Mind-body medicine combines approaches from naturopathy and conventional medicine. Some universities already offer this special branch of medicine as a subject. You can find out what exactly is behind it here.
Mind-body medicine focuses on the interaction of psychological and physical aspects. More precisely, it is a form of so-called stress medicine. Many common folk ailments can be triggered or exacerbated by stress. These include, for example sleep disorders or Gastrointestinal complaints.
With certain methods that reduce different types of stress, we can consciously relax and relieve our psyche. This, in turn, can make us feel better physically. However, mind-body medicine is not only used for harmless complaints, but also for cancer and chronic diseases. It occurs in addition to conventional medicine and, if necessary, other naturopathic strategies.
Where does mind-body medicine come from?
The founder of mind-body medicine is the cardiologist Herbert Benson from Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 1982 he studied how the physical characteristics of monks changed during meditation. The results were impressive: after just a few minutes of the so-called Tummo Meditation the body temperature of the monks in their toes and fingers rose by about ten degrees Celsius. Until now, in conventional Western medicine, it was completely unthinkable that we could in any way influence blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature through our will.
Benson then continued research in his newly formed medical field and founded the Mind/Body Medical Institute. In 2001, the Institute’s researchers found out that monks could reduce their oxygen consumption by 60 percent simply through their meditative thoughts, thereby putting themselves into a kind of hibernation. Others were able to drastically slow down their breathing rate and then breathe once every 90 seconds with no problem. Against this background, it could hardly be disputed that the psyche and body are strongly connected.
Mind-Body Medicine: Scientific Background
(Photo: CC0 / Pixabay / rauschenberger)
How exactly the interaction between psyche and body works has not been finally clarified to this day. According to the medical journal, she could be on the placebo-Mechanism based. Because this in turn is based on the principle of self-regulation and causes us to believe in our healing. So we have positive expectations. This attitude can trigger changes in our brain center.
In this regard, Benson speaks of the “relaxation response”. This response reaction of our body triggers a deep relaxation and activates our parasympathetic nervous system. This is responsible for bodily functions that promote regeneration and replenish our energy stores.
The relaxation response can, for example, cause our blood pressure and the amount of the stress hormone to increase cortisol in our body decreases. Heart and breathing rates can also slow down and brain activity can calm down again, according to the medical journal. The relaxation response is, so to speak, the counterpart to the so-called “flight-or-fight response”, which our body is also capable of.
Our sympathetic system is used for the flight-or-fight response. It gives the body the signal that we are in imminent danger and triggers, among other things, that our blood pressure rises, our heart beats faster and our breathing rate increases. All of this would allow us to flee or fight from a situation as quickly as possible. Today we often experience this effect in particularly stressful situations in everyday life. In the long term, according to Psychology Today, this can lead to a range of ailments such as headache, breathing problems or heart palpitations. The Relaxation Response, on the other hand, calms our body down again and thus promotes healthy sleep and prevents diseases such as cardiovascular diseases or anxiety disorders.
Methods for Relaxation Response
A number of relaxation and mindfulness techniques are used in mind-body medicine. These include, for example, meditation MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), but also that learning empathy and self-compassion. Some clinics already offer mind-body medicine. These are aimed, for example, at chronically ill or cancer patients, but also at people who suffer from harmless complaints.
In order to prevent stress and trigger the relaxation response in your body, you can also regularly carry out appropriate exercises at home. For more information and guidance on relaxation and mindfulness methods, see these articles:
- Progressive muscle relaxation (PME)
- autogenic training
- learn to meditate
- mindfulness training
- breathing exercises
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