• Yoga breathing, meditation, and longevity

    Type Journal Article
    Author Richard P Brown
    Author Patricia L Gerbarg
    Abstract Yoga breathing is an important part of health and spiritual practices in Indo-Tibetan traditions. Considered fundamental for the development of physical well-being, meditation, awareness, and enlightenment, it is both a form of meditation in itself and a preparation for deep meditation. Yoga breathing (pranayama) can rapidly bring the mind to the present moment and reduce stress. In this paper, we review data indicating how breath work can affect longevity mechanisms in some ways that overlap with meditation and in other ways that are different from, but that synergistically enhance, the effects of meditation. We also provide clinical evidence for the use of yoga breathing in the treatment of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and for victims of mass disasters. By inducing stress resilience, breath work enables us to rapidly and compassionately relieve many forms of suffering.
    Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
    Volume 1172
    Pages 54-62
    Date Aug 2009
    Journal Abbr Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci
    DOI 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04394.x
    ISSN 1749-6632
    URL http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.bu.edu/pubmed/19735239
    Accessed Fri Feb 4 11:13:50 2011
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 19735239
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:05:38 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:05:38 2011

    Tags:

    • Breathing Exercises
    • Electroencephalography
    • Humans
    • Longevity
    • Meditation
    • Nervous System Physiological Phenomena
    • Respiration
    • Respiratory Mechanics
    • yoga

  • Longevity: potential life span and health span enhancement through practice of the basic yoga meditation regimen

    Type Journal Article
    Author William C Bushell
    Abstract This chapter briefly reviews recent psychological, physiological, molecular biological, and anthropological research which has important implications, both direct and indirect, for the recognition and understanding of the potential life span and health span enhancing effects of the basic yoga meditational regimen. This regimen consists of meditation, yogic breath control practices, physical exercises (of both a postural- and movement-based, including aerobic nature), and dietary practices. While each of these component categories exhibit variations in different schools, lineages, traditions, and cultures, the focus of this chapter is primarily on basic forms of relaxation meditation and breath control, as well as postural and aerobic physical exercises (e.g., yogic prostration regimens, see below), and a standard form of yogic or ascetic diet, all of which constitute a basic form of regimen found in many if not most cultures, though with variations.
    Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
    Volume 1172
    Pages 20-27
    Date Aug 2009
    Journal Abbr Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci
    DOI 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04538.x
    ISSN 1749-6632
    Short Title Longevity
    URL http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.bu.edu/pubmed/19735236
    Accessed Fri Feb 4 11:14:26 2011
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 19735236
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:05:38 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:05:38 2011

    Tags:

    • Caloric Restriction
    • Exercise
    • Health promotion
    • Humans
    • Immune System
    • Longevity
    • Meditation
    • Stress, Psychological
    • yoga

  • Toward a unified field of study: longevity, regeneration, and protection of health through meditation and related practices

    Type Journal Article
    Author William C Bushell
    Author Neil D Theise
    Abstract The orientation of this volume and the Longevity and Optimal Health: Integrating Eastern and Western Perspectives conference is that there is abundant evidence in the scientific and medical literatures that the diligent practice of certain yoga-meditational regimens can lead to a spectrum of health enhancements, ranging from modest to profound, and that these can be investigated in a scientifically rigorous fashion. This overview will summarize these possibilities regarding improved human longevity, regeneration, and protection of health and serve to introduce the perspectives of conference participants from all of the traditions represented.
    Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
    Volume 1172
    Pages 5-19
    Date Aug 2009
    Journal Abbr Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci
    DOI 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04959.x
    ISSN 1749-6632
    Short Title Toward a unified field of study
    URL http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.bu.edu/pubmed/19735235
    Accessed Fri Feb 4 11:15:10 2011
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 19735235
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:05:38 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:05:38 2011

    Tags:

    • Health promotion
    • Humans
    • Longevity
    • Meditation
    • yoga

  • Death and Dying, Life and Living

    Type Book
    Editor Clyde M. Nabe Charles A. Corr
    Editor Donna M. Corr
    Edition Sixth
    Place Belmont
    Publisher Wadsworth Cengage Learning
    Date 2009
    # of Pages 712
    Date Added Tue Oct 11 20:51:58 2011
    Modified Thu Nov 3 08:50:34 2011

  • Spiritual dimensions of dying in pluralist societies

    Type Journal Article
    Author Liz Grant
    Author Scott A Murray
    Author Aziz Sheikh
    Abstract Despite the decline of formal religion many people still regard the idea of spirituality as essential to their sense of self, especially at times of inner turbulence. We explore how the spiritual needs of dying patients can be understood and met in pluralist and secular societies.
    Publication BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.)
    Volume 341
    Pages c4859
    Date 2010
    Journal Abbr BMJ
    DOI 10.1136/bmj.c4859
    ISSN 1468-5833
    Accessed Wed Oct 6 20:31:55 2010
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 20847019
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:02:29 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:02:29 2011

    Tags:

    • Attitude to Death
    • Health Services Needs and Demand
    • Humans
    • Patient-Centered Care
    • Psychotherapy
    • religion
    • spirituality
    • Stress, Psychological
    • Terminal Care
    • Terminally Ill

  • In Memoriam

    Type Book
    Author Henri Nouwen
    Place Notre Dame
    Publisher Ave Maria Press
    Date 1999
    # of Pages 62
    Date Added Tue Oct 11 20:57:47 2011
    Modified Tue Oct 11 20:57:47 2011

  • Does devoutness delay death? Psychological investment in religion and its association with longevity in the Terman sample

    Type Journal Article
    Author Michael E McCullough
    Author Howard S Friedman
    Author Craig K Enders
    Author Leslie R Martin
    Abstract Religious people tend to live slightly longer lives (M. E. McCullough, W. T. Hoyt, D. B. Larson, H. G. Koenig, & C. E. Thoresen, 2000). On the basis of the principle of social investment (J. Lodi-Smith & B. W. Roberts, 2007), the authors sought to clarify this phenomenon with a study of religion and longevity that (a) incorporated measures of psychological religious commitment; (b) considered religious change over the life course; and (c) examined 19 measures of personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health that might help to explain the religion-longevity association. Discrete-time survival growth mixture models revealed that women (but not men) with the lowest degrees of religiousness through adulthood had shorter lives than did women who were more religious. Survival differences were largely attributable to cross-sectional and prospective between-class differences in personality traits, social ties, health behaviors, and mental and physical health.
    Publication Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
    Volume 97
    Issue 5
    Pages 866-882
    Date Nov 2009
    Journal Abbr J Pers Soc Psychol
    DOI 10.1037/a0016366
    ISSN 1939-1315
    Short Title Does devoutness delay death?
    URL http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.bu.edu/pubmed/19857007
    Accessed Mon Nov 23 20:01:02 2009
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 19857007
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:04:55 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:04:55 2011

  • The Last Watch of the Night

    Type Book
    Author Paul Monette
    Place Fort Washington
    Publisher Harvest
    Date 1994
    Date Added Tue Oct 11 20:54:53 2011
    Modified Tue Oct 11 20:54:53 2011

  • Mortality Differentials and Religion in the United States: Religious Affiliation and Attendance

    Type Journal Article
    Author Allison R. Sullivan
    Abstract Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, I examine the relationship between adult mortality and religious affiliation. I test whether mortality differences associated with religious affiliation can be attributed to differences in socioeconomic status (years of education and household wealth), attendance at religious services, or health behaviors, particularly cigarette and alcohol consumption. A baseline report of attendance at religious services is used to avoid confounding effects of deteriorating health. Socioeconomic status explains some but not all of the mortality difference. While Catholics, evangelical Protestants, and black Protestants benefit from favorable attendance patterns, attendance (or lack of) at services explains much of the higher mortality of those with no religious preference. Health behaviors do not mediate the relationship between mortality and religion, except among evangelical Protestants. Not only does religion matter, but studies examining the effect of “religiosity” need to consider differences by religious affiliation.
    Publication Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
    Volume 49
    Issue 4
    Pages 740-753
    Date 12/2010
    DOI 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2010.01543.x
    ISSN 00218294
    Short Title Mortality Differentials and Religion in the United States
    URL http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2010.01543.x
    Accessed Tue Jan 18 20:23:03 2011
    Library Catalog CrossRef
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 08:58:27 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 08:58:27 2011

  • Bodies at Motion and at Rest

    Type Book
    Author Thomas Lynch
    Place New York
    Publisher W.W. Nortnon & Company
    Date 2001
    Date Added Tue Oct 11 20:59:25 2011
    Modified Tue Oct 11 20:59:25 2011

  • Wisdom and method: extraordinary practices for the realization of longevity and optimal health

    Type Journal Article
    Author Geshe Ngawang Tsondu
    Author Brooke Dodson-Lavelle
    Abstract The focus in our discussion of longevity-enhancement has centered on developing techniques and technologies to control the environment as well as the physical body and its functions. The Tibetan contemplative and medical sciences offer a sophisticated view of the mind-body complex in which efforts to control the external world are insufficient without the development of "inner" technologies to train the mind. From the Tibetan perspective, training the mind is in fact essential to the realization of extraordinary levels of longevity, happiness, and optimal health.
    Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
    Volume 1172
    Pages 344-347
    Date Aug 2009
    Journal Abbr Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci
    DOI 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04408.x
    ISSN 1749-6632
    Short Title Wisdom and method
    URL http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.bu.edu/pubmed/19735254
    Accessed Sat Sep 26 15:41:21 2009
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 19735254
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:05:38 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:05:38 2011

    Tags:

    • Awareness
    • Happiness
    • Health promotion
    • Humans
    • Longevity
    • Medicine, Tibetan Traditional
    • Meditation

  • Preferences for life-prolonging medical treatments and deference to the will of god

    Type Journal Article
    Author Laraine Winter
    Author Marie P Dennis
    Author Barbara Parker
    Abstract We defined and measured a dimension of religiosity frequently invoked in end-of-life (EOL) research-deference to God's Will (GW)-and examined its relationship to preferences for life-prolonging treatments. In a 35-min telephone interview, 304 older men and women (60 +) were administered the 5-item GW scale, sociodemographic questions, three attitude items regarding length of life, and measures of two health indices, depression, and life-prolonging treatment preferences. The GW scale demonstrated internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .94) and predictive and discriminant validity. Higher scores indicative of greater deference to GW were associated with stronger life-prolonging treatment preferences in poor-prognosis scenarios. Implications for the role of religiosity in medical decision-making are discussed.
    Publication Journal of Religion and Health
    Volume 48
    Issue 4
    Pages 418-430
    Date Dec 2009
    Journal Abbr J Relig Health
    DOI 10.1007/s10943-008-9205-y
    ISSN 1573-6571
    URL http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.ezproxy.bu.edu/pubmed/19890718
    Accessed Mon Dec 28 13:13:05 2009
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 19890718
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:04:55 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:04:55 2011