fbpx
44 F
Spokane
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeCommentaryBlogsImagine Two People with Cancer With Very Different Levels of Anxiety

Imagine Two People with Cancer With Very Different Levels of Anxiety

Date:

Related stories

My Journey through Homelessness Part Five: Learning to Live Outside the Box

The value of my homeless experience lies not so much in having learned how to live outside — at least not in the geographical sense. The value of my homeless experience lies in having learned how to live outside the box.

Lost in Translation: Isn’t It Time We Moved Beyond a Fear-Based Repentance?

When I hear the kingdom is at hand, followed immediately by the command to repent, the good news is overshadowed by the fear that I’m not good enough to be part of the kingdom of God.

Inspiring Others: How Our Marriage Turned 50

As we prepare to celebrate 50 years there are so many thoughts and memories going through my head. I have joked about how I don't know how you've put up with me for this long, which is really true in a sense with my Irish enthusiasm and temper.

Taking the Road ‘Less Traveled by’ Has Made ‘All the Difference’

Pete Haug remembers hearing Robert Frost read his poem "The Road not Taken" 65 years ago. It reminded him of his spiritual journey out of the Christianity of his youth into choosing the Baha'i faith as an adult.

Ask an EOC: Can You Confess in Private to God but not in Church Confession and be Forgiven?

Concerning the sacrament of Confession, Christ directly gave the authority to his Church to remit or retain the sins of the penitent. 

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img

[todaysdate]

By Kimberly Burnham

On one level it makes sense that someone who has a life threatening condition, cancer or a strong sense of their own mortality would think about what is next and might turn to pray or their spiritual tradition. This study, Effectiveness of prayer in reducing anxiety in cancer patients looked at the physical effects of prayer and “religiosity.”

Concluding that, “Prayer proved to be an effective strategy in reducing the anxiety of the patient undergoing chemotherapy,” Camila Csizmar Carvalho, Erika de Cássia Lopes Chaves, et al. looked at a variety of physical factors before and after prayer.

Study volunteers answered “a questionnaire of sociodemographic, clinical and spiritual characteristics, the Index of Religiosity Duke University and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Vital Signs.” The researchers also collected salivary cortisol. Produced in the adrenal glands cortisol is a measure of how stressed a person is. The higher the cortisol the more stress a person is feeling. The lower the cortisol levels the more relaxed a person is.

Carvalho said, “The data found between the pre and post-intervention samples showed different statistically significant for state anxiety, blood pressure, diastolic [heart rate measure], and respiratory rate.”

This 2014 University of São Paulo, Brazil Nursing School Journal (Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP) study helps us imagine two people with cancer. One, before praying or without a prayer practice is lying anxiously awake at night. Their heart is working hard. Their digestive system is not functioning well. They are breathing faster than the other person who is still having chemotherapy treatments but is relaxed, with better heart function and good blood pressure. They are drawing in the nutrients in their food and taking calm deep breaths.

Which one do you think will have less chemotherapy side effects (many of which have to do with digestion) and make a better recovery?

Another strategy for decreasing anxiety and cortisol levels comes from Harvard business professor Amy Cuddy,  who looked into the effects of posture on

Amy Cuddy, power pose/Harvard Business School hbs.edu
Amy Cuddy, power pose/Harvard Business School hbs.edu

chemistry and hence class participation. She found that if a person stands for two minutes in a Wonder Woman or Superman posture (feet solidly planted, hands on hips, open to the world) their cortisol levels go down and their testosterone levels go up. This two minute posture helps the person to look and feel more powerful, making them in fact more powerful. Cuddy’s research indicates that “your body language shapes who you are.”

Imagine if you pray or stand in a powerful posture before eating. What would change in your life? Research is piling up in favor of the influence of how we think and act on our brain chemistry and body functions.



blog comments powered by Disqus

Kimberly Burnham
Kimberly Burnhamhttp://www.NerveWhisperer.Solutions
Author of "Awakenings: Peace Dictionary, Language and the Mind, A Daily Brain Health Program" Kimberly Burnham, PhD (Integrative Medicine) investigates the relationship between memory, language, caring and pattern recognition to create a daily brain health exercise program enabling people to achieve better neurological health, mood, and quality of life. She is on a mission to create more peace and understanding in the world by collecting and writing about the nuanced meaning of “Peace” in 4,000 different languages and is looking for funding to complete the project. Known as The Nerve Whisperer, Kimberly uses words (books, presentations, and poetry), health coaching, guided visualization, and hands-on therapies (CranioSacral therapy, acupressure, Matrix Energetics, Reiki, and Integrative Manual Therapy) to help people heal from nervous system and autoimmune conditions. She also focuses on vision issues like macular degeneration and supports people looking for eye exercises to improve driving and reading skills as well as athletic visual speed. An award-winning poet, Kimberly grew up overseas. The child of an international businessman and an artist, she learned Spanish in Colombia; French in Belgium; then Japanese in Tokyo and has studied both Italian and Hebrew as an adult. The author of “My Book: Self-Publishing, a Guided Journal”, she can be reached for health coaching, publishing help, bible study zoom presentations or talking about peace at [email protected] or http://www.NerveWhisperer.Solutions.

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

1 COMMENT

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
mac instagram foto de perfil descargar gratis

mac instagram foto de perfil descargar gratis

spot_img
1
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x