More and more studies confirm that people are stressed out. One of the most popular complaints at the physician’s office, stress has become the topic of daily conversations. Fortunately, there are ways to alleviate stress to increase productivity while feeling good instead of burnt out.

 

Mind–body medicine (MBM) is classified as one of the five domains of complementary and alternative medicine by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. It is the study of how the mind affects the body, both positively and 

negatively.

 

Positive effects, such as the placebo effect, have been widely discussed and used throughout scientific studies to understand the power of mind over various physiological responses in the body. Negative effects, such as the lesser known nocebo effect, occur when feelings such as doubt and fear produce harmful physiological effects. MBM has been around for ages, ranging from ancient traditional healing practices to forms of martial arts and movement techniques. With new evidence and attention to this discipline, however, treatment is now being revived to integrate healthy choices in both mind and body, including nutrition and medication techniques. 

 

Prominent scientists and major institutions are exploring techniques to bring more holistic approaches to medicine in tackling the many chronic diseases that ail our society. Why all the hype? Well, because the approaches work.

 

A January 6 JAMA article by researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine noted that mindfulness meditation may be just as successful as some antidepressants in reducing anxiety and depression. Numerous other studies have pointed to the benefits of meditation, showing that a state of deep relaxation has a positive effect on heart rate, blood pressure, stress response, anxiety, diabetes, and other conditions. 

 

Herbert Benson, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute, defines the relaxation response as “a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotion responses to stress … and the opposite of the fight or flight response.” There are many ways to evoke the relaxation response, including familiar practices such as yoga, meditation, prayer, and tai chi. Overall, techniques that involve meditation and yoga, however you practice them, can help reduce stress, improve your coping mechanisms, and even improve agility.

 

Tension and stress are part of life and will always be present in some manner. As one of my yoga teachers reminds us about tension, “Too much will kill you, and not enough means you’re dead.” All practices involving breathing techniques and movement require “work,” but it’s the type of work that produces 

positive stress to help your body optimize its performance. When negative stress becomes chronic, however, it can negatively affect how your bodies and minds perform and can lead to illness, including depression, anxiety, hypertension, chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, and even cognitive decline. 

 

In my Introduction to Alternative Medicine course, I start and end class with various breathing techniques that students may find handy in times of stress. As funny and strange as some of these breathing techniques may be, I repeatedly hear from students that they use them, albeit sometimes secretly, to help relieve stress well after the semester is over.

 

Check out your university for free yoga or meditation classes for students. Try classes that offer discounts, especially for first-timers, so you can assess the feel of a studio and its teachers. It helps to be in a class or community, but if you find solace in individual practice, don’t shy away from trying some meditation on your own. You can find steps to elicit the relaxation response at http://relaxationresponse.org/steps. 

 

No matter where you go for your 1st or 10th class, I caution you to listen to your body and take it easy. As with all yoga classes, make sure you are well-hydrated, and pay careful attention to poses you have never tried or areas of your body that need more attention than others. 

 

Whether you remember the left nostril breathing technique the babysitter taught the kid to calm down (yes, it works) or the rapid breathing taught by a teacher in Brazil to the Incredible Hulk (yes, that works too), you will find that meditation, yoga, and various other activities have somehow found their way into our mainstream culture. Many documentaries and retreats later, one thing is clear: there seems to be something to this yoga and meditation thing.