Tag Archives: Health

Behavioral Science, Culture, mental health

Zen meditation helps to cope with depression and anxiety

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Zen meditation is a ancient Buddhist tradition that dates back to your Tang Dynasty in 7th century People’s Republic of China. From the Chinese root it extended to Korea, Japan as well as other Asian countries where it continues to thrive. The Japanese expression “Zen” is actually a derivative of the Chinese term Ch’an, itself a interlingual rendition regarding the Indian term dhyana, which implies focus or meditation.

Zen meditation is a ancient Buddhist discipline which could be practiced by new and experienced meditators alike. One of the many benefits of Zen meditation is the fact that it provides insight into the way the mind works. Just like other forms of Buddhistic meditation, Zen exercise could benefit individuals in countless ways, including providing resources to simply help cope one’s depression and anxiety problems. The greatest function is spiritual, because the practice of Zen meditation reveals the inherent understanding as well as workability of the mind. In Zen, having to deal with this authentic nature of mind is experiencing awareness.

For Zen Buddhists, meditation requires monitoring and letting go all the thoughts and feelings that arise within the mindstream, as well as building insight into the nature of body and mind. Unlike numerous popular forms of meditation which focus on relaxation and stress reduction, Zen meditation delves much deeper. Zen tackles deep-seated issues and basic life concerns that often appear to lack responses, also it does so dependent on practice and pure intuition instead than study and logic. Zen/Ch’an was famously characterized because of the great Buddhistic professional Bodhidharma as “A unique transmission beyond your instruction; not founded on words and letters; directly pointing to your human heartmind; seeing nature and becoming a Buddha.

All schools of Zen practice the sitting meditation called zazen where one sits upright and follows the breath, especially the movement associated with breath inside the belly. Some schools of Zen also practice with koans, a kind of spiritual riddle this is certainly presented by a Zen meditation master to your student, to assist them to overcome their rational limitations to be able to glimpse the facts beyond rationality. A famous koan is “What could be the sound of 1 hand clapping?” Traditionally, this practice requires a supportive connection between a genuine Zen master and a genuinely dedicated student.

As opposed to offering temporary solutions to life’s problems, Zen and other kinds of Buddhist meditation look to address core issues. The practice points into the true reason for the unhappiness and dissatisfaction we’ve all experienced and shifts our focus in a way that brings about true understanding.

The real key to happiness and well-being is not wealth or fame – it lies within us. As with any other genuine spiritual paths, Buddhism teaches that the more you give to others, the more you will get. In addition encourages awareness of interconnectedness and appreciation of all of the little gifts that life offers us, all contained through this present moment. As our concern and compassion for others expands, our personal fulfillment gradually increases in sync. As a Zen master might say, if you seek inner peace you won’t have the ability to think it is, however the act of giving within the concept of such a reward in itself – and focusing instead on others’ happiness – creates the alternative for lasting peace. That is truly the spiritual dimension of Zen.

On the everyday level, Zen trains your head to accomplish calmness. Meditators can also reflect with better focus and more creativity. Improved physical health is yet another benefit: individuals who practice zazen report lower blood pressure, reduced anxiety and stress, better immune systems, more restorative sleep, and other improvements.

Behavioral Science, disease, Health

Childhood stress affects the brain when one becomes an adult

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The human brain is a phenomenal body organ. It is responsible for ideas and emotions. It tells one’s muscles to move. It even can increase or decrease depending on what is occurring in ones setting. Now a brand new study discovers that going through severe instances as a kid also could have an influence. That stress can change the shape and shape of the human brain.

The adult brains of men and women who survived through lots of stress before the age of six — and then became despondent or anxious as young adults — were different than about older people who had a more carefree childhood. It seems that teens changed the shape of their brains by internalizing the pressures experienced years earlier — replaying those events in the head and keeping inside the emotions they induced.

Scientists already knew that the form and size of a child’s human brain could alter in responses to lots of stress. They also realized that adults were more likely to be depressed if, as children, they had been mistreated, was living in impoverishment, or faced other difficult times. Some scientific studies showed that these types of despondent adults had uncommon modifications in their brain contour. However, no one had tested whether the very early stress and later brain changes had been connected.

Behavioral Science, Culture, Health

Climate change pose a huge risk to children’s mental health

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Understanding about all the approaches that climate change is impacting the planet can feel complicated. No part of the world has been left unblemished. Moreover, many people have been — and will be — damaged by the effects of rising greenhouse gases. Many of those effects may harm the bodily health of people, such as aggravating asthma or cardiovascular disease. However, climate change may be adverse for psychological well being as well. Moreover, children and teens are especially at risk, researchers now document.

Climate change affects individuals in many ways. Direct influences can hit very hard. Overwhelming weather and sea-level rise can destroy houses and real estate. People could suffer bodily damage from overwhelming events as well. Even when someone does not have these losses, they may worry in regards to what could happen in the foreseeable future. Depression, anxiety, post-trauma tension, sleep conditions, and other dilemmas can influence.

The brains of young children and teens happen to be still growing and growing. Those flourishing brains make young people particularly vulnerable to environmental stressors. Youths, in that case, have filed a claim against the United States federal government for failing to take action on environment change.

How Earth’s climate has been morphing could effortlessly disrupt “normal” life. For example, wildfires last year obliterated the town of Paradise, Calif. Kids and teenagers lost not only their homes but also their educational institutions. Many had to move away from their home town and friends. Young people may have had trouble coping with such new circumstances, not to mention missed school daily and dealing with their roller-coaster feelings.

However, environmental change can pose a danger to psychological wellness, even with no direct physical threat. Children and teens tend to be generally more possible to recognize the scientific consensus — broad agreement — regarding humankind’s role in environmental change. Many children also worry about how the effects of climate change are expected only to worsen.

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Improved vaccinations against sexually transmitted infections

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In a research study published today when looking at the Nature Communications, researchers from King’s College London have shown how skin vaccination can generate protective CD8 T-cells which can be recruited into the genital tissues and might be used as a vaccination technique for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

One of the challenges in developing vaccines for STIs, such for instance HIV or herpes simplex virus, is understanding how to attract specialized immune cells, called CD8 T-cells, to take up residence within the main body where in actuality the virus first enters. These cells have to be in position, armed and ready to provide an immediate protective immune defense, instead of waiting for immune cells when you look at the blood to enter the tissues which take some time.

Before this study, it was thought that vaccines ideally must be delivered straight to your body surface (e.g., female genital tissue) where the infection might start, so that the immune system can generate these CD8 T-cells, travel back to the vaccination site and eliminate any future virus this is undoubtedly encountered. However, delivering vaccines right to the sensitive genital tissue is neither patient-friendly nor efficient.

Now the team from King’s have discovered that their vaccination strategy marshals a platoon of immune cells, called innate lymphoid cells (ILC1) and monocytes, when you look at the genital tissues to your workplace together and release chemicals (chemokines) to send out a call to the CD8 T-cells generated by the vaccine to troop to the genital tissue.

This research builds in the team’s earlier work to develop skin vaccination techniques using a dis-solvable micro-needle vaccine patch that when placed from the skin dissolves and releases the vaccine without requiring a hypodermic needle injection and generates immune responses.

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Did you know that genetically engineered immune cells fight off deadly virus in mice?

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Researchers may have demonstrated a novel way to safeguard us from some of the world’s deadliest viruses. By genetically engineering immune cells, which will make more effective antibodies, they usually have defended mice from a potentially lethal lung virus. Precisely the same strategy can work in humans against diseases, which are why there are not any vaccines. Though, vaccines typically contain a disabled microbial invader or shards of their molecules. They stimulate immune cells known as B cells to crank out antibodies that target the pathogen. Not every person who receives a vaccine gains protection, however. Some patients’ antibodies are not up to snuff, for example. Moreover, researchers have not been able to develop vaccines against some microbes, such for example HIV additionally the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that causes lung infections mainly in children and folks with impaired immune systems.

To find out whether transplanting the modified cells could prevent infections, the scientists injected the genetically engineered B cells or control cells into mice and then exposed the animals to RSV. Five days later, the lungs of this control mice teemed utilizing the virus. However, the lungs of mice that had received the engineered cells contained almost no RSV, the researchers report today in Science Immunology. As soon as the researchers injected the modified B cells into mice with defective immune systems—a common problem in bone marrow recipients, who will be prone to RSV—the rodents could fight off the virus 82 days later.

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Did you know that dangerous pathogens use sophisticated machinery to infect hosts?

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Gastric cancer, Q fever, Legionnaires’ disease, whooping cough—through the infectious bacteria that can cause these dangerous diseases are each different, each of them utilize the same molecular machinery to infect human cells. Bacteria make use of this machinery, called a Type IV secretion system (T4SS), to inject toxic molecules into cells and also to spread genes for antibiotic resistance to fellow bacteria. Now, researchers at Caltech have revealed the 3-D molecular architecture for the T4SS from the human pathogen Legionella pneumophila with unprecedented details. This might, in the foreseeable future, enable the growth of precisely targeted antibiotics for the diseases above.

There are nine different types of bacterial secretion systems, Type IV being the absolute most elaborate and versatile. A T4SS can ferry a multitude of toxic molecules—up to 300 at once—from a bacterium into its cellular victim, hijacking cellular functionality and overpowering the cell’s defenses.

Current antibiotics act broadly and wipe out bacteria through the body, including the beneficial microorganisms that are now living in our gut. As time goes by, antibiotics might be designed to block just the toxin delivery systems (including the T4SS) of harmful pathogens, rendering the bacteria inert and benign with no perturbing the body’s so-called “good bacteria.”

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Watch for Tick, they spread disease

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Sometimes, particularly harsh winter will put a dent in Minnesota’s deer tick population. Think about it as nature’s way of rewarding humanity after a long, cold winter. Only deer ticks transmit Lyme disease.

Cold weather only kills ticks if they are confronted with the frigid air.

Ticks were insulated under a thick blanket of snow this winter, and so the bitter cold did not reach them.

The Health Department urges individuals who spend some time in brushy or wooded areas to safeguard themselves from ticks through the use of repellents which contain DEET, the same ingredient that wards off mosquitoes.

Much more useful are products that contain permethrin. However, Regular tick checks will also be recommended. One tip for locating the tiny deer ticks is always to step into the sunlight and look for reflections away from their backs.

Read more at: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/05/17/did-the-frigid-winter-take-a-toll-on-ticks

Behavioral Science, Culture, Health, mental health

Do you know your authentic-self?

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Authentic people respond to their intrinsic motives. They exercise autonomy, dismiss introjected regulations, and choose one of the extrinsic motives accessible to them. Their thoughts, beliefs, words, and actions originate deep from within and therefore, are accurate and secure enough to resist negative external pressures. The result is an authentic, quiet, deep, vitalizing, serene, and lasting fulfillment and confidence without anxiety, self-doubt, or other types of stress.

Authentic people choose authentic alternatives. These generally include wisdom, true beliefs, valid conclusions, purposeful actions, candor, trust, placing needs in front of wants, knowing when they have enough, balancing gratification with hedonism, quick actions, treating others humanely, and establishing balanced relationships. We become authentic when the path we choose through life is congruent with who we are.

The alignment is essential to an authentic person. Actions aligned together with one’s authentic self are authentic behaviors. Actions misaligned with one’s authentic self are alien, false, fake, pretentious, aggravating, insincere, deceptive, tense, bogus, fake, and never authentic. This will be typical of an individual who is misaligned, off balance, exhausted, estranged, separated, and faking it. When everything one does is fully aligned with who one is, the person will be an authentic person. Authentic people “do who they are” and enjoy gratification, peacefulness, achievements, and worth. Authentic people act with an increase of interest, pleasure, and self-esteem and sometimes demonstrate better efficiency, perseverance, creativeness, vitality, self-esteem, and general well-being. Authenticity decreases worry, stress, shame, and embarrassment.

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Psoriatic Arthritis can be painful

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For those of you struggling with psoriasis, a severe condition of your skin there exists the potential to develop psoriatic arthritis. While no cure exists with this condition, it is imperative that the main focus stick to signs and symptoms and exactly how to avoid problems for the joints. With no treatment and a consignment to frequent exercise, psoriatic arthritis could be debilitating.

Although people with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis may recognize periods of remission or instances when their symptoms seem to improve, both diseases are chronic and tend to worsen over time. Frequently, both the skin and also the joint issues can appear and disappear simultaneously.

Among the list of main outward indications of psoriatic arthritis are joint pain, stiffness, and swelling. These problems can affect any area of the body, even the fingertips, and the spine. They can range in degree from mild to severe. If you are experiencing psoriatic arthritis, you might notice pain when you look at the affected joints or swollen, warm-to-the-touch joints.

Read more at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322632.php

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What do you know about Hepatitis C?

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When you have hep C, you are not alone—about 3.4 million people are living with hep C in the United States. Hep C is a disease caused by a virus that infects the liver. A hep C infection can result in inflammation of this liver and result in the disease fighting capability to attack healthy liver cells. It could be spread through blood-to-blood contact or when the blood from a person with hep C comes into connection with another person’s blood.

Hepatitis C may be a silent disease, and therefore, people can have it although not have noticeable symptoms—approximately 70%–80% of people with acute hepatitis C do not have any symptoms. Many people, however, might have mild to severe symptoms soon after being infected.

As many individuals do not have any symptoms, they could not understand that they have hepatitis C, and therefore, do not seek treatment. Signs and symptoms of chronic hep C might take years to develop. During this time, the infected person can spread the virus to others.

Read more at: https://www.mavyret.com/about-hep-c?cid=ppc_ppd_msft_HCV_BV_2019_hepatitis_c_Exact_USVHCV190058&msclkid=99b5050589cf1a34303159db60324ba8