Special feature
RELAXATION
TRAINING AND ITS ROLE IN DIABETES AND HEALTH increase
blood flow to the feet -
YES ! Birgitta
I. Rice, M.S., R.Ph., CHES Introduction This series of articles will provide information on the benefits of relaxation on health and wellness, with a focus on peripheral circulation problems in diabetes patients. Relaxation Training causes
When you relax
regularly, you condition the body to become more tolerant of
stress
even in stressful times. After stressful
times, relaxation allows the body to possibly decrease the
stress hormones which are still circulating in the blood
stream. This can be
beneficial because the cortisol, adrenalin and other stress
hormones, have very harmful effects on the blood vessels as they
circulate. Research has
shown that relaxation improves peripheral blood flow, which can
increase healing and reduce pain. Part
1 The Physiology of Relaxation Therapy I came to
realize the value of relaxation during my graduate studies in
health education where I specialized in stress management
education. I studied
and researched the effects of relaxation on the peripheral
arteries both in the scientific literature and in clinical
applications. Relaxation
provides a decrease in sympathetic nervous system tone allowing
the arteries to widen ever so little and allowing an increase of
blood flowing through them. That in turn translates to an increase
of available oxygen to the body tissues, specifically in the
periphery. The neural
pathways of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic system guide
the function of the stress response and the relaxation response.
Through a training process involving relaxation exercises, the
patient may learn to regulate a balance in these pathways, thus
affecting the body’s physiology.
While the tone of the sympathetic
nervous system (which guides our activities) lessens, there
is an increase in the parasympathetic nervous system (which guides
our recovery or rest) at the same time. The way the body works in
this instance is to seek a balance - mind and body working
together. Relaxation
works through psycho-physiological means implying that both the
mind and the body are involved in the quieting process.
Progressive muscle relaxation training focuses on the
muscle groups and allows them to relax. With fewer impulses firing
from the muscles to the brain, a lower level of stimulation is
evident in the body organs (e.g., less tense muscles). It is
referred to as somatopsychic relaxation. With this modification of
incoming and outgoing neural impulses come the benefits associated
with relaxation. Other
relaxation techniques such as Herbert Benson’s Relaxation
Response, meditation and hypnosis suggest that relaxation starts
in the thought processes, the cognitive process of the mind (e.g.,
reducing excessive rumination or anxiety). This process is called
psychosomatic and has as an end result the relaxation of the body
physiology. Many relaxation techniques defy this simple
classification and are often a combination of several modalities. Visualization,
active imagination or imagery, has been used successfully in the
treatment of various illnesses. It is specifically valuable to use
these practices while the body is in a relaxed state. That is,
first you allow your body to relax for a few minutes; then while
relaxed, visualize healthy outcomes or desired healing.
When the body is in a relaxed state, the neural
transmissions are fewer, and the “language” of the positive
visualizations and healing suggestions “can be heard” more
easily by body tissues. Part 2 will
describe the clinical investigations of this technique, the
research findings, statistical outcomes and publications. Birgitta
I. Rice, MS, RPh, CHES received her education and pharmacy license
in her native Sweden. She
is
a researcher, clinician and certified health education specialist
at the University of Minnesota, Division of Epidemiology Clinical
Research Center, Minneapolis, MN
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