Your heart slows, blood pressure falls and digestion eases.
Your brain grows.As you get older, your brain begins to shrink.
Controlling for other factors, he found that genes associated with stress-related illness behaved differently in the two groups.
“These genes control not only stress but also premature aging and inflammation,” he says.
It seems meditators' genes were essentially telling their body to stress less and age more slowly.
Read on and we guarantee you’ll change your mindand your body, too.
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Which mind/body treatments have the most rock-solid science backing them up?
What’s holding you back?
Avoid your biggest roadblocks to inner peace and find your way om.
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Roadblock 1: “I don’t know how.
Then repeat it in your head as long as you’re able to, up to 20 minutes.
“If you get distracted, that’s OK,” he says.
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Gently refocus until the mantra has recaptured your attention.
Roadblock 2: “I have no time.
“Stop everything to do nothing?
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No can do, say 18 percent of you.
Luckily, you may get benefits from meditating for as little as five minutes.
If even that’s a stretch, you could reduce stress simply by doing daily chores more mindfully.
Roadblock 3: “I can’t sit still.
“Patience is the issue for 36 percent of you.
Instead of fostering a quiet mind, meditation sets off a mental ticker tape of to-do and should-have-done lists.
If you’re a fidgety or anxious key in, try a walking meditation, Hanson says.
As you stroll, focus on the sensation of breathing or on your footfalls.
Walking not active enough?
Yoga, tai chi and jogging can all elicit the relaxation response.
With eyes closed and shoulders relaxed, inhale through your nose for six counts.
Expand your belly, not your chest.
make a run at hold your breath for four counts.
Exhale through your mouth for a count of six.
Repeat the sequence three to five times.
But a heck of a lot of it is.
Tap into the amazing power of placebo.
52 percent of you feel wholeheartedly that mind/body medicine worksand that belief alone may make it true.
Dr. Benson’s take?
“Use your innate powers and the pills.”
Which punch in to trySkip the hard-core yoga and emphasize meditation and stretching.
How it worksFor starters, yoga reduces cortisol by relaxing you.
“Nasty stress hormones only aggravate pain,” Field says.
Which pop in to tryAs with treating back pain, pick a calming practice, Dr. McCall advises.
Zenning out in a long Savasana (Corpse pose) at the end of class will help.
So will focusing on exhalations.
If it feels good, make each twice as long as your inhalations.
In 65 percent, their depression went into remission.
How it worksYour hormones are at work here, too.
“There’s a misconception that yoga is only about relaxation,” Dr. McCall says.
“Some practices can stimulate you.”
Eating disorders
What we knowCould a yogi heal your eating issues?
Yoga fans have lower rates of both.
You may need a relaxing or energizing class based on symptoms.
Consult your doctor andYogaAlliance.orgto find the right one.
“I think [Reiki] helped me relax.”
What science saysTry it if you’d like, but don’t count on major results.
Mariah Carey
TreatmentAcupuncture for the promotion of fertility
What she saysCarey took up needling after a miscarriage in 2008.
Happily, her first child is due this spring.
What science saysStudies are mixed and subjects were women who exclusively used in vitro fertilization.
(Carey says she didn’t.)
A 2008 review concluded acupuncture produced 65 percent better odds of pregnancy.
“It kills anxiety and depression dead,” she toldThe Telegraph.
What science saysDooo it.
But no need to emulate Courtney (kindly!).
Uma Thurman
TreatmentGemstone therapy for fatigue
What she saysThurman has reportedly donned an orange carnelian necklace to boost vitality.
The idea is that gemstones embody energy that encourages cells to heal.
What science says"Can we say from a scientific standpoint that a gem can help your body?
No,” says Dr. Bauer of the Mayo Clinic.
It’s pretty.”
More than half of you say you’ve never heard of qigong.
Try these moves from Samuel Barnes, star of the DVDElement: Tai Chi for Beginners.
(Tai chi is a form of qigong.)
“You’ll strengthen your immune system and feel your energy surge,” he says.
Find a teacher atQigongInstitute.org.
Inhale and lift both hands to chest level, leading with the wrists (as shown).
Then exhale and bring hands back to thighs, “painting the wall” with fingertips.
Repeat for two minutes.
Universal PostStand with heels together, toes out at a 45-degree angle.
Bend knees slightly; shift weight into center of left foot; step right, weightless, foot forward.
Shoulders relaxed, pretend you’re hugging a giant beach ball against your chest (as shown).
Close eyes; breathe deeply for two minutes.
Next, clap and rub in front of heart, then repeat in front of navel.
Inhale, bringing hands in prayer position to head.
Tuck chin and hold breath as you rub lower back two to five seconds.
Needles for blood pressureAcupuncture so terrified me that it should have made my blood pressure worse.
Yet here I was, having a man perform a task that had the actual wordpuncturein it.
I was willing to try anything to fix it.
I began seeing Jason twice a week.
He adjusted pillows and blankets for me.
He listened to my story and asked after my family.
I swear I could hear a pop as he punctured (yes) my skin.
But the room was warm and cozy.
I’m glad that acupuncture helped my blood pressure.
At that time, in 1996, it felt like a death sentence.
That’s all I wanted to think about.
After my son was born, I had a six-hour surgery to remove my colon.
Surgery was difficult40 percent of my liver was resected.
Doctors offered up chemo but said they honestly didn’t know if it would help.
I told them, ‘I’ve spent too much time in hospitals, away from my son.
I don’t want it.’
Then I met Shane.
He was an incredible athlete who had never smoked yet had lung cancer.
The point is to use your mind to overcome your ‘matter.’
It was calming, while also making me feel present and alert.
The energy 20 people gave off was so positive.
You could feel it!
And it has been for 13 years.
I am cancer-free, and my liver regenerated.
I go in yearly for blood work, and the oncologists says that’s all I need to do.
I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to stay and watch my son grow.
Who knows why people really get better?
When one specialist after another failed to help, my therapist suggested hypnosis.
I sat on her couch, my eyes closed.
“Feel how the couch supports your body,” she intoned.
I felt lighter, as I let the couch, not my muscles, hold me up.
In the same monotone, she instructed me to relax my body.
I imagined a flickering flame as I fell into oblivion.
Yet I could still hear her talking.
About a mental dial I could turn down.
About a word I could choose that, when I said it later, would dull the pain.
After 45 minutes, she counted backward from 10 and I was out of it.
The agony was not gone, but it was dulled.
My therapist told me I could do the same exercise at homeself-hypnosis.
A few antibiotics later, I was well.
I still use self-hypnosis, now and again, when I want to quiet my mind.
I like that awake-falling-asleep feeling.
Feel the soft, pink sand, and listen to the steel drums.
For headaches or joint pain, groove out.
The key is to choose tunes that recall a time when you were happy and free from pain.
“Usually, we listen to music to validate how we feel.
That’s why we play sad songs after a breakup,” Siedlecki says.
Fill outthis cheat sheetto create an ouch-ending playlist.
Photo Credit: Sally Gall/Gallery Stock.
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Tom Belcher/Capital Pictures/AdMedia/Sipa Press.
