Can mindfulness and guided imagery help patients after surgery?

 


 Guided imagery is the conscious use of the imagination to create positive images to support mind and body in their healing process (1). Mindfulness is a kind of meditation during which we focus on the present moment and become aware of our thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment without criticism and judgments (2). We adopt an open curious attitude to what flows in the present moment, without getting attached to sensations, thoughts and emotions. Yoga, for example, is a mindful practice.

Guided imagery has ancient roots. In Eastern medicine envisioning well-being is considered important for healing. The Greeks Aristotle and Hippocrates used the power of imagery to help heal their patients. Over the last decades, techniques of relaxation have been researched to attain relaxation and control of bodily processes. The use of biofeedback is an example of this (3).

Guided imagery and mindful meditation in the preoperative period support the patients' recovery after their surgical procedures. Studies have shown that patients who participated in two to four guided imagery sessions prior to surgery required less pain medication and left the hospital sooner than those who hadn't used imagery (4). Guided imagery has been shown to calm fear and anxiety in these situations (4). Mindfulness also helped to calm anxiety, decrease pain and speed recovery (5, 6 and 7).

 Patients are not the only ones who benefit from mindfulness. Surgeons do too. An article published by the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine in 2019 summarizes some of the relevant research in this field (7). Mindfulness has been shown to protect against burnout by physicians at the Rochester Medical Center. The research also found that mindfulness helped to reduce medical errors. Another randomized study was done on first year surgical residents at the University of California, San Francisco. The surgical residents completed an eight week mindfulness training and were compared to a control group. The results showed that those who completed the mindfulness training had lower levels of stress and less depressive symptoms. They also had improvements in motor and executive function (7).

Dr. Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, studied the effects of meditation on brain structure. For example, a prospective controlled study documented changes in brain structure after eight weeks of regular mindful meditation (7 and 8).

In a competitive world where we are constantly bombarded by judgments and criticism, mindfulness helps us to keep the attention on our goals. Mindfulness cultivates an open-minded curious approach to life; it builds awareness and resilience while fostering empathy for ourselves and others.



References:



1) https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/wellness/integrative/treatments-services/guided-imagery

2) https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition

3) https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/biofeedback/about/pac-20384664

4)https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080104123246.htm

5) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30312812/

6)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1546144018311499

7)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6796221/

8) https://www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/research/lazar-lab-for-meditation-research



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting.

Popular posts from this blog

Yoga as Antihypertensive Lifestyle Therapy

Image
   The 2017 American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association (AHA) Guidelines redefined hypertension to a lower blood pressure threshold of 130 mm HG for systolic blood pressure (SBP) and 80 mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure (DBP).  Considering these guidelines, 46 % of US adults now present with hypertension. The 2017 American College of Cardiology /AHA Guidelines highlight the importance of regular exercise for the management of hypertension along with the DASH diet.  A meta-analysis published by Mayo Clinic Proceedings in March 2019 found that when yoga is practiced with breathing exercises ( pranayama) and meditation-relaxation techniques it is a viable antihypertensive lifestyle therapy that helps to reduce blood pressure (1).  The study showed that the practice of yoga three times a week reduced systolic blood pressure by 11 mm Hg and 6 mm Hg in the case of diastolic pressure. These reductions of blood pressure equal or exceed the decreas...
Read more

The need to keep muscles healthy

Image
     Physical exercise helps to prevent the loss of muscle mass associated with aging. Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass, muscle strength and function (1). When sarcopenia progresses due to a sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition, the quality of life is affected. The risk of falls, fractures and hospitalizations increases. Falls in seniors lead to greater healthcare cost; millions of dollars are spent every year in America due to falls (2). Strong muscles are crucial to support the health of bones. (The need to keep bones healthy will be the focus of a future entry). Sarcopenia is associated with chronic inflammation. The good news is that physical exercise can counter the effects of inflammation on muscle. A new study published by Science Advances found that exercise helps muscle cells to counter chronic inflammation (3). Researchers at Duke University used muscle cells in the laboratory to investigate this. They exposed muscle cells to chronic inflammation by u...
Read more