Relaxation techniques: Breath control helps quell errant stress response

The term “fight or flight” is also known as the stress response. It’s what the body does as it prepares to confront or avoid danger. When appropriately invoked, the stress response helps us rise to many challenges. But trouble starts when this response is constantly provoked by less momentous, day-to-day events, such as money woes, traffic jams, job worries, or relationship problems.

Health problems are one result. A prime example is high blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease. The stress response also suppresses the immune system, increasing susceptibility to colds and other illnesses. Moreover, the buildup of stress can contribute to anxiety and depression. We can’t avoid all sources of stress in our lives, nor would we want to. But we can develop healthier ways of responding to them. One way is to invoke the relaxation response, through a technique first developed in the 1970s at Harvard Medical School by cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson. The relaxation response is a state of profound rest that can be elicited in many ways, including meditation, yoga, and progressive muscle relaxation.

Breath focus is a common feature of several techniques that evoke the relaxation response. The first step is learning to breathe deeply.

Deep breathing benefits

Deep breathing also goes by the names of diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing, belly breathing, and paced respiration. When you breathe deeply, the air coming in through your nose fully fills your lungs, and the lower belly rises.

For many of us, deep breathing seems unnatural. There are several reasons for this. For one, body image has a negative impact on respiration in our culture. A flat stomach is considered attractive, so women (and men) tend to hold in their stomach muscles. This interferes with deep breathing and gradually makes shallow “chest breathing” seem normal, which increases tension and anxiety.

Shallow breathing limits the diaphragm’s range of motion. The lowest part of the lungs doesn’t get a full share of oxygenated air. That can make you feel short of breath and anxious.

Deep abdominal breathing encourages full oxygen exchange — that is, the beneficial trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide. Not surprisingly, it can slow the heartbeat and lower or stabilize blood pressure.

Practicing breath focus

Breath focus helps you concentrate on slow, deep breathing and aids you in disengaging from distracting thoughts and sensations. It’s especially helpful if you tend to hold in your stomach.

First steps. Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit or lie down. First, take a normal breath. Then try a deep breath: Breathe in slowly through your nose, allowing your chest and lower belly to rise as you fill your lungs. Let your abdomen expand fully. Now breathe out slowly through your mouth (or your nose, if that feels more natural).

Breath focus in practice. Once you’ve taken the steps above, you can move on to regular practice of controlled breathing. As you sit comfortably with your eyes closed, blend deep breathing with helpful imagery and perhaps a focus word or phrase that helps you relax.

Ways to elicit the relaxation response

Several techniques can help you turn down your response to stress. Breath focus helps with nearly all of them:

• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Mindfulness meditation
• Yoga, tai chi, and Qi Gong
• Repetitive prayer
• Guided imagery

Creating a routine

You may want to try several different relaxation techniques to see which one works best for you. And if your favorite approach fails to engage you, or you want some variety, you’ll have alternatives. You may also find the following tips helpful:

• Choose a special place where you can sit (or lie down) comfortably and quietly.
• Don’t try too hard. That may just cause you to tense up.
• Don’t be too passive, either. The key to eliciting the relaxation response lies in shifting your focus from stressors to deeper, calmer rhythms — and having a focal point is essential.
• Try to practice once or twice a day, always at the same time, in order to enhance the sense of ritual and establish a habit.
• Try to practice at least 10–20 minutes each day.

Original article: https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/relaxation-techniques-breath-control-helps-quell-errant-stress-response

It’s time for a Cool Change…

Cool Change

If there’s one thing in my life that’s missing
Its the time that I spend alone
Sailing on the cool and bright clear water
Its kind of a special feeling
When you’re out on the sea alone
Staring at the full moon, like a lover

Time for a cool change
I know that it’s time for a cool change
Now that my life is so prearranged
I know that it’s time for a cool change

Well I was born in the sign of water
And it’s there that I feel my best
The albatross and the whales they are my brothers

There’s lots of those friendly people
And they’re showing me ways to go
And I never want to lose their inspiration

Time for a cool change
I know that it’s time for a cool change
Now that my life is so prearranged
I know that it’s time for a cool change

I’ve never been romantic
And sometimes I don’t care
I know it may sound selfish
But let me breathe the air
Let me breathe the air…

Well I was born in the sign of water
And its there that I feel my best

The albatross and the whales they are my brothers
Its kind of a special feeling
When you’re out on the sea alone
Staring at the full moon, like a lover

Time for a cool change
I know that it’s time for a cool change
Now that my life is so prearranged
I know that it’s time for a cool change

Song by Little River Band
Songwriter: Glenn Barrie Shorrock
© Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Image by Atlanta photographer, Chanel French of Chanel G. Photography
Location: Marietta, Sope Creek
IG: @ChanelGPhoto

How to Build Muscle in 9 Minutes

Here’s a simple nine-minute-long strength training program that you can complete in your own home.

https://www.nytimes.com/guides/well/how-to-build-muscle

5 Little Habits for a More Sanitary Home

Plus, the scientific reason why you should always (always!) close the toilet lid.

By Katie Holdefehr April 15, 2020

During the current coronavirus crisis, many of us have come to see cleaning our homes in a whole new light. While we’ve always strived for homes that feel clean, calm, and organized, we’ve suddenly doubled down on disinfecting, and scientific studies and CDC recommendations became our guides. Spring cleaning in the time of coronavirus isn’t just about creating the appearance of clean, but it’s about actually sanitizing or disinfecting surfaces.

The truth of the matter is, this type of cleaning may actually be less satisfying than, say, organizing your closet. After all, when you disinfect a doorknob, the difference is on a microscopic level. No one, not even you, can see or admire the change. But during cold and flu season, and especially during the current public health crisis, it’s these types of cleaning habits that help prevent the spread of disease. Here are five little everyday habits learned during the coronavirus outbreak that, if adopted, may make our homes cleaner forever.

RELATED: If You Don’t Know the Difference Between Sanitizing and Disinfecting, You Might Not Be Cleaning Properly

Take Off Your Shoes

I’ll be honest: I’ve never been one for taking off my shoes when I walk in the door. But recent research on the coronavirus has changed my tune. According to a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shoes may potentially function as carriers for the virus. In a study of hospitals in Wuhan, China, half of the samples taken from the soles of medical staff’s shoes in the ICU tested positive for the virus, leading to the recommendation that the staff disinfect their shoes when walking out of wards with COVID-19 patients.

But even before the current crisis, studies have shown that our shoes are capable of spreading germs around our homes. Luckily, the solution is simple: just get in the habit of taking off your shoes when you walk in the door. Consider setting up an entryway shoe rack and leave a pair of comfy slippers by your front door to slip into, so this new habit feels like a cozy ritual. If you have to use your hands to take off your shoes, follow up with a thorough hand washing.

Close the Toilet Lid Before You Flush

If you’ve been waiting for the scientific proof that your family members should close the toilet lid—here it is! Studies haveilluminated the risk of “toilet plumes,” or aerosols that are produced when you flush a toilet. If you leave the lid open when you flush, the aerosols that are released into the air can land on nearby surfaces that others may touch. Yuck! To help prevent the spread of the coronavirus (and other germs and bacteria), always close the lid, then flush.

While you’re at it, store your toothbrush as far away from the toilet as possible.

Learn the Importance of Contact Time

It’s one of the most common cleaning mistakes people make, but if you truly want to disinfect those frequently-touched surfaces in your home—doorknobs, counters, remote controls—you have to commit to each cleaning product’s recommended contact time. As the CDC points out in its coronavirus house-cleaning guide, most disinfecting sprays and products have to sit on a surface for a certain length of time in order to effectively destroy germs or bacteria. Dry the kitchen counter too quickly, and you could be leaving it covered in germs.

Get in the habit of checking how long that Clorox spray or bleach solution needs to sit before wiping it away, and a little patience will make your home much cleaner.

Stop Taking Your Phone Into the Bathroom

Many of us have become so inseparable from our phones, we even bring them with us into the bathroom. If you read the above messaging about terrifying “toilet plumes,” then I don’t need to go into details about how much bacteria could be winding up on your tech device. Assuming you don’t disinfect your phone after each time you use the loo, you could be exposing your (hopefully) freshly washed hands to germs the second you pick up your phone.

It’s a tough habit to break, but the solution is straightforward: avoid bringing your phone into the bathroom.

Clean Your Reusable Shopping Bags (and Don’t Put Them on the Counter)

One lesson we’ve learned during the current coronavirus crisis is the importance of washing our reusable grocery bags. If you don’t have a dedicated bag for transporting raw meat and fish, you could be spreading E. coli or salmonella to the rest of your groceries. And if you set those bags down on the kitchen counter, the same bacteria could wind up on your food prep surface.

Thoroughly cleaning our Trader Joe’s bags is of particular importance right now, but it’s a good habit we hope to continue.

To Fight Covid-19, Don’t Neglect Immunity and Inflammation

After seeing who is most likely to become infected and die, immunity and inflammation warrant further discussion and public attention.

By Jane E. Brody

• May 25, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET

While most people focus, as they should, on social distancing, face coverings, hand washing and even self-isolation to protect against the deadly coronavirus now ravaging the country, too few are paying serious attention to two other factors critically important to the risk of developing a Covid-19 infection and its potential severity.

Those factors are immunity, which should be boosted, and inflammation, which should be suppressed. I’ve touched on both in past columns, but now that months of pandemic-related restrictions have impacted the lives of millions, and after seeing who is most likely to become infected and die, immunity and inflammation warrant further discussion and public attention.

One fact is indisputable: Older people are especially vulnerable to this disease and its potentially fatal consequences. But “older” doesn’t necessarily mean “old.” While people over 80 are 184 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than those in their 20s, Dr. Nir Barzilai, scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research, points out that vulnerability increases starting around age 55.

Immune defenses decline with age. That is a fundamental fact of biology. For example, with advancing age, natural killer cells, a major immunological weapon, become less effective at destroying virus-infected cells. But it doesn’t mean nothing can be done to slow or sometimes even reverse immunological decline, said Dr. Barzilai, who directs the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

At the same time, inflammation in tissues throughout the body increases with age, a fact that helps the coronavirus get into the body, bind to molecules in the nose and lungs, and wreak havoc, Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham in England, explained in a webinar this month.

Fat tissue, for example, increases inflammation and renders overweight people more vulnerable to a Covid infection.

Here, too, there are established ways to diminish inflammation and thereby enhance resistance to this deadly disease. The basic weapons, diet and exercise, are available to far more people than currently avail themselves of their benefits. Lifestyle can have a major impact on a person’s immune system, for better or worse, Dr. Lord said.

I spoke recently to a friend who “escaped” New York City in early March to avoid Covid-19. But while he reduced his risk of infection by limiting contact with other people, he has gained weight, lost muscle mass and, in becoming nearly sedentary, is also now more likely to become seriously ill if he should contract the virus.

“Skeletal muscle helps the immune system,” Dr. Lord said. The contractions of skeletal muscles produce small proteins called myokines that, by dampening inflammation, have big health benefits. Myokines ferret out infections and keep inflammation from getting out of hand, she said. Also, exercising skeletal muscle helps diminish body fat and increases the potency of natural killer cells no matter what your age. An 85-year-old who increases muscle mass is better able to recover from Covid, she said.

The more extensive or vigorous the exercise, the less inflammation, Dr. Lord said. She noted that those who do fewer than 3,000 steps a day have the highest level of inflammation, whereas those who do 10,000 or more steps daily have the least inflammation. But social isolation doesn’t have to make you a couch potato.

“You don’t need any special equipment,” she said, so the inability to go to a gym or even outside need not be an impediment to getting in those 10,000 steps. She suggested exercises like heel raises, leg raises and sit-to-stand exercises. You could even use two of those cans of beans you stocked up on to strengthen arm muscles. Or consider going up and down stairs, or even one step, which has the added benefit of strengthening heart function. For other ideas, see Gretchen Reynolds’s column published in The Times on April 22.

Exercise is especially important for people with chronic health conditions that increase their vulnerability to a serious Covid infection. “No matter what your condition, exercise will improve your immunity,” Dr. Lord said.

Regular exercise can also improve your sleep, which can suppress inflammation and keep your immune system from having to work overtime. Aim for seven to eight hours of sleep a night. If virus-related anxieties keep you awake, try tai chi, meditation or progressive muscle relaxation (from feet to head) to reduce stress and calm your mind and body. Avoid eating a big meal late in the day or consuming caffeine after noon. Perhaps eat a banana or drink a glass of warm milk about an hour before bedtime.

Which brings me to what for many is the biggest health challenge during the coronavirus crisis: consuming a varied, nutrient-rich diet and keeping calorie intake under control. It seems baking has become a popular pastime for many sheltering at home, and the consequences — weight gain and overconsumption of sugar and refined flour — can increase susceptibility to the virus. Excess weight weakens the immune system, and abdominal fat in particular enhances damaging inflammation.

The good news, according to Dr. Leonard Calabrese, clinical immunologist at the Cleveland Clinic, is that even small amounts of weight loss can counter inflammation, a benefit aided by avoiding highly processed foods and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables that are relatively low in calories and high in protective nutrients.

Especially helpful are foods rich in vitamin C — all manner of citrus (oranges, grapefruit, clementines, etc.), red bell pepper, spinach, papaya and broccoli — and zinc, including shellfish (oysters are a powerhouse of zinc), seeds, dairy products, red meat, beans, lentils and nuts.

For those who drink alcohol, these stressful times can tempt overconsumption. More than the recommended two drinks a day for men and one for women can reduce immunity-boosting nutrients in the body and impair the ability of white blood cells to fight off microbial invaders, Dr. Calabrese notes. For those who drink, a five-ounce serving of red wine a day is widely considered a beneficial component of an anti-inflammatory Mediterranean-style diet.

Reports linking a deficiency of vitamin D to an increased risk of developing a severe Covid-19 infection have prompted some people to take measures that may ultimately undermine their health, like basking unprotected in the sun, which can lead to skin cancer, and taking excessive amounts of a vitamin D supplement, which can cause distressing gastrointestinal symptoms.

Healthy blood levels of vitamin D can, though, help keep the body’s immune system strong and possibly help prevent it from raging out of control, causing the cytokine storm that can severely damage the lungs and other tissues and has resulted in many Covid-19 deaths. But for those with already healthy levels of vitamin D, there’s no established immune benefit from taking more than 2,000 IU of vitamin D-3 a day.

Jane Brody is the Personal Health columnist, a position she has held since 1976. She has written more than a dozen books including the best sellers “Jane Brody’s Nutrition Book” and “Jane Brody’s Good Food Book.”