Meditation weapon against
loneliness
Unpleasant though it may
be, feeling lonely does not just affect a person’s state of mind – it can also
manifest itself physically, and has been linked to cardiovascular disease,
Alzheimer’s disease and depression.
Recently a research team
from the University of California, Los Angeles, reported that an eight-week
mindfulness-based meditation program decreased loneliness in older people, a
group in whom the problem of loneliness is particularly prevalent. They also
discovered that the meditation process decreased expression of inflammatory
genes which can stimulate disease.
Study author Steve Cole, a
UCLA professor of medicine and psychiatry and a member of the Norman Cousins
Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA, said ‘Our work presents the first
evidence showing that a psychological intervention that decreases loneliness
also reduces pro-inflammatory gene expression. If this is borne out by further
research, MBSR could be a valuable tool to improve the quality of life for many
elderly.’
Source: Brain, Behavior
and Immunity
Working out eases
depression in heart patients
A year-long study by US
researchers has found that exercise has the power to partially alleviate
feelings of depression in people suffering chronic heart failure, a condition
caused by poor blood flow which can lead to breathlessness, fatigue and fluid
build-up in the lungs. Patients suffering this condition also have high levels
of depression, of around 40 per cent.
The team, led by James
Blumenthal of Duke University Medical Center, placed 2,300 patients into one of
two groups. The first group received education and the usual care for their
condition for the duration of the study. The second group participated in
supervised aerobic physical activity for 90 minutes per week for the initial
three months, followed by 120 minutes per week of exercise in their own homes
for the following nine months.
Although the overall
reduction in depression among the exercise group was small, the researchers
noted that those study participants who adhered most strictly to the workout
regime exhibited the greatest reduction in depressive symptoms.
A higher level of
depression in heart failure patients was also linked by the study team to a
more than 20 per cent increased risk of all-cause death and hospitalisation.
Source: Journal of the
American Medical Association
It sounds
counterintuitive, but new research from the US has found that red wine – or
rather resveratrol, a compound found in red wine – may have the power to
improve mobility in older people.
Study leader Jane
Cavanaugh, PhD, and her colleagues from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh fed
the compound – which has previously been linked to lowered cholesterol, reduced
risk of heart disease and some cancers, reduced inflammation and anti-ageing –
to young and old mice for an eight-week period. Throughout the study the mice
were tested for their balance skills. By week eight the older mice, which had
initially exhibited a higher percentage of errors, displayed balance skills on
a par with the younger mice.
Cavanaugh said ‘Our study
suggests that a natural compound like resveratrol, which can be obtained either
through dietary supplementation or diet itself, could actually decrease some of
the motor deficiencies that are seen in our ageing population. And that would,
therefore, increase an ageing person's quality of life and decrease their risk
of hospitalisation due to slips and falls.’
A problem, however, is
that due to its poor absorption by the body, a person would have to drink
several hundred glasses of red wine each day in order to obtain any health benefits.
The researchers theorised that a man-made compound that mimics the effects of
resveratrol but which is more bioavailable (easily absorbed by the body) could
potentially be used to create a medication to help older people decrease their
risk of injury through falls.
Source: Medical News Today
Weights may decrease risk
of diabetes
While a link between
aerobic exercise and lowered risk of type 2 diabetes has been long established,
recent research has found that resistance training may also achieve the same health
benefit.
In the study of over
30,000 men by teams from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the
University of Southern Denmark, men who weight trained daily for half an hour
reduced their potential diabetes risk by up to 34 per cent. By combining
resistance training with aerobic exercise, this reduction of risk increased to
59 per cent.
Lead author Anders
Grøntved noted the importance of the finding for those who struggle to muster
the enthusiasm for participating in group exercise. Attributing the findings to
the increased muscle mass and improved insulin sensitivity brought about
through resistance training, senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and
epidemiology at HSPH, said ‘This study provides clear evidence that weight training
has beneficial effects on diabetes risk over and above aerobic exercise.’
‘To achieve the best
results for diabetes prevention, resistance training can be incorporated with
aerobic exercise’ Hu concluded.
Source: Archives of
Internal Medicine
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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