Taking Your Mind Off Pain

Struggling with pain? Meditation may help take the edge off.

Researchers at the University of Montreal have discovered that Zen meditation thickens the region of the brain that regulates pain.

“We found a relationship between cortical thickness and pain sensitivity,” says University of Montreal researcher Joshua A. Grant.

For the study, researchers applied a heated plate to the legs of volunteers, half of whom meditated, half who didn’t. There was a difference of about 50 per cent in pain perception between the two. The meditators tolerated more heat before feeling moderate pain.

When volunteers’ brains were scanned using an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine, the regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in the meditators.

As yet Grant is not completely sure why meditation works to reduce pain perception. Perhaps the position used for Zen meditation, which can cause pain in the knees and elsewhere, itself causes a physical change in the brain. Perhaps the mindfulness techniques common to meditation heightens emotional control to reduce dread, thus reducing perception of pain. Or maybe it is a benefit of stress reduction that comes with meditation.

From earlier research, Grant knows pain can also be reduced by slowing down breathing, another common technique used in meditation. “The more they slowed it down, the more pain reduction they reported.”

Everyone—not just pain sufferers—can benefit from thickening of brain matter, says Grant. “With age, our brains atrophy.” The folds in a teenage brain are tight, but “as the brain gets older you can actually even see room sometimes between the folds.”

The good news is we can build up these reserves through meditation. Grant points to recent research showing teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) “can thicken (some areas) of a person’s brain in eight weeks.” U.S. research shows pain relief benefits from training in the technique for only one hour a day over three days.

The Health Canada website www.hc-sc.gc.ca cites MBSR as a tool for coping with chronic pain, and lists several contacts across the country. A web search of MBSR coupled with the name of a province turns up local resources.

Happiness Is A Healthy Heart

The latest prescription for reducing the risk of heart disease is joyful news indeed: allow yourself 15 minutes of guilt-free indulgence in an activity that makes you happy, every single day.

Happy, content, enthusiastic people are less likely to develop heart disease, and the happier you are, the lower the risk, conclude researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York following a 10-year study of 1,739 healthy men and women who participated in the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey.

At the start of the study, participants’ risk of heart disease was assessed as well as negative affect—symptoms of depression, hostility, anxiety—and positive affect—joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm and contentment. Curmudgeons had a 22 per cent higher risk of heart disease than those who were only a little happy, who were themselves at a 22 per cent higher risk than the moderately happy.

Researchers speculate perhaps happier people rest better and are more relaxed, allowing them to recover more quickly from stress. They may also spend less time mentally reliving stressful events.

In this as in so much else in life, consistency and moderation are the keys—we’re apparently better off having a little fun every day than waiting for a vacation, says lead researcher Dr. Karina Davidson, director of the university’s Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health. Whether it’s reading novels, taking a walk or listening to music that improves your mood, spending a few minutes each day to relax and enjoy yourself is good for you.

More research is needed to determine whether negative affect causes or contributes to heart disease or whether there’s another factor involved that’s common to both conditions. Researchers are now trying to determine if increasing positive affect makes any difference in heart disease patients.

It is too early to recommend inter­ventions to help prevent heart disease, say the researchers, but is there really a downside to upping your daily quotient of joy? (We’re talking good, clean fun here folks, not indulgence in risky behaviour.) So enjoy some happiness. It’s good for you.

Exercise May Prevent Arthritis

Here’s another reason to get off the couch and lace up the athletic shoes, especially for women with arthritis: being more active and keeping weight down reduces the limitations on activity that sometimes accompany arthritis.

“We know for sure if you have arthritis, exercise reduces the pain and disability,” says Dr. Elizabeth Badley of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Evidence is also emerging that moderate exercise may prevent arthritis, a leading cause of physical disability and a common—and growing—chronic condition in Canada.

Incidences of arthritis are lower in Canada (16.8 per cent) than the United States (18.7 per cent), particularly among women (19.6 per cent versus 23.3 per cent). Fewer Canadian women (9.2) report limitations due to arthritis than American women (13 per cent). Men’s rates in the two countries are similar (14 per cent with arthritis, six per cent with associated limitations).

A close look at the Joint Canada/United States Survey of Health conducted in 2002-2003 led Badley and co-researcher Hina Ansari to put the difference down to greater obesity and physical inactivity of women south of the border. About 20 per cent of American women are obese compared to Canadian women (11.9 per cent); and 62.3 per cent of women in the U.S. are inactive, compared to 52.2 per cent in Canada. (The differences between men are smaller, 19.6 per cent of U.S. men are obese, compared to 17.8 per cent of Canadian men; 52.4 per cent are inactive in the U.S. compared to 42.8 per cent in Canada).

“Being physically active helps with so many chronic conditions,” says Badley, including heart disease and diabetes. “If you have arthritis, it can help prevent you becoming disabled.”

Badley, who has researching models of care in arthritis for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, recommends walking, elliptical trainers and swimming (especially for heavier people, because it takes weight off the joints).

“Get off that couch,” she says. “And don’t let bad knees be an excuse.” Those in pain can consult their family doctor or an occupational or physical therapist about developing a safe exercise routine. The Arthritis Society has plenty of tips for making exercise a regular part of life. Call the Arthritis Information Line at 1-800-321-1433 or the see the website, www.arthritis.ca.

Email the writer at: writer@legionmagazine.com

Email a letter to the editor at: letters@legionmagazine.com