The Inner Healer: Mind-body Strategies for Health

Abstract

Mind-body therapies are among the most widely recommended and used form of complementary and alternative medicine. Nursing has long championed these interventions, citing the healing potential of the mind on physiological systems. Professional beliefs about the inherent holism of the human being are now supported by advances in science; there is basic bench research that now suggests an observable connection between protein expression and stress, mood and hormones as well as the information transduction between the limbic, autonomic, endocrine, immune and neuropeptide systems.1-2 Recent research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning also provide insight about how mind-body therapies work (the mechanism of action) as well as the linkages between brain activity, intervention and physiological/behavioral/emotional changes.3 The public has increasingly embraced mind-body therapies. There were significant increases in the use of meditation, yoga and deep breathing between 2002 and 2007.4 Almost 12.7% of the US population reported using deep breathing, while over 9.4% of adults engage in meditation.4 Yoga was practiced by almost 20% of the surveyed adults and recommended by providers for problems associated with chronic osteoarthitis pain and stiffness, hypertension, depression and anxiety.4 A recent survey of practitioners working with underserved populations similarly reported use of meditation, relaxation and breathing exercises in their population, citing the ease of use and low cost of these self-help strategies to mitigate anxiety, depression and chronic pain.5