Health – Page 15 – Christian Science Committee on Publication for Michigan

Taming impossibility

By Bob CummingsOctober 17, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsconsciousness, Daniel Schectman, Healing, health, imagined, impossible, possible, prayer, spirituality, Theory of Relativity

“What is now proved, was once only imagined.” – William Blake

Earlier this month Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of a new chemical structure called quasicrystals that researchers considered to be impossible. Initially the scientific community was reluctant to accept his discovery, to the point where he endured mockery and even expulsion from his research team. The Academy said that his discovery “fundamentally altered how chemists conceive of solid matter”. This recognition came with a $1.5 million award.

This news item got me to thinking about “possible” and “impossible”. It seems that we deem things to be impossible until we have evidence to the contrary. Man couldn’t fly, until of course, the Wright brothers proved that we could. It is impossible to run a mile in under 4 minutes – or so we thought, until Roger Bannister did this.

Distant Healing and The Love Study

By Bob CummingsOctober 10, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsdistant healing, health, love study, prayer

Can prayer improve the health of a distant person?

A study by the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that “prayer for others” was the second most widely used alternative therapy in 2002.

Have you heard of the “Love Study” conducted by The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)? This study was conducted to see if an effect from thought at a distance could be confirmed. It focused on finding measurable physical effects rather than on healing results.

Love is a painkiller

By Bob CummingsOctober 3, 2011Healthhealth, love, Mitch Albom, pain, Tuesdays with Morrie

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in” — Mitch Albom, novelist and newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press, in Tuesdays with Morrie.

One reason love is important is that it may help alleviate pain. According to a study at the Stanford University School of Medicine published online in 2010 at PLoS ONE, love may alleviate pain in the same way narcotic painkillers do.

Pictures of participants’ own romantic partners were displayed to them to reliably evoke self-reported feelings of love. Several earlier animal studies have shown reward-processing regions of the brain to be involved in pain relief. In this study, viewing pictures of a romantic partner activated reward regions of the brain during periods of pain. Activity decreases were observed in pain-processing regions of the brain.

Thinking about the placebo effect

By Bob CummingsSeptember 19, 2011Health, Notes from Bob Cummingsdivine, Healing, health, placebo, thought, treatment

If the placebo effect is the result of an expectation in thought, if we took the placebo out of the equation and retained only the thought, would that still help? If the placebo has no intrinsic medicinal value, isn’t the effect from a placebo already the result of the thought connected with it?

A placebo is a non-medicated pill, or sugar pill, often used to set a benchmark in research to determine the effect of a drug. Patients often experience positive therapeutic effects from a placebo and this is thought to be the result of their thought that it will help them. This is called the “placebo effect”.

I’ve read that larger placebos have been found to be more effective than smaller ones and taking two placebos more effective than one. Also, that placebos were more effective when given to a patient by a doctor than when they were self-administered. All of this even though they have no active ingredient.

Gratitude good for health

By Bob CummingsSeptember 12, 2011Healthappreciation, gratitude, happiness, health, sleep

“A growing body of research suggests that maintaining an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional and physical well-being” writes Melinda Beck in a November 23, 2010 HealthJournal article in the Wall Street Journal.

Don’t get mad, get …?

By Bob CummingsAugust 30, 2011Healthanger, compassion, health, praying, University of Michigan

If someone makes you mad, if they say or do something that makes you angry, how would you feel if they then came to you, told you they had a serious illness, and asked if you would pray for them?

Health, groupthink & surprising news about lemmings

By Bob CummingsAugust 22, 2011HealthFlash mob, group consciousness, groupthink, health, Irving Janis, lemmings, prayer

Lemmings courtesy of Flickr user quikelopez

Did you know that the reputation lemmings have for committing mass suicide, mindlessly jumping off a cliff, is actually a misconception? I didn’t know that. More about this in a minute.

There’s been a lot in the news lately about destructive flash mob type activity: rioting and looting in England and more recently a flash mob robbery in Maryland in the U.S. This activity appears to be orchestrated through the use of social media.

Prayer changes the brain?

By Bob CummingsAugust 15, 20112 commentsHealthBarbara Bradley Hagerty, brain, Brigid Waldron-Perrine PhD, NPR, prayer, praying, spirituality, traumatic brain injury, Wayne State University

Does praying change the brain? Does prayer change the brain?

A study conducted in Michigan a few years ago by Brigid Waldron-Perrine, Ph.D. at Wayne State University and recently published in Rehabilitation Psychology found that patients with traumatic brain injuries who “felt a connection with a higher power” experienced better rehabilitation. Waldron-Perrine said, “among healthy adults, religion and spirituality have shown strong association with improved life satisfaction and physical and mental health outcomes.” And her research showed that this is also true for those with brain injuries.

Praying for health

By Bob CummingsAugust 8, 2011HealthChristian Science, Church Of Christ Science, Efficacy Of Prayer, Faith Healing, health, prayer, Prayer Healing, Religion News

Is the public finding better health by turning more to prayer? According to the Pew Forum’s Religious Landscape Survey, 56% of those surveyed in Michigan pray at least once a day and that goes up to 76% who pray at least once a week. Here is a thoughtful post entitled, “The Positive Health Effects of

Happiness is healthy

By Bob CummingsAugust 1, 2011Healthbody, Christian Science, consciousness, happiness, happy, health, Longevity, Public health

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Don’t worry, be happy”. It’s a catchy tune sung by Bob Marley. Being healthy makes us happy. But did you know that being happy can help keep us healthy?

“Happy people live longer, probably because happiness protects physical health.”

This was the conclusion of a research paper by Dutch sociologist Ruut Veenhoven
in The Journal of Happiness Studies in 2008 that looked at 30 follow-up studies on happiness and its effect on health and longevity.

Category Archives: Health

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