Can a stroll help ease depression? That question preoccupied Dr. Madhukar H. Trivedi, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, after several of his patients, all suffering from serious depression, mentioned that they felt happier if they went for a walk. The patients in question were taking the widely prescribed antidepressants known as S.S.R.I.’s, for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, but not responding fully. They remained, by clinical standards, depressed. Dr. Trivedi and his colleagues began to wonder if adding a formal “dose” of exercise would increase their chances of getting better.
Certainly the possibility was worth investigating. Clinical depression, as anyone who has experienced or watched a loved one struggle with the condition knows, can be stubbornly intractable. Even if patients have been taking an antidepressant for months, recovery rates tend to hover below 50 percent.
In order to increase the odds of improvement, doctors frequently add a second treatment — often another drug, like lithium or an antipsychotic — to the S.S.R.I. regimen at some point, Dr. Trivedi said. Most patients ultimately require at least two concurrent treatments to achieve remission of their depression, he said. Studies have shown that these secondary drug treatments help an additional 20 to 30 percent of depressed patients to improve, but the medications can be expensive and have unpleasant side effects.
Which prompted Dr. Trivedi to look to exercise. His investigation joins a growing movement among some physiologists and doctors to consider and study exercise as a formal medicine, with patients given a prescription and their progress monitored, as it would be if they were prescribed a pill.
- read the full article at New York Times
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I personally feel that by over-working my abs from January to June 2011, I ended up causing disk damage to my spine. To the tune of over a $1000 in medical expenses for visits to Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, Doctors and for an MRI. I understand why my disks were looking so bad! Now I’m taking a break from crunches/core exercises and focusing on lengthening my spine, doing exercises to build my lower back, decompression and other great therapies. Read the article below for more information:
For a study published this year, researchers at Indiana State University had a group of healthy, young adults squat, lunge, twist, crunch and hold a rigid plank position to measure the hardiness of their back, abdominal and side muscles, the area generally known as the core. The same volunteers then completed a battery of physical performance tests, including leaping off the ground while tossing a medicine ball backward over the head and sprinting through a short obstacle course.
The researchers had expected that the volunteers with the sturdiest cores would outshine the others on the tests of physical performance. But they did not. There was little correlation in this study between robust core muscles and athleticism. Despite the emphasis that many coaches, trainers and athletes themselves place on “core training for increased performance,” the authors write, “our results suggest otherwise” — and in the process raise some intriguing questions about just how core strength affects fitness and whether a rippling abdomen, while attractive, is worth the effort.
The role of the core in physical performance has been a topic of considerable interest and controversy among sports scientists, as well as coaches and trainers, for years. Most of us think that a taut midsection, achieved usually by multiple crunches and perhaps some medicine-ball exercises and side planks, will make us not just less self-conscious in our swimsuits but also better athletes.
Read the rest of this article at the NY Times
Another article to read: http://journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Abstract/2011/08000/To_Crunch_or_Not_to_Crunch__An_Evidence_Based.2.aspx
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People who overtax their self-control may find they have less in reserve for later, suggests an intriguing new study that may have implications for people trying to lose weight or make other behavioral changes.
But lack of sleep does not appear to affect self-control, say the researchers, whose study of 58 subjects is in the March issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. (more…)
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Neuro-Associative Conditioning or NAC is a science developed by Anthony Robbins, author of “Unlimited Power”, “Awaken the Giant Within” and the “Personal Power” tape series, from the foundations of Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP which was developed by Richard Bandler and Dr. John Grinder in their effort to model communication strategies of effective therapists.
This system was based upon Korzybski’s work of general semantics stating that a person’s experience is not reality but a representation of it (“The map is not the territory”).
NLP is also based upon the primary psychology and language strategies utilized by Dr. Milton Erickson to shift the internal representations and therefore, the experience and the behaviors of patients.
The science of Neuro-Associative Conditioning is a system that describes the process of change in human beings and is based upon the premise that there are two determining reasons for human behavior: 1) the need to avoid pain and/or 2) the desire to gain pleasure.
In order for the brain to efficiently evaluate how to rapidly accomplish these two tasks, you must create neuro-associations (associations within the nervous system) that are used to instantly determine the meaning (pain/pleasure) of situations, people, things, sounds, emotions, etc. These neuro-associations are the directing force of all human behavior. (more…)
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Pool Therapy Exercise Techniques
• Knee-to-chest exercise. This movement is performed while standing on one leg, which is slightly bent, and one leg outstretched in front while one hand holds onto the side of the pool. It strengthens and stretches the muscles in the leg, hip and lower back.
• Leg raise exercise. This movement is performed with one leg outstretched and the supporting leg slightly bent while one hand holds onto the side of the pool. It strengthens and stretches the muscles in the leg, hip and lower back.
• Wall-facing leg stretch exercise. In this stretching exercise individuals assume a “Superman” position with hands resting on side of pool and the body and legs outstretched into and supported by water. This extends all regions of the back and the joints in the back, as well as stretching shoulder muscles.
• Pool walking exercise. Walking both forward and backward in chest-high water works the leg muscles while exerting no impact of the knees or hips, which is particularly important for people who have arthritis in those joints. The walking exercise can be made more demanding with the addition of hand floats or light weights, so a stroll in the pool becomes an aquatic version of power walking.
• Quadruped activity and exercise. This exercise works legs and arms and is performed while floating on one’s back (sometimes achieved with a therapist supporting the trunk or using a flotation jacket). The individual makes paddling motions with his or her arms and legs.
Spa treatments complementing water therapy for back pain typically involve relaxing in warm, agitated water such as that found in whirlpool baths. This form of hydrotherapy relaxes muscles, improves muscle blood flow and increases general blood circulation, which make the body more flexible and can prepare it for water therapy or land-based exercise. (more…)
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