Stress busting medicine mind body reduces the need for health care

This week, Harvard researchers reported a powerful way to keep the doctor away. And it is not an apple a day or a new drug - is a life skill called resilience. It is the adult equivalent of hitting a hedge on his first bike trip without training wheels, shaking the leaves and dirt from your hair, and think, "Well, it was not too bad I will try again. ".

People tend to think that resilience is something the lucky and unlucky people are missing, but it's not true. It is a skill that can be learned. Anyone can build resilience to practice the relaxation response - a deep relaxation physiological state induced by practices such as rhythmic breathing, mindfulness meditation, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, or prayer. The relaxation response was described over 40 years ago by Dr. Herbert Benson, founder and director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

The power of resilience is central to a study published this week in PLoS One by Benson and his colleagues at MGH. Those who graduated from a resistance program increase developed by the Benson-Henry Institute use health services significantly less in the year after the course compared to the previous year.

The resilience of the impact of training 
Benson-Henry has developed an eight-week course, called resilience Intervention Program (3RP) Relaxation for Endurance. To measure the effect of this program on the use of health services, the PLoS One study mined a rich database of information compiled by Partners HealthCare patient, a system that includes MGH Hospital Brigham and women and other health centers in the Boston area. The study compared the use of health care for more than 4,400 graduates 3RP Partners 13,150 patients who were not taking the 3RP courses. Within one year of training, the use of health services by 3RP graduates fell by 43%.

"We have shown in the past that worked in the laboratory and at the individual physiology, and now we can see that when you do good to people, they do not want to use both health care," says study leader Dr. James E. Stahl, formerly affiliated with the Benson-Henry Institute but now based at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.

The 3RP training was ultimately responsible for the decline in demand for medical care? This study can not prove beyond doubt, as only found statistical links. The researchers were careful to consider factors other than 3RP training that could affect the amount of health care people seek - including age, sex, race, education and income level. "Can you ever really delete it? I do not think anyone can be sure," says Dr. Stahl.

For policymakers, the study offers the possibility of safe and inexpensive way to help control the costs of health care are rising. But in fact, this study does not provide evidence to prove otherwise. For example, if a group 3RP failed tests and other services that otherwise would have improved your health? more research is needed before anyone can drop resilience training as a way to reduce costs. "As for the use is the first step towards measuring the costs," says Dr. Stahl.

You can strengthen the resilience without formal training 
For those of us who do not live in Boston and can not be part of the 3RP training, it is still possible to increase our resilience in a variety of ways. Resilience is partly to make meaningful connections with others, such as through volunteering, caring for aging parents and other service jobs.

In addition, the positive psychology research shows that having an optimistic outlook and a sense of connection, meaning and purpose in life contributes to resilience. This includes learning to identify and combat negative attitudes of daily life that can harm health.

"As fluoridation of its water or vaccinate yourself, they are ways to keep it healthy with, from a public health perspective, the minimum investment," says Dr. Stahl. "My opinion is that we should probably teach these skills in elementary school."
By: Daniel Pendick