神奇的醫(yī)囑：冥想

1、Doctor's Orders:20 Minutes Of Meditation Twice A Day神奇的醫(yī)囑：冥想At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, doctor's orders can include an unlikely prescription:meditation.Integrative medicine programs including meditation are increasingly showing up at hospitals and clinics across the co

2、untry. Recent research has found that meditation can lower blood pressure and help patients with chronic illness cope with pain and depression. In a study published last year,meditation sharply reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke among a group of African-Americans with heart disease.At Beth I

3、srael Deaconess, meditation and other mind-body therapies are slowly being worked into the primary-care setting. The program began offering some services over the past six months and hopes eventually to have group meditation classes, said Dr. Nerurkar.Dr. Briggs said the agency is funding a number o

4、f studies looking at meditation and breathing techniques and their effect on numerous conditions, including hot flashes that occur during menopause. If meditation is found to be beneficial, it could help women avoid using hormone treatments, which can have detrimental side effects, she said.Martha O

5、'Boyle, a 51-year-old in Fremont, Calif., has suffered from chronic pain in her arms,chest and elsewhere since suffering from a heart attack two years ago.'Here's a cardiologist telling me to go and meditate,' said Ms. O'Boyle. 'I'm thinking, does shethink I'm crazy?&

6、#39;Ms. O'Boyle began taking meditation classes at Stanford Hospital & Clinics in 2011. The eight-week class consisted of once-a-week sessions lasting two to threehours. 'Once I started the class I saw the benefits of it,' she said. Now, Ms. O'Boyle meditates every day for 20 to

7、45 minutes. 'The pain is not gone, but it helps me cope with it,' she said.Murali Doraiswamy, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center in Durham,N.C., says it isn't clearly understood how meditation works on the body. Some forms of meditation have been found to activat

8、e the parasympathetic nervous system, which stimulates the body's relaxation response, improves blood supply, slows down heart rate and breathing and increases digestive activity, he said. It also slows down the release of stress hormones, such as cortisol.Thousands of studies have been publishe

9、d that look at meditation, Dr. Doraiswamy said. Of these,about 500 have been clinical trials testing meditation for various ailments, but only about 40 trials have been long-term studies. It isn't known whether there is an optimal amount of time for meditating that is most effective. And, it has

10、n't been conclusively shown that the practice causes people to live longer or prevents them from getting certain chronic diseases.Some short-term studies have found meditation can improve cognitive abilities such as attention and memory, said Dr. Doraiswamy. Using imaging, scientists have shown

11、that meditation can improve the functional performance of specific circuits in the brain and may reduce age-related shrinkage of several brain centers, particularly those that may be vulnerable in disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.In a study published last year in the American Heart Associat

12、ion journal Circulation:Government-funded research also is exploring meditation's effect on dieting and depression 波士頓柏斯以色列狄肯尼斯醫(yī)學中心 (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centers 出的醫(yī)囑中會包含一項令人難以置信的處方：冥想。鄭與崔中西醫(yī)結(jié)合護理中心(Cheng & Tsui Center for Integrative Care)醫(yī)療 主管助理、初級保健醫(yī)師阿底提？內(nèi)魯卡(Aditi Nerurkar)說，我建議進行

13、五分鐘 的冥想，每天兩次，然后循序漸進、逐漸增量。 ”內(nèi)魯卡還說， “這與我開藥的 方式基本相同。我不會讓你在一開始就立馬嘗試高劑量的藥物。 ”她建議患者循 序漸進、最終達到約 20分鐘時量的冥想，且每天進行兩次。這種療法適用于失 眠癥和腸道易激綜合癥等疾病。鄭與崔中西醫(yī)結(jié)合護理中心在哈佛醫(yī)學院附屬 醫(yī)院向患者提供替代性醫(yī)學治療。包括冥想在內(nèi)的中西醫(yī)結(jié)合項目在全美各地 的醫(yī)院、診所變得越來越常見。新近一項研究已發(fā)現(xiàn)，冥想能降低血壓、幫助 慢性病患者應(yīng)對疼痛和抑郁。去年發(fā)表的一項研究表明，在一組患有心臟病的 非洲裔美國人中，冥想極大地減少了他們的心臟病和中風的發(fā)病風險。在柏斯以色列狄肯尼斯醫(yī)學中

14、心，冥想和其他身心療法正慢慢融入初級保健體系。內(nèi)魯卡說，該項目在過去的六個月中已開始提供一些服務(wù)，他們希望 最終能開辦團體冥想班。健康專家說，冥想不該被用來替代傳統(tǒng)藥物治療，而應(yīng)當作為補充療法。隸屬于美國國立衛(wèi)生研究院(National Institutes of Health)的國家補充替代醫(yī)學中 心(National Center forComplementary and Alternative Medicine)負責人約瑟芬？布 里格斯(Josephine Briggs)1,很明顯，當你以一種非常緩慢、刻意的方式呼吸， 這么做能暫時降低你的血壓。 ”但這樣的方法不該被當作治療高血壓和其他

15、嚴重疾病的藥物替代品。她還稱，一般而言，冥想在并發(fā)癥和綜合癥處理上是有所作用的，但它卻無法治愈或治療疾病。布里格斯說，國家補充替代醫(yī)學中心正在資助一系列針對冥想、呼吸方法及它們對諸多疾病影響的研究，包括女性在更年期出現(xiàn)的熱潮紅現(xiàn)象。如果冥想被發(fā)現(xiàn)對這些疾病有療效的話，它有可能幫助女性避免使用激素治療。后者 會產(chǎn)生不良的副作用。來自加州弗里蒙特(Fremont),現(xiàn)年51歲的瑪莎？奧博伊(Martha O'Boyle)自 兩年前突發(fā)一場心臟病后，就一直飽受著遍布胳膊、胸部及其他部位慢性疼痛的折磨。奧博伊說， “這兒有位心臟病專家建議我去進行冥想。當時我就想，她是以為我瘋了嗎？ ” 201

16、1年，奧博伊開始參加斯坦福醫(yī)院診所(Stanford Hospital &Clinics講辦的冥想課。該課程為期八周，每周上課一次，每次持續(xù)兩到三個小 時。奧博伊說， “我一上課，就感受到它的好處了。 ”奧博伊現(xiàn)在每天都會冥想20 到 45 分鐘。她說， “疼痛雖然沒有消失，但冥想?yún)s能幫我應(yīng)對它。 ”醫(yī)生最常推薦的，且最常用于醫(yī)院項目中的一種冥想類型叫做 “正念減壓”。它是由麻省大學醫(yī)學院(University of Massachusetts Medical Schoo到發(fā)出 來的。內(nèi)魯卡說，她并未將患者送到那里參加課程訓練。相反，內(nèi)魯卡和柏斯以色列狄肯尼斯醫(yī)學中心的其他內(nèi)科醫(yī)生將在

17、辦公室演示這種冥想方法。內(nèi)魯卡說， “實際上就是以一種你覺得舒服的姿勢安靜地坐著，閉上你的眼睛、并注意你的呼吸。 ”北卡羅萊納州達勒姆的杜克大學醫(yī)學中心(Duke University Medical Center精神病學教授穆拉利？多雷斯瓦米(Murali Doraiswamy)說，目前還不清楚冥想是如 何作用于身體的。有些形式的冥想已被發(fā)現(xiàn)能激活副交感神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)，而這又會刺激身體的放松反應(yīng)，改善血液供給、降低心率、放緩呼吸并促進消化活動。多雷斯瓦米還稱，冥想也能減緩皮質(zhì)醇等壓力激素的分泌。多雷斯瓦米說，他向那些患有抑郁癥、恐慌癥、焦慮癥、長期飽受壓力折磨的人，以及那些注重大腦養(yǎng)生與心血管健康

18、的人都推薦冥想療法。多雷斯瓦米說，成千上萬種針對冥想的研究成果都已發(fā)表。這其中，約有500 項研究針對各種疾病進行了冥想療法的臨床試驗，但僅僅只有約 40 例試驗 經(jīng)過了長期的研究。目前還不清楚多長時間的冥想活動效果最佳。而對于此類活動能否延長人們的壽命或使人們遠離某些慢性病，至今仍尚無定論。多雷斯瓦米還稱，有些短期研究已發(fā)現(xiàn)，冥想能提高如注意力和記憶力這樣的認知能力?？茖W家利用成像技術(shù)發(fā)現(xiàn)，冥想能改善人們大腦中某些特定回路的功能特性，還可能減少隨著年齡增長而出現(xiàn)的大腦中樞萎縮狀況，特別是對于那些容易患上老年癡呆癥(Alzheimer's disease又稱阿茲海默癥)等病癥的人 更是如此。最近的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，冥想能引起影響端粒長度的分子變化。端粒是染色體末端的一種保護覆蓋物，它會隨著人的年事增高