open your eyes and allow yourself to come out of concentrating on your breath only.
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques have already been used in hospitals, doctors offices, and clinics as evidence-based treatment for improvement in pain patients with chronic and acute symptoms.
MBSR falls under non-medication-based treatment options that are named “mind-body” approaches to dealing with pain. This approach “focuses on increasing awareness, acceptance of [present] moment experiences including physical discomfort and difficult emotions.” Meditation is a technique that can help you build and further develop mindfulness.
Now that you have a brief introduction on how to start meditating, please check back for a second part to this series where we talk about how MBSR works in the body and tips to address common problems you may run into after the first few tries.
Resources:
Cherkin DC, Sherman KJ, Balderson BH, et. al. Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Usual Care on Back Pain and Functional Limitations in Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2016 Mar 22-29;315(12):1240-9. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.2323. http://jamanetwork.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/journals/jama/fullarticle/2504811. Accessed October 11 2017.
Chiesa A, Serretti A. Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review of the Evidence. THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE
Volume 17, Number 1, 2011, pp. 83–93 DOI: 10.1089/acm.2009.0546
Morone NE, Greco CM, Moore CG. A Mind-Body Program for Older Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2016 Mar;176(3):329-37. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.8033. http://jamanetwork.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2495275. Accessed October 12 2017.
Zeidan F, Emerson NM, Farris SR, .Mindfulness Meditation-Based Pain Relief Employs Different Neural Mechanisms Than Placebo and Sham Mindfulness Meditation-Induced Analgesia. J Neurosci. 2015 Nov 18;35(46):15307-25. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2542-15.2015. http://www.jneurosci.org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/content/35/46/15307.long. Accessed October 10 2017.
Zeidan F, Gordon NS, Merchant J, Goolkasian P. The effects of brief mindfulness meditation training on experimentally induced pain. J Pain. 2010 Mar;11(3):199-209. doi: 10.1016/j.jpain.2009.07.015. Epub 2009 Oct 22.
http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/science/article/pii/S1526590009006919 Accessed October 11 2017
Mindfulness for Stress Relief. By Our October Student Pharmacist, Sarah Redmond.
We all live busy lives that often become stressful. Stress increases cortisol levels in our bodies. Cortisol is often called the “stress” hormone. Cortisol is necessary to help our bodies regulate blood sugar, metabolism, and our immune systems, but chronic high cortisol levels are detrimental to our health.
High levels of cortisol make us age faster, weaken our immune system, increase inflammation, and can even change which of our genes are expressed.
The demands we have to deal with on a daily basis as we balance work, school, family, and friends can be challenging and create stress.
During times of stress, it is most important to eat healthy, exercise, and get enough sleep. However, many of our reactions to stress are the opposite of what is good for us.
I would like to propose some practical tools to help us get our heads out of the storm and relax, decreasing our daily stress by practicing mindfulness.
Mindfulness is being aware of the present moment, paying attention to what we are doing, while we are doing it. It is important to be aware of the events that are happening around us, but most of all, how we react to these events. Practicing mindfulness at the beginning or end of each day can focus us for the challenges ahead and relax us after a hard day, leading to less stress and better sleep.
Mindful Breathing:
- Sit or lay down in a quiet place with your back straight and your eyes closed.
- Breathe in through your nose while counting slowly to six.
- Hold your breath for a moment.
- Breathe out through your month while counting slowly to six or until you’ve completely exhaled.
- Repeat this breathing pattern. Let all your thoughts drift away and completely focus on breathing in and out.
- Notice your chest moving in and out and your abdomen expanding and retracting. When your mind wanders, let the thought go. Bring your attention back to breathing, being only aware of your own body.
Mindful Walking:
- Stand still, lift your chest, balance your weight, and feel all ten toes on the ground.
- Start to walk.
- Keep your gaze on the ground fixed about six feet in front of you. Note each part of each step you take- lifting your foot, moving it forward, and placing it on the ground.
- Focus on each step. As thoughts come into your head, acknowledge them, then let them fade into the background and keep focusing back on your steps.
- Continue to walk for half an hour.
References:
Brain waves. Mindful Revolution. http://www.mindfulrevolution.co.za/ Accessed October 24, 2016.
Fargo, Sean. Walking Meditation. Mindfulness Exercises. http://mindfulnessexercises.com/walking-meditation/. Published March 6, 2016. Accessed October 24, 2016.
Klatt, Maryanna D. The Integrative Pharmacist? Intro to Mindfulness and Yoga Research. 2015. Presentation.
Mayo Clinic Staff. Mindfulness exercises. Mayo Clinic. http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/mindfulness-exercises/art-20046356?pg=2. Published November 10, 2015. Accessed October 24, 2016.
Munroe, Jean Ann. Girl walking barefoot. OAT Test-Taking Anxiety? Try Mindfulness https://optometryadmissions.com/2014/03/19/oat-test-anxiety-try-mindfulness/. Published March 19, 2014. Accessed October 24, 2016.
Sargent, Sam. Lady with eyes closed in front of ocean. Mindful Breathing for a Healthy Body and Mind. https://www.lifestyle.com.au/health/mindful-breathing-for-a-healthy-body-and-mind.aspx Accessed October 24, 2016.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month! By Our October Student Pharmacist, Danae Rockwell.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) is an annual health campaign organized by several breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of breast cancer and also raise money to investigate its cause, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
What is breast cancer?
Cancer cells are characterized by their abnormal ability to grow and invade healthy cells of the body. Breast cancer cells start in the breast tissue and can move to other areas of the body (a process known as metastasizing) as the disease progresses causing complications.
One in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. This is an outrageously concerning number and women need to be aware of risk factors that may potentiate their likelihood of getting breast cancer.
Genetic Risk Factors
Breast cancer occurs almost 100 times more often in women than in men. Less than one percent of men will develop breast cancer.
Women over the age of 55 are also more likely to get breast cancer than those of a younger age.
Race is another factor. Caucasian women are diagnosed more often than women of other races.
Knowing your family history is also important. If your grandmother, mother, or sister has been diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer, you have a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer in the future. Mutations in certain genes such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes can increase your risk for breast cancer, as well. To determine if you have either of these genes, genetic testing must be done. If you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, it is a good idea to talk to your doctor about genetic testing. These risk factors cannot be avoided and women should be aware of their individual risk factors and be routinely checked by their physicians, as early detection is key to treatment and survival.
What You Can Do
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Every two minutes, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. It is important to know your own risk factors and visit your doctor annually for checkups to detect any signs of cancer. Again, early detection is key for treatment and survival. NBCAM promotes awareness for this disease and gives the opportunity to donate to charity to help those affected by breast cancer. Through early detection, education, and support services, we can fight breast cancer and hope to someday beat it for good!
References:
- “Breast Cancer: Prevention and Control.” World Health Organization. World Health Organization, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
- How You Can Help – National Breast Cancer Foundation.” N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
- Nbcf. The National Breast Cancer Foundation. www.nationalbreastcancer.org. NBCF, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.