Creating illusions of wondrous effects of yoga and meditation on health: A skeptic exposes tricks

[me/cfs 27931]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell us about the benefits of yoga. Which is perhaps their way of saying "we got nothing for you".

Some people with ME/CFS might benefit from trying techniques like deep breathing and muscle relaxation, massage, and movement therapies (such as stretching, yoga, and tai chi). These can reduce stress and anxiety, and promote a sense of well-being.

https://www.cdc.gov/me-cfs/treatment/index.html

 

[KME]

There was an interesting article in Medscape recently on a study into downsides of meditation experienced by some. The one I found most interesting was that some people experience sound and light sensitivity (but the way it is described in the study is very different from my sound/light sensitivity):

The Medscape article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/880615



The study the Medscape article is discussing: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0176239



I meditate a lot and I like it, but it’s not a cure-all, it has downsides and I completely understand how it could be a bad idea for some people. It does diddly squat for my ME, other than indirectly, by helping me rest better and giving me tools to manage the times that are really tough. An example of a downside? If I meditate sitting up, I get dizzy after less than a minute. (I can sit up for a good few minutes when not meditating.) My guess is that in my normal non-meditative state, my body is working hard to compensate for orthostatic intolerance, and it’s managing to do that to a certain extent. When I meditate and relax, I relax those compensatory mechanisms (could be as simple as a drop in blood pressure) and the system falls apart. Overall, though, my orthostatic intolerance improves with the rest I get while meditating lying down.



In my years of meditating I have come across a good few mentions, by teachers, of some people with mental health issues finding that meditation makes them worse (others report finding it helpful), and mentions of some people seemingly being tipped into a mental health condition which they hadn’t overtly had before. The recommendations I’ve heard are to seek help from psychiatry/psychology professionals if necessary and to switch to more active meditative activities/doing activities mindfully, like walking meditation or gardening mindfully or yoga.



The other thing that caught my eye was the association of meditation with hypometabolism http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/content/13/3/149.long. It’s possible that we (people with ME/CFS) don’t want to be more hypometabolic than we already are.


The ME Association's 2010 survey is interesting when it comes to meditation and yoga.

Meditation or relaxation techniques (1675 people): 54% improved, 44% no change, 2% worse

Yoga (812 people): 39% improved, 33% no change, 28% worse

 

[Little Bluestem]

I don't think this is questioning results such as stress relief, but some far-out claims that these practices can change DNA expression. I personally enjoyed Tai Chi when I did it some years ago. I don't think it helped my ME any, though.

“These activities are leaving what we call a molecular signature in our cells, which reverses the effect that stress or anxiety would have on the body by changing how our genes are expressed.”

I was not surprised to see one trial of mindfulness for cancer patients obtain no effects on depressive symptoms or perceived stress, but then go on to explain mindfulness might powerfully affect the expression of DNA.