Meditation shapes brains

via derek bownds Luders and her colleagues (PDF here) have examined 44 people — 22 control subjects and 22 who had practiced various forms of meditation, including Zazen, Samatha and Vipassana, among others. The amount of time they had practiced ranged from five to 46 years, with an average of 24 years. More than half of all the meditators said that deep concentration was an essential part of their practice, and most meditated between 10 and 90 minutes every day. The MRI measurements found significantly larger cerebral measurements in meditators compared with controls: larger volumes of the right hippocampus and increased gray matter in the right orbito-frontal cortex, the right thalamus and the left inferior temporal lobe. Increases in the left and right anterior dorsal insula - which is a hub for internal autonomic, affective, and cognitive integration - were most pronounced. There were no regions where controls had significantly larger volumes or more gray matter than meditators. The enlarged brain areas are linked to emotions, making one wonder whether this reflects the increased 'emotional muscles' of meditators,i.e. their ability to regulate their emotions. Cortical Surface Shown is the lateral view of the right cortical surface. The red circle indicates where the maximum effect occurred. Top: Larger gyrification in 50 long-term meditators compared to 50 well-matched controls. Bottom: Positive correlations between gyrification and the number of meditation years within the 50 meditators. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Los Angeles)

Impulsivity study

A new study lead by the Neuroscience Institute of Alicante reveals how manipulating the endocannabinoid system can modulate high levels of impulsivity. This is the main problem in psychiatric illnesses such a schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and substance abuse. Spanish researchers have for the first time proved that the CB2 receptor, which has modulating functions in the nervous system, is involved in regulating impulsive behaviour. “Such a result proves the relevance that manipulation of the endocannabinoid system can have in modulating high levels of impulsivity present in a wide range of psychiatric and neurological illness,” explains SINC Jorge Manzanares Robles, a scientist at the Alicante Neuroscience Institute and director of the study. Carried out on mice, the study suggests the possibility of undertaking future clinical trials using drugs that selectively act on the CB2 and thus avoid the psychoactive effects deriving from receptor CB1 manipulation, whose role in impulsivity has already been proven. However, the authors of the study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology remain cautious. Francisco Navarrete, lead author of the study, states that “it is still very early to be able to put forward a reliable therapeutic tool.” The study assessed the actions of two cannabinoid drugs that stimulate and block CB2 in the mouse strain showing high levels of impulsivity. The scientists then analysed whether these drugs were capable of modulating impulsive behaviour and the cerebral modifications associated with this change in behaviour. The authors concluded that CB2 receptor activity modulation reduced impulsive behaviour in mice, depending on the patterns that governed the administration of each drug. Furthermore, the genetic expression levels of CB2 tended to return to normal, leaning towards strains that had little impulsivity. The Endocannabinoid System The Endocannabinoid System mainly comprises two receptors (CB1 and CB2), two endogenous ligands and two metabolism enzymes. It regulates many aspects of embryonic development and is involved in many homeostatic mechanisms. Although it was thought that CB2 only regulates immune response on a peripheral level, a study published in the Science journal in 2005 showed that it was found in the brain under normal conditions. Since then many authors have linked it to the regulation of emotional behaviour and cognitive functions. For example, the same group of Spanish researchers has contributed greatly in applying this receptor in regulating anxiety and depression. Furthermore, others studies have demonstrated how their altered role is linked to increased chances of becoming depressed or anxious or taking drugs. Virtue or defect? Impulsivity is a personality trait characterised by behavioural actions that lack forethought or in which the subsequent consequences are not considered. The authors outline that this is “a normal behaviour that allows us as human beings to adapt to our surroundings under certain circumstances that require an immediate reaction.” Nonetheless, such behaviour can cause a disproportionate response and lead to a pathological state. There a multitude of psychiatric illness that are characterised by a high level of impulsivity. One of these includes substance abuse, which is extremely problematic for society in general.

Personality Change a Key to Wellbeing

People’s personalities can change considerably over time, say scientists, suggesting that leopards really can change their spots. Psychologists from The University of Manchester and London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) also showed that small positive personality changes may lead to greater increases in happiness than earning more money, marrying, or gaining employment. The study, published in the journal Social Indicators Research, should be of interest to British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has suggested that a measure of the nation’s ‘happiness’ was a better guide to how the country was performing than Gross Domestic Product (GDP) alone. Lead author Dr Chris Boyce, from the University of Manchester’s School of Psychological Sciences, said: “We found that our personalities can and do change over time – something that was considered improbable until now – and that these personality changes are strongly related to changes in our wellbeing. “Compared with external factors, such as a pay rise, getting married or finding employment, personality change is just as likely and contributes much more to improvements in our personal wellbeing.” Previous studies have shown that personality accounts for up to 35% of individual differences in life satisfaction, compared to just 4% for income, 4% for employment status and between 1% and 4% for marital status. However, because it was believed our personalities were fixed, policies to improve wellbeing have focused on these lower-impacting external factors. Dr Boyce said: “Our research suggests that governments could measure ‘national personality’; for example, whether the population is becoming more extroverted, conscientious, open to experience, and agreeable, and how this links to national events. “Fostering the conditions where personality growth occurs – such as through positive schooling, communities, and parenting – may be a more effective way of improving national wellbeing than GDP growth.” Dr Boyce, with Manchester colleague Dr Alex Wood and the LSE’s Dr Nick Powdthavee, used a large data set of 7,500 individuals from Australia who had answered questions on their life satisfaction and personality at two time points four years apart. Personality was measured using a well-validated personality questionnaire assessing five broad dimensions which cover the breadth of a person’s personality: openness-to-experiences, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The researchers then looked at the extent to which personality changed and how these changes related to life satisfaction in comparison to external factors, such as changes to income, changes to employment and changes to marital status. They found that personality changes at least as much as these external factors and predicted about twice as much of changes to life satisfaction over the study period. Dr Boyce added: “The focus of many wellbeing studies in economics is on how changes to our circumstances, such as a higher income, getting married or a different job might influence our wellbeing. The influence of our personality is often ignored in these types of studies in the belief that our personality can’t or doesn’t change. We show that personality can and does change and, not only is it more likely to change than an income increase, it contributes much more to changes in our wellbeing. “Our research suggests that by focusing on who we are and how we relate to the world around us has the potential to unlock vast improvements in our wellbeing. The findings have implications for wellbeing policy – something the Prime Minister has talked about in the past – and how best to help individuals and nations improve their outlook on life.”

Yoga Helps for Stress

by researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), New York Medical College (NYMC), and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons (CCPS) reviews evidence that yoga may be effective in treating patients with stress-related psychological and medical conditions such as depression, anxiety, high blood pressure and cardiac disease. Their theory, which currently appears online in Medical Hypotheses, could be used to develop specific mind-body practices for the prevention and treatment of these conditions in conjunction with standard treatments. It is hypothesized that stress causes an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system (parasympathetic under-activity and sympathetic over-activity) as well as under-activity of the inhibitory neurotransmitter, gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA). Low GABA activity occurs in anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, epilepsy, and chronic pain. According to the researchers, the hypothesis advanced in this paper could explain why vagal verve stimulation (VNS) works to decrease both seizure frequency and the symptoms of depression. “Western and Eastern medicine complement one another. Yoga is known to improve stress-related nervous system imbalances,” said Chris Streeter, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at BUSM and Boston Medical Center, who is the study’s lead author. Streeter believes that “This paper provides a theory, based on neurophysiology and neuroanatomy, to understand how yoga helps patients feel better by relieving symptoms in many common disorders.” An earlier study by BUSM researchers comparing a walking group and a yoga group over a 12-week period found no increase in GABA levels in the walking group, whereas the yoga group showed increased GABA levels and decreased anxiety. In another BUSM 12-week study, patients with chronic low back pain responded to a yoga intervention with increased GABA levels and significant reduction in pain compared to a group receiving standard care alone. In crafting this neurophysiological theory of how yoga affects the nervous system, Streeter collaborated with Patricia Gerbarg, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at NYMC, Domenic A. Ciraulo, MD, chairman of psychiatry at BUSM, Robert Saper, MD MPH, associate professor of family medicine at BUSM, and Richard P. Brown, MD, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at CCPS. They are beginning test these theories by incorporating mind-body therapies such as yoga in their clinical studies of a wide range of stress-related medical and psychological conditions.

Pilot Study in Schizophrenia

Tue Mar 6, 2012 17:39 from RSS 2.0 by Chandler Chicco Agency People with schizophrenia report improved functioning after participating in a new, evidence-based clinical program, according to results announced today from a six-month pilot. The program, Advancing Standards of Care for People with Schizophrenia, was spearheaded by the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (National Council) and administered at 10 community behavioral health organizations across the country. The program significantly improved communication, social interaction and coping skills for persons recovering from schizophrenia. “Although society’s understanding of schizophrenia has progressed over the decades, we can do more to help people with the illness recover,” said Linda Rosenberg, President and CEO of the National Council. “This program promotes practitioner and consumer partnerships. Together they measure progress and reinforce what works. It’s a true step forward for people with schizophrenia and the organizations that serve them.” The program revolved around two evidence-based tools: a group curriculum to help adults better understand and self-manage their mental health condition; and a functional assessment tool, which tracks a person’s ability to independently carry out everyday tasks. The tools encourage participants to take control of their mental illness, discuss it with others, and monitor progress. Participants said they found this helpful in addressing the misconceptions others may have about them. According to one 49-year-old treated at Hill Country Mental Health in Kerrville, Texas, participating in the program gave her confidence to face her diagnosis and fears.”I was frightened, isolated and sometimes in denial about my illness,” she said. “After participating in this program, I’m much more confident discussing things openly with my mental health provider and even sharing what I’ve learned with people around me.” Health care providers that participated in the program said that the measurement tool gave them accurate and reliable data that supported increased transparency and accountability. “We are all adapting to health care system changes that recognize the value of care over volume of care,” said Linda Werlein, CEO of Hill Country Mental Health. “This program provided both an effective curriculum, and a way to demonstrate progress.” Rosenberg also notes that the program’s success holds great potential for replication. She emphasizes, “the participating behavioral health centers found the interventions to be effective, easy to administer and results-oriented, and many of them plan to spread the program throughout their organizations.” Christopher, a client at AltaPointe Health Systems in Mobile, Alabama, says the program encouraged him to think about and solve problems in new ways. “I learned valuable life skills, how to stay healthy, manage my anger, and prevent a relapse,” he explained. Key Results: The 10 pilot sites started with a total of 5,687 clients in December, 2010. The average age of participants was 45.7 years, many of whom had already been in treatment for years 20 percent of participants scored an “inability to function in all areas” on the pre-interventional functional assessment 50 percent of participants scored “major impairment” in at least five critical areas of functioning in daily activities The average cumulative functional score from all participants rose from an initial 37.76 to 41.07 over the course of six months. Overall, there was a statistically significant gain in three sub-scales: communications, interaction with one’s social network, and coping skills. There was an overall attrition rate of 48 percent, consistent with community based treatment protocols.

Change

When you try to make a change in your life, create a new habit, set a resolution … are you usually good at it, or does the change fail after 2-3 weeks? Some people are better at it than others because they’ve learned some simple strategies for changing, but also because they’ve built up their change muscle. What’s a change muscle? It’s the muscle we use for creating changes in our lives, and like our physical muscles, it is weak if you haven’t trained it. I started training my change muscle in 2005, when it was weak and I could never make any lasting changes. I felt helpless, and didn’t know what to do. I felt like I couldn’t ever make changes. But I’ve learned in the years since that the change muscle is like other muscles: you might be weak at first, but you get stronger with regular training. Imagine trying to lift a barbell with 350 lbs. of weights on it. Even lifting it 6 inches off the ground would be a nearly impossible feat for people who haven’t trained their muscles to lift heavy loads. You’d struggle and nearly burst a vein, but you wouldn’t budge the barbell. But … if you started with just the barbell (no weights on it) and began lifting that, you’d be much more likely to succeed. Then add 5-10 lbs. on each side, and your muscles will grow stronger. Keep adding a little at a time, and soon you’ll be able to lift the 350-lb. loaded barbell that once seemed impossible. Your change muscle works in the same ways. As I’ve been learning about growing physical muscles, I realize how many parallels there are with growing the change muscle. Principles of Growth The principles for growing your change muscle are similar to growing regular muscles: Start small. If you try to lift too much weight at first, you’ll have bad form and injure yourself and won’t last long. But if you start with just the barbell (or other light load), you can learn how to lift and you’re much more likely to stick with it for awhile. The change muscle is the same: start with one change, just 5 minutes a day. You will want to do more, but if you do more, you’re much more likely to fail in the long run. Train regularly. Some people will go to the gym for a week, then stop, then start again in a few months. This is a waste of time, and no progress will be seen. You have to do it regularly to see progress. Same with the change muscle: do it daily, just 5 minutes a day. You’ll get stronger and stronger with regular training. Don’t start big, then fail after 1-2 weeks, then start again later. Regular repetition is key. Increase load gradually. If you don’t increase the weights, you don’t get stronger. But if you increase too much, you’ll get injured. With your change muscle, increase your daily training by 5 minutes each week — so 5 minutes a day the first week, then 10 minutes a day the second week, etc. You’ll be amazed at how strong your change muscle gets with gradual progressive loading. Rest, & cut back on other work. Most people don’t understand the importance of rest when it comes to training. We train, then rest, and we grow. If we don’t rest, we hurt our progress. Growing the change muscle is the same — you need to train (just 5 minutes a day at first), then rest. Meaning don’t try to make changes all day long at first. Don’t try to make your first change as you’re traveling and taking on big projects and also taking classes and making three other changes at the same time. You’ll overload yourself. Make one change, and let yourself stick to your regular routine/load the rest of the day. Fuel the growth. Aside from rest, fuel is one of the most overlooked aspects of muscle growth. You need sufficient calories for growth, otherwise all the training in the world won’t get you anywhere. So what fuels the growth of the change muscle? Motivation. Find as many ways to motivate yourself as possible: make the change enjoyable, get a partner, join a class, blog publicly about it, join a forum, create rewards, celebrate small victories, create a chart to see your progress, etc. The more, the better. Most people underfuel their change muscle. First Steps So how do you get started training your change muscle if it’s weak and undertrained? Just like you’d get started with strength training — start with bodyweight exercises, and just a few per day. Here’s what I’d recommend: Pick an easy, positive change that you can do in 5 minutes. Want to garden? Just 5 minutes of gardening a day. Want to declutter? Eat fruits and veggies? Jog or swim? Meditate? Just 5 minutes a day. Focus on enjoying the new habit. If you enjoy it, you’ll want to keep doing it for longer. If you’re doing it to “improve” or because it’s “good for you” or you “should”, you won’t stick with it for long. The focus is on doing it regularly, not on growing it quickly. Do it daily, at the same time every day. Cut back on other changes, so you can put all your energy on this one change. Fuel your change with as much motivation as humanly possible. More is better in this case. Grow it gradually by adding 5 minutes to your daily training a week. You’ll be amazed at how much progress you make over time, as your change muscle grows stronger. We tend to blame our failures on our lack of discipline, but we’re not undisciplined … we’re just undertrained. Grow your change muscle with smart principles of growth, and soon you’ll be a hulking beast of a change master. The Sea Change Program Want help creating long-term change? Today (March 2) is the last day to sign up for the Zen Habits Sea Change Program. We’ll help you build your change muscle with the help of experts, and hundreds of others making similar changes.

7 Habits of Change

7 Little Habits That Can Change Your Life, and How to Form Them “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. If you could just pick one or two (or seven) habits to create in the next few months — habits that will have the most impact on your life — what would they be? I often get asked this question, because people are overwhelmed when it comes to starting positive life changes. They ask me: what one or two habits should they start with? It’s not an easy question. There are so many changes I’ve gone through, from quitting smoking to simplifying my life to reducing debt to many more. And they’ve all seemed life-changing, and they’ve all seemed important. But if I were to start again, and had to pick one or two, it would be the one or two listed below. The list that follows is in order of what I think I’d do the first 6-7 months of changing my life … but realize that every person is different. No one should follow my choices exactly — you’ve got to figure out what works for you. That said, if you followed the program below, and worked to develop these habits, you’d probably do pretty well. “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.” - Confucius How to Develop the Habits I’ve written a number of times about developing habits, but here are the basics: Do a 30-day challenge, focusing on just ONE habit. Write it out on paper, along with your motivations, obstacles, and strategies for overcoming them. Commit fully, in a public way. Log your progress. Remain publicly accountable — report on your progress each day. Have support for when you falter — either in real life or online. Reward every little success. If you fail, figure out what went wrong, plan for it, and try again. Read more: 13 Things to Avoid When Changing Habits How to Establish New Habits the No-Sweat Way Engineer Life: Set Up Habit Changes So It’s Hard to Fail Autopilot Achievement: How to Turn Your Goals Into Habits The Seven Little Habits That Can Change Your Life OK, so now you know how to form a habit — and remember, only do them one at a time — but you want to know the seven little habits. Here they are, in my order of preference (but yours may be different): 1. Develop positive thinking. I put this first because I think it’s the keystone habit that will help you form the other important habits. Sure, positive thinking by itself won’t lead to success, but it certainly goes a long way to motivate you to do the other things required. I learned this when I quit smoking — when I allowed myself to think negative thoughts, I would end up failing. But when I learned how to squash negative thoughts and think positive ones instead, I succeeded. This discovery lead to me practicing this over and over, until I was able to form just about any habit I needed. It’s been invaluable to me, and I think it could be to most people. Focus on this habit first, and you’ll have a much easier time with any of the others. Start by becoming more aware of your negative self-talk — do a little tally sheet throughout the day, marking a tally each time you notice a negative thought. Soon you’ll recognize them, and you can squash them. Read more: Top Motivation Hack: Positive Thinking Can You Spot These 10 Thinking Sins 2. Exercise. People who’ve been hearing me harp on about exercise might roll their eyes. Sure, exercise is healthy and all that, but how exactly is it life changing? I’m glad you asked: It makes you feel better about yourself, and more confident. That leads to better success with other positive changes. It reinforces the positive thinking habit — you need to think positive in order to sustain exercise. It relieves stress and gives you time to think — this leads to better mental well-being in your life overall. It helps with creativity. Don’t ask me to prove it, except to say that my best ideas and brainstorming sessions come from when I exercise. Here’s how: 4 Simple Steps to Start the Exercise Habit How to Make Exercise a Daily Habit 7 Ways to Build the Exercise Habit 3. Single-tasking. The opposite of multi-tasking — you’ve heard me harp on about this one as well. Why is it life-changing? A couple powerful reasons: You’ll be more effective with your tasks and get more done. It’s hard to achieve important things if you’re constantly switching tasks and distracted by other “urgent” things. You’ll be less stressed overall and (in my experience) happier throughout your day. Read more: How Not To Multi-task: Work Simpler and Saner Now Do This and the Single-tasking Philosophy The Magical Power of Focus 4. Focus on one goal. Just as focusing on one task at a time is more effective, and focusing on one habit at a time is more effect, so is focusing on one goal at a time. While it might seem very difficult, focusing on one goal at a time is the most powerful way of achieving your goals. When you try to take on many goals at once, you’re spreading thin your focus and energy — the two critical components for achieving a goal. What if you have 5 goals you want to achieve? Pick one to focus on first. Break it into a mini-goal you can accomplish this month, if it’s a longer-term goal. Pick an action you can do today. Keep doing this until the goal is accomplished — do an action every day, finish the mini-goal, pick the next mini-goal to work on. Then, when your One Goal is completed, focus on the next goal. Some goals are ongoing ones — like blogging every day, or exercising every day. In those cases, turn them into habits — focus exclusively on turning the goal into a habit, until the habit is ingrained. Then focus on the next goal. Read more: A Simple Guide to Setting and Achieving Your Life Goals 5. Eliminate the non-essential. First, identify the essential — the things in your life that are most important to you, that you love the most. Then eliminate everything else. This simplifies things and leaves you with the space to focus on the essential. This process works with anything — with your life in general, with work projects and tasks, with emails and other communication. This will change your life because it will help you to simplify, to focus on what’s important, and to build the life you want. Read more: Eliminate All But the Absolute Essential Tasks Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential 6. Kindness. Yes, kindness is a habit. And it can be cultivated. Focus on it every day for a month and you’ll see profound changes in your life. You’ll feel better about yourself as a person. You’ll see people react to you differently and treat you better, over the long run. It’s karma. How do you develop the kindness habit? First, make it a goal to do something kind for someone each day. At the beginning of the day, figure out what that kind act will be and then do it during the day. Second, each time you interact with someone, try to be kind, be friendly, be compassionate. Third, try to go beyond small kindnesses to larger acts of compassion, volunteering to help those in need and taking the initiative to relieve suffering. Read more: 18 Practical Tips for Living the Golden Rule Faith in Humanity: How to Bring People Closer, and Restore Kindness A Guide to Cultivating Compassion in Your Life 25 Ways to Help a Fellow Human Being Today The No. 1 Lifehack You can Implement Today to Make the World a Better Place 7. Daily routine. It’s so simple, but creating a daily routine for yourself can make a big difference in your life. The best routines, I’ve found, come at the start and end of the day — both your workday and your day in general. That means, develop a routine for when you awake, for when you first start working, for when you finish your workday, and for the end of your evening. How will that change your life? It will help you get a great start to your day, and finish your day by preparing for the next day. It’ll help you firmly root the productive habits you want to firm in your everyday life. It’ll help you focus on what’s important, not just what comes up. It’ll help you make sure you get done all the things you really want to make sure gets done everyday. And that can mean a lot. Read more: Tips to Establish a Morning and Evening Routine 12 Ideas for Establishing a Calming Routine “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.” - John Dryden —

Attitude Change by a Life Coach

How To Change Your Attitude 75 Share 1 inShare SHAREBAR After saying yesterday that I thought attitude was everything and suggesting it dictated the quality of our lives, I was put me on the spot to explain how a Professional Life Coach would help somebody change their attitude. Well never one to back down from a challenge unless it involves a bottle of scotch a donkey and two nuns, I thought I’d have a bash at explaining how you tame the beast within. Do You Believe You Can Change? The starting point is to believe that you can change. If you don’t believe it, then you wont do it. I’m not asking you to think it’s going to be easy or an overnight thing, just that in principal you’re up for the task. The hardest clients that I have to deal with are ones that lack commitment and/or belief because most of my time is spent working on those issues and they are seldom the ones that prompted the contact. The starting point after the original starting point that we just started is to understand that ALL your feelings stem from your thoughts. If you are in a bad mood and Mr. or Mrs. Attitude has climbed onboard and taken over the controls, it’s because you invited them. Take Responsibility In all likelihood it was done at an unconscious level, so don’t start arguing with me just because you can’t remember thinking negatively before you hurled a tirade of abuse at the Jehovah’s Witness. You can think very quickly and very efficiently at an unconscious level. You’ve had years and years of practice. Imagine how good you would be if you did nothing but practice filleting fish 8 hours a day for 5 years? You’d be a fish filleter par excellence and people would be traveling from far and wide to see you remove dem bones, dem bones, dem, wet bones…probably. Well forget the fish, because you’ve been practicing your thinking 24 hours per day for however many years you’ve been alive, so you’re even better at THAT. There’s always stuff going on at an unconscious level unless you are either a very good meditator or a bit dead, so the practice keeps building on itself. The act of being aware of your thinking is crucial to making changes but you have to start the intervention process by simply observing. That’s right; just listen out for what you’re twittering on about when you’re feeling like the world is conspiring against you. It probably wont be good. There are two approaches you can take. Actually that’s not true; there are lots, but only 2 that I recommend to help you change your thought process and your mood/attitude. The first involves simply listening for neggy stuff and then backing up and replacing it with comments that you’d like your Granny to hear. “Why has that bastard got 11 items in his basket when it’s a 10 items or less line” could be deleted and replaced by “Phew I’m glad I don’t eat what this guy eats, he’ll be dead in a month with coronary artery disease” Maybe that’s not the best example because it’s still a tad attitudey, but you get the idea. What you replace it with really depends on your personality and what makes you feel comfortable. Here are a few examples, some of which may work for you, some of which may not: This guy has been put here to teach me patience I am so happy to be alive when so many people are dead and some of them have been dead for decade’s even centuries. That’s really tough Great, I have chance to read one of these highly informative and caring tabloid newspapers Even though this could win the 2008 International Award for Glaringly Obvious Things To Do, it still amazes me how many people never try it. Or maybe it doesn’t, because there will be precious little instant gratification and that’s usually what people want, me included. It’s not technical stuff and it’s not hard, but it does take persistence and commitment. The more you do it, the more you spot yourself saying all sorts of weird and wonderful things. Each time, you get to back up, delete what you said, and replace it with something that serves you and makes you as happy as the Gator mistakenly invited by a short-sighted administrator to be a pat dog in the chicken hospital. Ask Yourself Questions If you don’t like that method you can try the questioning yourself method. This is my favorite hence I wrote an entire book on the damn things. However, the type of questions you chose is critical. Apart from the obvious things not to ask yourself like “Should I punch this guy or just accidentally knock his basket to the floor and then punch him as he bends down?” you should also avoid questions that just aren’t you. Don’t make them too contrived and have your unconscious sniggering behind your back. Here are a few examples to use or abuse at your leisure: What else can this mean? I wonder what his/her story is? How can I benefit from this? How can I make this more interesting? What can I do differently to feel better? How would I like to be treated in this situation? What if that were my mom? So there you have it. It’s not difficult to think of a question when you’re in a funk that will break your state and have you thinking differently. The real trick is deciding whether you can be bothered or not. Change is easy if the will is there, but it will require a lifetime of effort. Are you up for the challenge, or are you a wuss? If you like this why not forward the link on to somebody else, subscribe to the RSS feed or just send me wads of cash and the deeds to your house. I’m not proud.

How to change your attitude

Gluten and Autism

A gluten-free, casein-free diet may lead to improvements in behavior and physiological symptoms in some children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to researchers at Penn State. The research is the first to use survey data from parents to document the effectiveness of a gluten-free, casein-free diet on children with ASD. “Research has shown that children with ASD commonly have GI [gastrointestinal] symptoms,” said Christine Pennesi, medical student at Penn State College of Medicine. “Notably, a greater proportion of our study population reported GI and allergy symptoms than what is seen in the general pediatric population. Some experts have suggested that gluten- and casein-derived peptides cause an immune response in children with ASD, and others have proposed that the peptides could trigger GI symptoms and behavioral problems.” The team — which included Laura Cousino Klein, associate professor of biobehavioral health and human development and family studies — asked 387 parents or primary caregivers of children with ASD to complete a 90-item online survey about their children’s GI symptoms, food allergy diagnoses, and suspected food sensitivities, as well as their children’s degree of adherence to a gluten-free, casein-free diet. The team’s results appeared online this month in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience. Pennesi and Klein and their team found that a gluten-free, casein-free diet was more effective in improving ASD behaviors, physiological symptoms and social behaviors for those children with GI symptoms and with allergy symptoms compared to those without these symptoms. Specifically, parents noted improved GI symptoms in their children as well as increases in their children’s social behaviors, such as language production, eye contact, engagement, attention span, requesting behavior and social responsiveness, when they strictly followed a gluten-free, casein-free diet. According to Klein, autism may be more than a neurological disease — it may involve the GI tract and the immune system. “There are strong connections between the immune system and the brain, which are mediated through multiple physiological symptoms,” Klein said. “A majority of the pain receptors in the body are located in the gut, so by adhering to a gluten-free, casein-free diet, you’re reducing inflammation and discomfort that may alter brain processing, making the body more receptive to ASD therapies.” The team found that parents who eliminated all gluten and casein from their children’s diets reported that a greater number of their children’s ASD behaviors, physiological symptoms and social behaviors improved after starting the diet compared to children whose parents did not eliminate all gluten and casein. The team also found that parents who implemented the diet for six months or less reported that the diet was less effective in reducing their child’s ASD behaviors. According to the researchers, some of the parents who filled out the surveys had eliminated only gluten or only casein from their children’s diets, but survey results suggested that parents who completely eliminated both gluten and casein from their child’s diet reported the most benefit. “While more rigorous research is needed, our findings suggest that a gluten-free, casein-free diet might be beneficial for some children on the autism spectrum,” Pennesi said. “It is also possible that there are other proteins, such as soy, that are problematic for these children.” The reason Klein and Pennesi examined gluten and casein is because they are two of the most common “diet offenders.” “Gluten and casein seem to be the most immunoreactive,” Klein said. “A child’s skin and blood tests for gluten and casein allergies can be negative, but the child still can have a localized immune response in the gut that can lead to behavioral and psychological symptoms. When you add that in with autism you can get an exacerbation of effects.” Klein’s advice to parents of children with ASD? “If parents are going to try a gluten-free, casein-free diet with their children, they really need to stick to it in order to receive the possible benefits,” she said. “It might give parents an opportunity to talk with their physicians about starting a gluten-free, casein-free diet with their children with ASD.”