Health and Spirituality

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Health and Spirituality

• Vinod Kochupillai
• Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital
• All India Institute of Medical Sciences
• New Delhi

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Poll Conducted Are you happy with your life

• High percentage Yes
• Surprise
• Contradictory to statistics
• Anxiety, depression, Suicide increasing
• If people are happy
• Why increase in depression and suicides??

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Emotions unaware or not expressed

• Unaware of feelings
• Ashamed to admit
• Pretending to have fun
• Emotions may seem to be under control -- but!

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Suppressed Emotions Explode

• Affect Work out put
• Interpersonal relations
• Depression/ anxiety
• Heart attacks, ulcers, migraine, High BP, cancer

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Scientific Studies

• Every change in the mental-emotional state,
  conscious or unconscious is accompanied by an
  appropriate change in physiological state and
  every change in the physiological state is
  accompanied by an appropriate change in the
  mental-emotional state
• Elmer Green - Mayo clinic Physician

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Body physiology, mind emotions

• How are these linked ??

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Neuropeptides receptors Biochemical Messengers

• Tiny in size, but highly intelligent
• Communicate each other
• Regulate
• conscious and unconscious activities
• Behavior, physical activity, even mood

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Neuropeptides and receptors Not only brain and
nerve cells

• Present in many parts
• Blood cells (mono lymphocytes)
• Respiratory centre
• G I tract - entire lining esophagus - large
  intestine
• Density of receptors
• Gut feeling
• Distressing news diarrhoea
• Dyspepsia grouchy irritable

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Biochemical messengers Neuropeptides and their
receptors

• Manifest as our emotions, beliefs and
  expectations
• Profoundly influence our responses and
  experiences in the world
• Unite mind, spirit and emotions with physical
  body
• Biochemical base awareness and consciousness
• Dr. Pert Molecules of Emotions

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Biochemical messengers Molecules of Emotions

• Massive information transfer
• Over a network linking all systems and organs,
  emotions, thoughts and spirit
• Mobile brain
• Through which intelligence
• moves through entire body
• in all places at once
• not just in the head

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Emotions needed

• Anger to define boundaries
• Grief to deal with losses
• Fear to protect from danger

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Emotions denied chronically suppressed - Stress

• Toxic situation
• Flow of peptides (messengers) blocked
• important body functions
• breathing, blood flow, Immunity
• adversely affected
• Manifest as diseases
• Healing processes adversely affected

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Free Flow of Emotions

• Emotions allowed to move naturally
• Inner chemicals flow freely
• Experience
• freedom, joy, healthy state of being

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Blocked or suppressed emotions

• Blood vessels Constricted (narrowed)
• Blood flow restricted
• Deprives important part of brain
• and other organs of vital nourishment

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Frontal Contex Inadequate Nourishment

• Foggy and less alert
• limited in awareness
• Decision making processes Interfered
• unable to respond freshly to world around
• gets stuck in the past or the future
• Lack of fresh ideas

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Emotions and body sensations Link

• Each emotion Physical sensation
• Attention over physical sensation allows
  emotions to move rather than get suppressed
• However, one is often not aware of this sensation
• Elimination of stress one becomes aware and
  brings the sensation into consciousness

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Elimination of Stress

• Over centuries
• Yoga, meditation, Pranayam
• Yoga is living life skillfully
• Meditation allows long buried thoughts and
  feelings to surface, it is a way of getting the
  peptides flow again, returning the body and the
  emotions to health.

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Meditation
A mind without agitation is meditation. A mind
in the present moment is meditation. A mind which
becomes no mind is meditation. A mind that has no
hesitation, no anticipation
is meditation. A mind that has come back to
the source is meditation.
H H Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
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Sudarshan Kriya (SK) and Pranayam (P)

• More recently
• His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
• Introduced a powerful process - Sudarshan Kriya
• Rhythmic breathing process -
• Three rhythms followed cyclically.

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Regular practice SK, P, yoga and meditation

• stresses eliminated
• peptides flow freely
• one becomes aware
• living in the present
• focused, alert and yet relaxed
• This is what spirituality (consciousness) is all
• about
• Productivity, efficiency and relationships
  automatically improve

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Underlying mechanisms Effect of Yogic Breathing
Physiology

• SK P Alleviation of anxiety, depression and
  stress
• Increased Parasympathetic drive
• Calming of stress response systems
• Neuro endocrine release of hormones
• Thalamic generators
• Neuro-peptides their receptors

Dr. Richard Brown Psychiatrist Columbia
University
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SK and P EEG studies

• Resting EEG 2 groups
• practising SK and P x at least 2 years
• vs controls
• beta waves
• EEG during SK and P - alpha waves
• relaxed alertness
• Manveer Bhatia
• Neurologist EEG Incharge

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During SK P
Resting EEG Control Vs practitioners of SK P
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SK P Effect on brain

• EEG Studies
• Increased connectivity information processing
• in the brain

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• Bhatia M, Kumar A, Bhardwaj NK, Pandey RM and
  Kochupillai V.
• Electrophysiological evaluation of Sudarshan
  Kriya EEG, BAER and P-300 study.
• Ind J Physiol Pharmacol
• 47(2) 157-163, 2003

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SK P effect on blood cortisol ACTH

• Studies AIIMS and NIMHANS, Bangalore
• Fall in blood cortisol and ACTH (Stress hormones)
  
• Consistent relaxing effect of SK and P NIMHANS
  Alcohol addicts patients with depression
• 70 required no medication
• SK P No side effects
• Cost effective

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• Jankiramaiah et al. A Therapeutic Efficacy of
• Sudarshan Kriya yoga 9SKY) In Dysthymic
• Disorders.
• NIMHANS Journal 1721-28,1998
• Naga Venkatesha et al. P300 Amplitude And
• Antidepressant Response To Sudarshan Kriya Yoga.
• Journal Affective Disorders 5045-48,1998.
• Jankiramaiah et al. Antidepressant Efficacy Of
• Sudarshan Kriya Yoga 9SKY) In Melancholia.
• Journal Affective Disorders 57 255-59, 2000.

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SK P Fall in blood lactate

• Police trainees - highly stressed group
• Blood lactate increases during physical
• and/ or mental stress
• Alter 5 months of SK and P practice
• remarkable fall in blood lactate in those
• practising SK P
• consistent with relaxation effect
• Neeta Singh Prof. Biochemistry AIIMS

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SK P Antioxidant defense

• Police trainees
• Studied at base line, after 5 months of SK and P
  practice and during SK and P
• Study Group vs controls

Neeta Singh, Prof, Biochemistry, AIIMS.

• Significant in Antioxidant enzymes in
  Menopausal women

Dr. Geetha