Gilroy, CA: Love, Meditation The Key To Reducing Pain For Dementia and Alzheimer"s Victims?: View Fr
Gilroy, CA: Love, Meditation The Key To Reducing Pain For Dementia & Alzheimer's Victims?: View From A Private Duty Caregiver Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Gilroy, Gonzalez, Greenfield, Hollister, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, San Juan Bautista, Seaside And Soledad California
Chronic pain is a huge problem in the United States, affecting a full one-third of the population according to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine. For these 116 million American adults, it often results in depression, moodiness and dependence on drugs which can make the victim tired and anti-social. However, there are many break-through research projects that are finding that simple things like meditation, hypnosis and tai chi can be as effective as medical remedies. The problem for many patients and their physicians are that the root cause of the pain can often be difficult to diagnose and treat with anything other than pain killers or muscle relaxing drugs. Researchers at the renowned Stanford University Neuroscience and Pain Lab, however, have made great strides both in finding effective treatments and in helping patients understand how the brain works and the cause of their pain. Subjects can watch their own brains react in real time and learn how to control their response, similar to how one would build up weakened muscles. The researchers at Stanford found that when one focused on something distracting other than the actual pain, they had more activity in different parts of the brains which, in turn, reduced their pain. "It's like having a flashlight in the dark. You choose what you want to focus on. We have that same power with our mind, Ravi Prasad, a pain psychologist at Stanford told the Wall Street Journal. If this isn't done, the dysfunction feeds on itself, Sean Mackey, chief of the division of pain management at the University told the Wall Street Journal. "You get into a vicious circle of more pain, more anxiety, more fear, more depression. We need to interrupt that cycle," he said. Mackey was recently, along with his colleagues, awarded a $9 million grant by the government's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to study mind-based therapies for lower back pain. One issue we struggle at here at Family inHome Caregiving is that many of our Clients suffer from dementia or Alzheimer's disease. If the disease is advanced, it's often difficult for these people to communicate that they have pain, and when something is helping to reduce the pain. This makes treatment extremely challenging. One thing Dr. Mackey pointed out is that one of his favorite treatments, surprisingly, is love. He and colleagues recruited 15 Stanford undergraduates and had them bring in photos of loved ones and a friend. On average, the subject reported feeling 44% less pain while focusing on their loved ones than on a friend. Brain images showed they had strong activity in the nucleus accumbens, an area deep in the brain which is involved with dopamine and reward circuits. I cared for my grandmother for five years before she passed away at the age of 97. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Although it was difficult for her to communicate her feelings, particularly towards the end, you could definitely see the emotions in her face, from happy to sad to angry. She would often stare for hours at pictures of friends, family and other loved ones and you could tell that she took great pleasure in this despite the fact that she had forgotten who they were. I hope that in the end it reduced her pain as well, although I will never know for sure. This is great research Dr. Mackey and his team are doing, and I'm confident that more studies will be done to see how simple things like focusing on a picture might help someone with Alzheimer's disease or chronic pain. This growing population with dementia and Alzheimer's disease need all the help they can get.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577038041207168300.html
Chronic pain is a huge problem in the United States, affecting a full one-third of the population according to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine. For these 116 million American adults, it often results in depression, moodiness and dependence on drugs which can make the victim tired and anti-social. However, there are many break-through research projects that are finding that simple things like meditation, hypnosis and tai chi can be as effective as medical remedies. The problem for many patients and their physicians are that the root cause of the pain can often be difficult to diagnose and treat with anything other than pain killers or muscle relaxing drugs. Researchers at the renowned Stanford University Neuroscience and Pain Lab, however, have made great strides both in finding effective treatments and in helping patients understand how the brain works and the cause of their pain. Subjects can watch their own brains react in real time and learn how to control their response, similar to how one would build up weakened muscles. The researchers at Stanford found that when one focused on something distracting other than the actual pain, they had more activity in different parts of the brains which, in turn, reduced their pain. "It's like having a flashlight in the dark. You choose what you want to focus on. We have that same power with our mind, Ravi Prasad, a pain psychologist at Stanford told the Wall Street Journal. If this isn't done, the dysfunction feeds on itself, Sean Mackey, chief of the division of pain management at the University told the Wall Street Journal. "You get into a vicious circle of more pain, more anxiety, more fear, more depression. We need to interrupt that cycle," he said. Mackey was recently, along with his colleagues, awarded a $9 million grant by the government's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to study mind-based therapies for lower back pain. One issue we struggle at here at Family inHome Caregiving is that many of our Clients suffer from dementia or Alzheimer's disease. If the disease is advanced, it's often difficult for these people to communicate that they have pain, and when something is helping to reduce the pain. This makes treatment extremely challenging. One thing Dr. Mackey pointed out is that one of his favorite treatments, surprisingly, is love. He and colleagues recruited 15 Stanford undergraduates and had them bring in photos of loved ones and a friend. On average, the subject reported feeling 44% less pain while focusing on their loved ones than on a friend. Brain images showed they had strong activity in the nucleus accumbens, an area deep in the brain which is involved with dopamine and reward circuits. I cared for my grandmother for five years before she passed away at the age of 97. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Although it was difficult for her to communicate her feelings, particularly towards the end, you could definitely see the emotions in her face, from happy to sad to angry. She would often stare for hours at pictures of friends, family and other loved ones and you could tell that she took great pleasure in this despite the fact that she had forgotten who they were. I hope that in the end it reduced her pain as well, although I will never know for sure. This is great research Dr. Mackey and his team are doing, and I'm confident that more studies will be done to see how simple things like focusing on a picture might help someone with Alzheimer's disease or chronic pain. This growing population with dementia and Alzheimer's disease need all the help they can get.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577038041207168300.html
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