MindBody Spirit Connection

1
Mind/Body/Spirit Connection

• Julie E. Preece Ph.D.

2
President Benson

• There is no question that the health of the body
  effects the spirit, or the Lord would never have
  revealed the Word of Wisdom. God has never given
  any temporal commandments, and that which effects
  our stature effects our soul. We need so much
  for the body, mind and spirit to unite in one
  healthy stable soul.

3
John Widstow

• A correct mental attitude dependant upon sound
  religious philosophy is equally necessary for
  good health. The mind is connected closely with
  the body, and its master. Love will promote
  health hate will undermine it.

4
History of Mind Body Connection

• Anciently Aristotle observed that pain has an
  emotional and feeling component. Galen, 200
  A.D., suggested that depressed women have a
  tendency towards contracting cancer. In the
  18th Century Gendron and Guy identified a
  connection between cancer and depression.
  (Derogatis, 1986)

5
Bad Patients

• 1970-Present Sandra Levy Seriously ill patients
  with Breast Cancer who expressed high levels of
  depression, anxiety and hostility survived longer
  than those who showed little distress.
• Leonard Derogatis Studies 35 women with
  metastatic Breast Cancer found that long term
  survivors had a poor relationship with their
  physicians as judged by their physician (Siegel,
  1988)
• Levy Bad patients, judged by hospital staff,
  more killer T cells than good patients. (Siegel,
  1988)

6
More Studies. . .

• Kiecolt-Glaser and Glaser at Ohio State Medical
  School showed that exam stress decreased the
  function of lymphocytes--natural killer calls,
  and interferon.
• ( Borysenko, 1988).
• Dr. Charlene Kavanough University of Wisconsin
  Med. School, severely burned children changed own
  dressing...needed less meds and fewer
  complications (Siegel, 1988).

7
Sobel, 1995 p. 236

• Manitoba, Canada 3500 senior citizens were
  followed in a study for 7 years. Those people
  who rated their health poor were almost three
  times more likely to die during the study than
  those who perceived their life to be excellent. .
  .only increasing age seemed to have a more
  powerful influence on death rates than self-rated
  health.

8
Sobel, 1995

• Alameda County, California Men with poor
  self-rated health more likely to die than those
  who saw their health as excellent. In women the
  difference was five times. The results remained
  even when health behaviors such as smoking,
  exercise, social ties and psychological state
  were controlled.

9
Health, Aug 2000

• A diet is a risk factor for coronary heart
  disease and is considered a causal factor in
  approx.. a third of all heart concerns.
• McGinnis and Forge rank poor diet in a
  combination with lack of exercise, as second only
  to tobacco as a cause for morbidity and
  mortality.
• A report commissioned by the World Cancer
  Research Fund and the American Institute for
  Cancer Research, estimated that diets high in
  vegetables and fruits (more than 400 grams a day)
  could prevent at least 20 of all cancer
  incidence.

10
John Widstoe

• Food fads and fancies have therefore multiplied.
  Some of them rest upon sound knowledge many of
  them are worthless and dangerous. Here are some
  of them use no meat eat no vegetables eat
  only fruit, pay attention only to vitamins,
  minerals are the only concern, eat very little,
  fast a great deal. . .

11
Exercise

• Study reported by Diane Kozak suggests that 30
  mins of exercise 3x per week can help major
  depression.
• James Blumenthal Duke University Depressed
  people on supervised exercise regime 60 improved
  in 4 months (same as with psychotropics) but
  30on medication relapsed vs. 9 in exercise
  group.

12
Pres. Boyd K. Packer

• Learn to use moderation and common sense in
  matters of health an nutrition, and particularly
  in medication. Avoid being extreme or fanatical
  or becoming a faddist.

13
American Family Physician(2001) Anandrarajah
Height

• No one really knows how spirituality is
  related to health. However, it seems the body,
  mind and spirit are connected. The health of any
  one of those three seem to effect the health or
  the others.

14
American Family Physician 2001Anandrarajah
Height

• Set aside time every day to do things which help
  you spiritually. These may include community
  service, volunteer work, prayer, meditation,
  devotional singing, reading inspirational books,
  nature walks, quiet time for thinking, yoga,
  playing a sport or attending religious services.

15
DC 105, 2 Nephi 32 9

• pray always, that you may come off conqueror.
• I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not
  faint that ye must not perform any thing unto
  the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray
  unto the Father

16
Research On Honoring Your Spirit

• Frequency of Prayer and spiritual church
  attendance significantly related to health status
  independent of age.
• Significantly lower blood pressure for Church
  Attendees
• Spiritual Commitment positively associated with
  lower rates of arteriosclerosis, better health
  and longer life span. Heart-transplants, Cancer,
  Cardiovascular disease, Depression (Udermann,
  2000).

17
Journal of Gerontology 4,000 senior citizens in
Durham N.C.

• Dr. Harold Koening 4,000 healthy senior
  citizens who said they rarely or never prayed ran
  about a 50 greater risk of dying during the
  studies than seniors who prayed or meditated more
  than once per month.

18
Duke University Study

• 1, 700 Elderly people in North Carolina followed
  for more than 6 years. Lab analysis of
  cytokines. People who attended Church or prayed
  had a higher functioning immune system.

19
The Gerontologist October 1988

• Religious faith predict lower blood pressure,
  lower rates of coronary heart diseases and higher
  survival rate following surgery.
• Strong spiritual commitment is positively
  associated with lower rates of arteriosclerosis
  in men and women and longer life span.

20
Spiers, 2004

• encouraging forgiveness can help prevent
  psychiatric disease. . .leads to decreased
  anxiety and depression.

21
3 Nephi 11 29-30

• Behold, this is not my doctrine to stir up the
  hearts of men with anger, one against another
  but this is my doctrine, that such things should
  be done away.

22
Sethness, Rauschhuber, Etnyre, Gilliland, Lowery,
Jones, 2004

• link between frequency and intensity of anger
  and hostility episodes that alter the
  physiological reactivity of the heart and
  neuroendochrine systems.
• Stress and negative emotions such as anger and
  hostility have been found to increase heart rate
  and blood pressure resulting in damage to the
  epithelium and making it vulnerable to
  inflammation and lipid deposits.

23
DC 64 9

• Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to
  forgive one another for he that forgiveth not
  his brother his trespasses standeth condemned
  before the Lord for there remaineth in him the
  greater sin.

24
Dr. Tim Smith

• C.T scans on couples with no previous heart
  history Couples who are more hostile more
  calcium deposits.

25
Forgiveness thought to work in two ways

• Reducing State of unforgiveness, a potent
  mixture of bitterness, anger,hostility,
  resentment and fear.
• This leads to increased blood pressure and
  hormonal changes-linked to cardiovascular
  disease, immune suppression, and possibly,
  impaired neurological function and memory.
• Newsweek September 27 04

26
Second Reason

• People will a strong social network tend to be
  healthy than loners.
• 20 individuals in happy relationships matched
  with 20 troubled. Higher levels of base line
  cortisol-shot up even further when they were
  asked to think about troubled relationships.
• Newsweek Sept 27, 2004

27
Forgiveness- Tofu for the Soul-Dr Dean Ornish

• 1,200 published studies
• The most selfish thing you can do for yourself is
  to forgive other people.
• Reduces Stress of Unforgivness
• Decreases bp and hormone changes
• 20 people in happy/20 people in unhappy
  relationships- higher cortisol

28
Social Support

• A study of 6,928 adults found that women who were
  socially isolated were at an increased risk for
  dying of cancer. Those who had a few social
  contacts and who felt isolated had a 2x increase
  in incidence and 5x increase in relative risk for
  mortality doe to hormone-related cancers
  (Spiegel, 1999).

29
Social Support

• Emotional support has a protective influence for
  survival for patients with earliest stage breast,
  colorectal, or lung cancer (Ell, 1992).
• Women who had confidants in the first few months
  after surgery lowered their mortality rates,
  (Maunsell, 1995).

30
Spiegel (1999)

• Social isolation and death is as strong as
  between serum cholesterol levels or smoking and
  mortality.
• Decreased survival rates in persons with cancer
  have been found to be associated with low quality
  and quantity of social relationships.

31
Waxler 1991

• Measures of social relationships that have been
  found to be significantly associated with longer
  survival are martial status support from
  friends contact with friends support from
  relatives and neighbors.

32
More on Social Support

• Patients who report high levels of perceived
  social support and marital satisfaction
  experience less distress and less sever pain.
• Spouses often mirror each others health.
  Spouses share the same environment, family
  stresses, health habits and the strain of being a
  caregiver. (Wilson, 2002)

33
Get Adequate Sleep D C 88124

• Cease to sleep longer than is needful retire to
  thy bed early, that ye may not be weary arise
  early, that your bodies and your minds may be
  invigorated.

34
Brigham Young according to John Widstoe, said

• 8 hours recreation,
• 8 hours work and
• 8 hours sleep.

35
More on Sleep

• 1/4 of all Americans are sleep deprived
• Need for sleep varies for different people.
• Most experts suggest 8 hours (Frank, 2001
  Wetherbee 2001).

36
Brigham Young

• Instead of doing two days work in one day,
  wisdom would dictate (to the Saints) that if they
  desire long life and good health, they must,
  after sufficient exertion, allow the body to rest
  before it is entirely exhausted. When exhausted,
  some argue that they need stimulants. . .but
  instead of these kind of stimulants they should
  recruit by rest.

37
Sleep Tips

• Keep to a regular routine.
• Do not do anything but sleep in your bed room.
• Do not exercise or eat within 5-6 hours of your
  bed time.
• Avoid heavy meals and drinks with high caffeine
  content before bed time.
• Make sure that you find both your bed room and
  temperature of your room comfy.
• Exercise regularly Duke University
  Study-physically fit older men fell asleep twice
  as fast than sedentary men.

38
DC 10, DC 88124

• Do not run faster or labor more than you have
  the strength and means.

39
Vacation

• Schedule carefully
• Work when you work then do something different.
• Both men and women who take vacations have better
  heart health than those who do not (Loecher
  2001-study of 12,00 men 9 years) and (Stark, 2001
  20 yr. study of 749 women).
• Take weekends or micro vacations
• If possible avoid extra work hours- 45 hours or
  more-undermining health.

40
Take Care of Unresolved Issues in Your Life

• Depression detrimental to physical health
  (McEwen, 1998).
• Watson, 1999 Haviland, 1999). High scores for
  depression and moderate hopeless/helpless
  linked to a significantly reduced chance of
  survival (n578) with early stage Breast cancer.
• Anxiety (Bushnell at McGill University in
  Canada)-cookie dough smells, perfume pain becomes
  less unpleasant.

41
Bartlett Medical Economics, March 2001

• Stress is a third what happens and two thirds
  how we react.

42
Davis, Eshelman and Mckay

• We have two choices on managing stress either
  alter our external environment or our response to
  stress.
• The Relaxation Response Work Book, 1985

43
Ways To Reduce Stress

• Change the Stressful Situation it's self
• Change our PERCEPTION of the Situation.
• Change our Capacity to Deal with the Situation
  i.e. improve skills or increase physical
  efficiency.

44
Making Changes-the 3 Questions

• How Can I Change the Stressful Situation?
• How Can I Change My Perception of the Stressful
  Situation
• How Can I Change my Capacity to Deal with the
  Stressful Situation?

45
Vamarec March, 2001

• Know your self talk

46
ABCs of Perceptions

• A Stressful Event
• B Thought/Perception
• C Physical/Mental response

47
Out of Their Own Mouths . . .

• Suffering comes before the joy. . . Its like
  that before a woman has her baby-there is a lot
  of pain there but its worth it.
• God just wants to see how much we can take, and
  when you look at it differently, it does open up
  a healing.
• My self worth is not low. Im just forgetting
  that Im worth a lot, even though I have an
  illness, even though there are going to be
  problems.
• When we base ourselves on human doing rather than
  being we set ourselves up to fail and be
  miserable.

48
Form Their Own Mouths . . .

• I can either choose to have this as a stumbling
  block or I can step upon it and become a better
  person.
• When I first got sick I was very angry about it
  and I finally had to come to a point where I had
  to forgive God and then I had to ask Him to
  forgive me for blaming him.
• Healing is the process of finding peace and
  acceptance even though the body is not responding
  in a way the participant would desire.

49
Mosiah 3 19

• We will be a natural man for ever and ever,
  unless he yields to the enticing of the Holy
  Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and be
  cometh a saint through the Atonement of Christ
  the Lord, and be come as a child, submissive,
  meek. Humble, patient, full of love, willing to
  submit to all things which the Lord seethe fit to
  inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to
  his father.

50
DC 122 7, 9

• If the heavens gather blackness, and all the
  elements combine to hedge up the way and above
  all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the
  mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that
  all these things shall give thee experience, and
  shall be for thy good.
• Therefore, hold on to thy way. . . Thy days are
  known and thy years shall not be numbered less
  therefore, fear not what man can do, for god
  shall be with you forever and ever.

51
Brenner, The Faith and Doubt of Holocaust
Survivors

• It never occurred to me to question Gods doings
  or lack of doings while I was an inmate of
  Auschwitz, although of course I understand that
  others did. . . I was no less or more religious
  because of what the Nazis did to us and I
  believe my faith in God was not undermined in the
  least. It never occurred to me to associate the
  calamity we were experiencing with God, to blame
  Him, or to believe in Him less or cease believing
  in Him at all because He didnt come to our aide.
  God doesn't owe us that, or anything. We owe
  our lives to Him. If someone believes that God
  is responsible for the death of six million
  because He didnt somehow do something to save
  them, hes got his thinking reversed. We owe God
  our lives for the few or many years we live, and
  we have the duty to worship Him and do as He
  commands us. Thats why were here on earth to be
  in Gods service, to do Gods bidding.

52
Burnham, (2001)

• Laugh- it boosts immune system and lowers your
  bodys cortisol levels

53
Herbert Benson-Relaxation Response

• Repetition of a sound or a word or prayer.
• Setting aside of intrusive thoughts to return
  back to the sound or word

54
Research

• John Kabbott Zinn 61 of patients reported a
  significant releif from pain.
• 50 reported a continued relief after 4 years.
  And were still practicing some form of mediation.
• Meditation has been found successful in treating
  anxiety, panic disorders, insomnia, irritable
  bowel syndrome (Vickers Zollman, 1999),
  atherosclerosis (Moore, 2000), hypertension,
  cardiac arrhythmias, pain, allergies, repetitive
  stress injury, infertility (Benson, 2001).
• According to Benson (2001) practicing the
  relaxation response daily, boosts the immune
  system and changes brain activity and mechanisms
  in the CNS.

55
Safety

• Health problems as a result of meditation or
  relaxation exercise is very rare
• Basilar and vertebral artery occlusion after yoga
  postures that put strain on the neck
• Relaxation exercises should be avoided by people
  with poorly controlled cardiovascular disease as
  abdominal tensing can cause problems
• Meditation- problematic with people with a
  history of psychosis or epilepsy

56
Meditation-Mindfulness

• The Art of Non-Doing and Non-Striving
• One welcomes what ever comes up in meditation and
  be with it rather than insisting on paying
  attention to only one thing. This principle is
  one of the most characteristic and valuable
  features of mindful mediation.

57
Meditation

• What matters is whether you are aware of your
  thoughts and feelings during meditation and how
  you handle them-we make room for them.
• The breath becomes the anchor-the home base.

58
Doeothee Soelle in her book Suffering

• suggests that the most important question we can
  ask about suffering is. . .Does our suffering
  serve God or the Devil, the cause of becoming
  alive or morally paralyzed? Not where does
  tragedy come from? But where does it lead?

59
Luke 8

• touched the boarders of his garment. . . she came
  trembling and falling down before him, she
  declared unto him. . . for what cause she had
  touched him, and how she was healed immediately.
  And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good
  comfort thy faith hath made thee whole go in
  peace.

60
So What

• Exercise
• Intake of Food
• Spiritual Pursuits
• Church/Temple Attendance, Prayer
• Ward Choir/Service/Reading Scriptures
• Friends/Social Life/Partner
• Sleep
• Thoughts/Perceptions
• Relaxation/Meditation

61
John 1427

• Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
  you not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
  afraid.

62
Isaiah 4031

• But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew
  their strength they shall mount up with wings as
  eagles they shall run and not be weary and they
  shall walk and not faint.

63
Myths of Self Care

• Taking Care of myself is Selfish.
• Others need me
• It will take too much time, or money
• Others just handle things better than I do so I
  must really be weak.
• I should be able to deal with all that I have to
  do.

64
More Myths

• If I work longer I will get more done.
• I can skip a few nights of sleep without problem.
• Medical check ups are expensive and time
  consuming-Ill put it off for a couple of years.
• There is no one else to do the things I do

65
Even More Myths

• I dont have time to be sick.
• If I feel guilty its a bad thing
• What are your myths?