Pain Relief
For those of us managing chronic pain this article is interesting. Meditation has become so mainstream that it’s amazing! I’m starting to really question the structure of a placebo effect. If you give the mind the idea that the body is healing, the body heals.
Meditation Reduces the Emotional Impact of Pain, Study Finds
Science Daily
Yet another paper making it clear how important meditation is.
Journal Reference: Christopher A. Brown, Anthony K.P. Jones. Meditation experience predicts less negative appraisal of pain: Electrophysiological evidence for the involvement of anticipatory neural responses. Pain, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.pain.2010.04.017
People who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less, a new study has found.
Scientists from The University of Manchester recruited individuals into the study who had a diverse range of experience with meditation, spanning anything from months to decades. It was only the more advanced meditators whose anticipation and experience of pain differed from non-meditators.
The type of meditation practised also varied across individuals, but all included ‘mindfulness meditation’ practices, such as those that form the basis of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), recommended for recurrent depression by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2004.
“Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as a way to treat chronic illness such as the pain caused by arthritis,” said Dr Christopher Brown, who conducted the research. “Recently, a mental health charity called for meditation to be routinely available on the NHS to treat depression, which occurs in up to 50% of people with chronic pain. However, scientists have only just started to look into how meditation might reduce the emotional impact of pain.”
The study, to be published in the journal Pain, found that particular areas of the brain were less active as meditators anticipated pain, as induced by a laser device. Those with longer meditation experience (up to 35 years) showed the least anticipation of the laser pain.
Dr Brown, who is based in the University’s School of Translational Medicine, found that people who meditate also showed unusual activity during anticipation of pain in part of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region known to be involved in controlling attention and thought processes when potential threats are perceived.
He said: “The results of the study confirm how we suspected meditation might affect the brain. Meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and therefore to spend less time anticipating future negative events. This may be why meditation is effective at reducing the recurrence of depression, which makes chronic pain considerably worse.”
Dr Brown said the findings should encourage further research into how the brain is changed by meditation practice. He said: “Although we found that meditators anticipate pain less and find pain less unpleasant, it’s not clear precisely how meditation changes brain function over time to produce these effects.
“However, the importance of developing new treatments for chronic pain is clear: 40% of people who suffer from chronic pain report inadequate management of their pain problem.”
In the UK, more than 10 million adults consult their GP each year with arthritis and related conditions. The estimated annual direct cost of these conditions to health and social services is £5.7 billion.
Study co-author Professor Anthony Jones said: “One might argue that if a therapy works, then why should we care how it works? But it may be surprising to learn that the mechanisms of action of many current therapies are largely unknown, a fact that hinders the development of new treatments. Understanding how meditation works would help improve this method of treatment and help in the development of new therapies.
“There may also be some types of patient with chronic pain who benefit more from meditation-based therapies than others. If we can find out the mechanism of action of meditation for reducing pain, we may be able to screen patients in the future for deficiencies in that mechanism, allowing us to target the treatment to those people.
Pain Relief
[QUOTE=Michele;1833]
People who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less, a new study has found.[QUOTE]
“He said: “The results of the study confirm how we suspected meditation might affect the brain. Meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and therefore to spend less time anticipating future negative events. This may be why meditation is effective at reducing the recurrence of depression, which makes chronic pain considerably worse.”Dr Brown said the findings should encourage further research into how the brain is changed by meditation practice. He said: “Although we found that meditators anticipate pain less and find pain less unpleasant, it’s not clear precisely how meditation changes brain function over time to produce these effects.
[QUOTE]
I have started a lapsed workout program in earnest again and while I agree over the depression statement, the bruises on my arm and inside my thigh do not come from depression. I am sleeping very well. So well in fact, that I am not waking up in the night due to pain. The bruises come from my fingers digging in the points where radiating pain happens while I sleep. I have much experience with this.
Massage is as effective as meditation but both are good. I can’t believe my medical bed gave up the ghost a the worst possible time. I can fix it, but I’m too busy to mess with it right now. I find the vibration to be quite effective. I’m beginning to get arthritis in my hips and I have the horrible habit of sleeping on my side which increases the pressure. But, the vibration in the medical bed eases the sciatic issue and forces me to lay on my back more. I think experience teaches the body as well. Not for the first time do I find myself here. So, I think my body knows at some point that this pain will subside some.
Aloha Michele…
Nice information, but what if your pain is external lol?
Glenn
Pain Relief
I picked up some bug spray yesterday for those annoying pests, but it says it doesn’t work on people! :rolleyes:
Pain Relief
Now now.. do I sense some mean, lean, sarcasm here. Ha ha ha!
Pain Relief
Nice information, but what if your pain is external lol?
Glenn
Well..I at least have one successful approach as of today. The FOIA for 1995to 2005 showed up today and is blissfully accurate! In fact, my co-workers (inadvertently) helped out with the BS that happened in 1995 making that supervisor appear to be the jerk he was.
Now I’m only dealing with correcting the 1995 investigation if it is still in the archival records.
Pain Relief
Here’s something that would help with external pain… a pendant you can wear:
Pain Relief
I took a quick glance at it and honestly just have not been able to read it properly.
For now the old tried and trues are still coming through. I’ve adjusted my exercise program down to accomodate my age and I’m using yoga right now. But the aerobics are not there and I’m a lousy dieter.
But, what put me into a pain cycle was the sitting once again. I did alot of overtime and my lower back was just getting closer every day to locking up on me.
I’m using more pain med’s than I ever have in my life, but backing off the overtime, swimmming and yoga have relieved it. I don’t like relying on the pain meds but I will accept them now where I never did before. I just don’t have the time and energy to always put in the time for the exercise.
Pain Relief
J.P. Have you tried it? Does it work? I’ve always wondered about those things if they actually work.
Pain Relief
I have not tried this particlar pendant BUT there was another one I wanted to post about from another company, BUT they are sold out. I DO think there is a money back gurantee on the pendant I posted. I did a search on pain free pendants and came up with that one. Some of these things really work…so i would look into it, you can click on the “buy now” button at the link and get the guys phone and email and ask him if it comes with a 60 day money back guarantee. So I would not pass up these pendants… I do think they might give a person some relief when they are in chronic pain. It’s worth a shot when you find that taking pain meds is getting a little out of hand, or even if you have mild to severe shoulder pain…. etc.
As for me I do have energy pendants I use that give me loads of energy, since I am not in any type of pain at all… i would not be able to tell you if the ones I have work on pain… but I do get benefits from them, I even have one that makes me happy (by helping to release some negative subconscous beliefs)…lol… but again there are no garantee’s here. The thing to do is always check to see if you can get your money back after say a month or so… since that way there would be no risk to you.
If I did have Chronic pain, I would go from pendant to pendant, since there’s so many out there, searching for ones that worked… even a little bit would be an improvement.
There have been great strides made in many of these pendants lately…. so they keep coming up with new ones all the time… I would keep a look out, I think eventually there will be some truly great ones!
JP
P.S.
I might also add that if you RVed a target without one of these energy pendants and then did another target with one…. you might see an improvement in your RVing ability once you compare things. I notice some energy pendants energize my higher chakras namely the 6th and 7th….which would give any RVer an edge while working a target.
Pain Relief
Thanks J.P!
And well, I have been thinking about this Shakti Helmet thing. Not for now, but later once I get up to S5. Dick has already shared with me some HRVG insider tricks to juice up ones viewing ability, ranging from different foods and rocks, to sticking ones fingers in a wall socket. ;) Just kidding on the latter of course, but you know which one I mean. I think they are (as Dick refers to them) ‘Dirty little secrets’ of HRVG, so I best not reveal what they are exactly.
Aloha Coen…
While there is a bag of tricks of sorts, the keys are always in your mind and how you have shaped it to the task at hand. Internal dialog must never include the pitfalls of external ego and polishing one’s belief is paramount. I have seen a lot of your work and so far you are looking great; in fact you are quite a bit ahead of the game (AOG).
Glenn
Pain Relief
Wow thanks Glenn.. That is a BIG compliment! I didn’t know you also looked at my sessions. I always imagined you in a very busy day job struggling to free up time for HRVG.
Pain Relief
Thanks J.P!
And well, I have been thinking about this Shakti Helmet thing. Not for now, but later once I get up to S5. Dick has already shared with me some HRVG insider tricks to juice up ones viewing ability, ranging from different foods and rocks, to sticking ones fingers in a wall socket. ;) Just kidding on the latter of course, but you know which one I mean. I think they are (as Dick refers to them) ‘Dirty little secrets’ of HRVG, so I best not reveal what they are exactly.
So now you know about the pineapple juice eh? Got to chug that stuff by the case….lol!
JP
Pain Relief
Got to chug that stuff by the case
What does this mean?
Aloha Coen…
Wow thanks Glenn.. That is a BIG compliment! I didn’t know you also looked at my sessions. I always imagined you in a very busy day job struggling to free up time for HRVG.
Actually I spend a lot of time to keep Hrvg free. :)
I have a pretty interesting day job. I work as an RF Engineer in Honolulu. It is way too easy to work too much. I work for several mainland companies, 2 in Texas and 1 out of Florida keeping the satellite TV and Internet up at 5 properties. I also work for TV and Radio stations when they need me and take care of the Univision (Hispanic Television) transmitter up on the mountain when there is a problem or the FCC schedules an inspection. Life is easier these days because I no longer hang waveguide on towers or paint towers, or hang microwave dishes, or work in hot RF environments. When I first got out of the service I worked for a Canadian company that had a serious work tempo out here in the pacific. From Guam and Saipan to the islands here we put put towers, massive amounts of cellular telephone systems and communication designs for the State and Federal types out here. Thankfully the Internet blossomed and the technology shifted. I never liked climbing towers without a parachute lol. It didn’t make sense to me to run up a 500 foot or 1000 foot tower without one. I had to leave my base chute in the truck because the company (Leblanc) figured if I brought it up the tower I might decide to take the shortcut down and become a liability.
Currently my biggest headache is all the foreign students that live in the dorms we supply Internet service to. They steal everything, switches, routers, all the Cat5-e they can get, and then plant switch bombs, router bombs, and they eat bandwidth like candy. I can throw up 20 megs and between the bit torrents and 40-50 simultaneous Skype’s and Voip’s along with script kiddies and a few serious hacker types trying to bust into the servers, it is a challenge to make a profit.
So any time I can spend on Hrvg is the best of the day. Lately it has been difficult dealing with all the recent troubles.
Glenn
Pain Relief
Glenn, sounds interesting.
Michelle, sorry for hijacking your thread. I didn’t mean to.
Pain Relief
No problem..we’re fairly relaxed here.
Pain Relief
What does this mean?
Drinking it by the case is your assignement as a newbie….if we give you all the details it defeats all the fun. RVing can be cryptic and mysterious sometimes….lol.
I love pineapple juice… I highly recommend it!
Pain Relief
Actually I spend a lot of time to keep Hrvg free. :)
I have a pretty interesting day job. I work as an RF Engineer in Honolulu. It is way too easy to work too much. I work for several mainland companies, 2 in Texas and 1 out of Florida keeping the satellite TV and Internet up at 5 properties. I also work for TV and Radio stations when they need me and take care of the Univision (Hispanic Television) transmitter up on the mountain when there is a problem or the FCC schedules an inspection. Life is easier these days because I no longer hang waveguide on towers or paint towers, or hang microwave dishes, or work in hot RF environments. When I first got out of the service I worked for a Canadian company that had a serious work tempo out here in the pacific. From Guam and Saipan to the islands here we put put towers, massive amounts of cellular telephone systems and communication designs for the State and Federal types out here. Thankfully the Internet blossomed and the technology shifted. I never liked climbing towers without a parachute lol. It didn’t make sense to me to run up a 500 foot or 1000 foot tower without one. I had to leave my base chute in the truck because the company (Leblanc) figured if I brought it up the tower I might decide to take the shortcut down and become a liability.
Currently my biggest headache is all the foreign students that live in the dorms we supply Internet service to. They steal everything, switches, routers, all the Cat5-e they can get, and then plant switch bombs, router bombs, and they eat bandwidth like candy. I can throw up 20 megs and between the bit torrents and 40-50 simultaneous Skype’s and Voip’s along with script kiddies and a few serious hacker types trying to bust into the servers, it is a challenge to make a profit.
So any time I can spend on Hrvg is the best of the day. Lately it has been difficult dealing with all the recent troubles.
Glenn
What’s a put put tower?
Pain Relief
Wodin, I think he meant a putt putt tower: www.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&gbv=2&tbs=isch:1&&sa=X&ei=B_cYTNzWNMOMOKvayNoK&ved=0CCMQBSgA&q=putt+putt+tower&spell=1