Tai Chi and good Sleep lead to better Health.

 

Sleep, Stress and Inflammation

Stress, which can be caused by lack of sleep, causes  inflammation. The stress level of insomniac people can be so high that constant inflammation occurs throughout their bodies. Such chronic condition can contribute to illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, certain cancers, and other serious medical problems.

A recent study shows that inflammation levels can be reduced within the body through both cognitive behavioral therapy and Tai Chi practice.

The study was designed around 123 older insomniac adults. They were randomly assigned one of three different types of treatment: 

• Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, 
• Tai chi movement meditation, or 
• A sleep training seminar. 

The Study showed that : 

• Those who received cognitive behavioral therapy and practice Tai Chi experienced significant reduced levels of stress and inflammation and slept better. These benefits were maintained after 16 month. 

• Those participants unlucky enough to be assigned to sleep seminar classes, there was no benefit in lowered inflammatory rates.

Researchers concluded that behavioral modifications that reduce stress are the key to better physical health, once again illustrating the link between mind and body.

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You can practice Tai Chi in Dothan every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 7:30 to 8:30 AM and Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 7:30 PM

For more details, please contact Frederic Lecut 

by email at  frederic.lecut@gmail.com 

or by phone at (334) 798 1639

 

Meditation could help Attention Disorders

Giuseppe Pagnoni, PhD, Emory assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and co-workers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine changes in blood flow in the brain when people meditating were interrupted by stimuli designed to mimic the appearance of spontaneous thoughts. The study shows that experienced Zen meditators can clear their minds of distractions more quickly than novices.

The study realized in 2008 compared 12 people from the Atlanta area with more than three years of daily practice in Zen meditation with 12 others who had never practiced meditation.

While having their brains scanned, the subjects were asked to focus on their breathing. Every once in a while, they had to distinguish a real word from a nonsense word presented at random intervals on a computer screen and, having done that, promptly “let go” of the just processed stimulus by refocusing on their breath.

The authors found that differences in brain activity between experienced meditators and novices after interruption could be seen in a set of well defined areas of the brain.

After being interrupted by a word-recognition task, experienced meditators’ brains returned faster to their pre-interruption condition. This suggests that the regular practice of meditation may enhance the capacity to limit the influence of distracting thoughts. This skill could be important in conditions such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder and major depression, characterized by excessive rumination or an abnormal production of task-unrelated thoughts.

Read an abstract of the study

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