Daniel Siegel, M.D. on Challenges Facing Today's Children
By Richard Mahler
(Continued from above)
  
    "We're seeing huge numbers of kids who have trouble with dysregulation and social cognition problems," reports Siegel, referring to the learned human abilities to deal with time management, control of emotion, recognition of nonverbal cues from others, and related communication issues. Acknowledging that such mind-associated phenomena are influenced by many factors, the author of The Mindful Brain and other books is nonetheless convinced that today's fast-paced, highly mediated lifestyles are having a worrisome impact on a growing percentage of children - and their parents.     
    "In some ways our environment is excessively stimulating," Siegel observes, "but it's unclear exactly how we are being affected [by this hyper-stimulation]." He suggests, however, that "people are multitasking themselves into oblivion, so busy and distracted that they are 'losing their minds.'" This "mindlessness" may play a role in a host of social ills, ranging from poor quality personal relationships to unpredictable mood swings.  
    In his NIH presentation, Siegel will provide an overview of key research on mindful awareness, particularly those studies suggesting mindfulness practices stimulate and strengthen specific circuits of the brain that promote both mental and physical health. "I'll talk about why this is not some weird, woo-woo thing," he laughs. "The fact that the NIH is involved confirms that people [in the mainstream health-care community] are taking mindfulness seriously. I'm very encouraged by that kind of acceptance."
    Based on his cutting-edge academic work, 25 years as a psychiatrist, and direct experience with mindfulness, Siegel believes "in the capacity of the brain's social circuitry to attune to itself" through such practices as meditation, tai chi, and yoga. In physiological terms, he argues, the activity within our minds to a significant degree determines our experience. Human emotion in particular, "serves as a central organizing process within the brain."
    Siegel, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California-Los Angeles, takes his theories of "neurobiology of personal experience" beyond the usual mindfulness categories. He contends that positive, compassionate relationships in home, workplace, and community actually help the human brain operate in a more positive, compassionate, and health-affirming way. To that end, Siegel conducts workshops devoted to improving "brain hygiene," writes prolifically on the subject, and lectures widely. In 1999 he was even invited to the Vatican to share his findings with papal officials, including the late Pope John Paul II. The pope was particularly curious about the impact of the non-verbal cues of a mother on her infant's impressionable mind.
    "The brain needs social relationships as a kind of 'food,'" Siegel explains. Without them, the circuitry that allows us to regulate inner and external behavior in appropriate, self-fulfilling ways may remain undeveloped or become dysfunctional. The bottom line, this developmental and social scientist believes, is "we can use the mind to change our own health, which is fantastic."
    Siegel looks forward to a time when people may adopt the habit of meditating - or engaging in another activity that similarly strengthens mindfulness -in the same way that they brush and floss their teeth each day. Even five minutes of daily mindfulness practice, he insists, may have a positive effect on an individual's social, emotional, and physical health. Widening acceptance of this notion has already altered some long-standing paradigms.
    "We've become aware in the last few years that the brain actually shapes and reshapes itself over a lifetime," notes Siegel. He recalls being taught at Harvard Medical School the standard dictum that brain functionality is largely fixed once one reaches adulthood. "When we get our brains active in a certain fashion," Siegel says, "we can change its architecture throughout our lives."
    Central to Siegel's work is the conviction that our most important interpersonal relationships fire up neural circuits that allow us to understand and empathize with others, to anticipate the feelings of one another, and to interpret non-verbal messages. This view is increasingly upheld by clinical studies using fMRI and other brain-measurement technology, as well as survey research.
    Awareness is controllable and shapeable," Siegel says, pointing out that the ability to focus and direct attention - as one does when remaining fully aware and perceptive in the present moment - stimulates very specific electrical currents within the brain and increases production of certain powerful hormones. As a corollary, "we can teach each other to pay attention in ways that promote well-being and resilience."
    This psychiatrist uses "mindsight," a term he coined several years ago, to describe the human capacity to see and shape the mind. Mindsight may harness "mirror neurons" to deduce the emotions and intentions of others, and even of oneself. These circuits in turn connect with those that regulate the internal milieu: the body and the brain themselves. We develop this process of attunement and regulation over time, and particularly through key interactions during childhood. Siegel's Mindsight Institute is an educational organization that explores this realm while promoting insight, compassion, and empathy in individuals, families, and institutions. Its focus is on the growth of healthy people who can nurture a more compassionate society.
    Siegel's view of the mind balances the role of feelings, memories, and experiences with that of brain physiology, particularly the interplay of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex, along with coordinated synthesis of left and right hemisphere, brainstem, and limbic systems. Put simply, he sees the brain as potentially self-regulatory. Certain parts of the mind can be trained through understanding and practice to shape and regulate other parts. Mindfulness uses the prefrontal cortex to note other neural messages without judging or locking onto them. This self-regulatory practice performs an integrative function that may provide a person with a sense of awareness that her or she may never have experienced before. Insights, flexibility, calmness, self-confidence, and a sense of coherence may flow from the realization that thoughts, sensations, and feelings can come and go without "taking over" the mind. Eventually, "mindfulness" may become a trait of the individual - an enduring state of being - that allows a person to experience the ups and downs of life while remaining in a state of equilibrium.
    Siegel's explanations of neurobiology are delivered with great enthusiasm in language anyone can understand. This may help explain his popularity with such TV talk show personalities as Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Phil McGraw. Although grounded in science, his theories quickly resonate with the current zeitgeist. "We're at an amazing moment in cultural evolution," Siegel concludes. "Many factors are coming together to enhance our understanding of the mind-body connection. We're realizing that simply knowing facts doesn't create personal or emotional skills. It appears the Information Age doesn't lend itself to developing resilience or staying present with experience. At the same time, we're also learning how to perceive the world of the mind with clarity and depth - and how such perceptiveness can demonstrably improve the well-being of people, including children."

Learn more about Dan Siegel and the Mindsight Institute at www.drdansiegel.com

Click here to return to the start of the article

Timothy McCall, M.D. on Integrating Yoga Therapy and Conventional Medicine
By Richard Mahler
(Continued from above)

    "My interest," McCall wrote in his 2007 book, Yoga As Medicine, "was originally sparked by all the stories I heard from people who said yoga had helped them deal with depression or back pain or a difficult transition into menopause."
    McCall went on to travel throughout the U.S. and India, interviewing and observing teachers, therapists, researchers, and experts representing a wide range of yogic as well as Tantric and Ayurvedic traditions. He spent months combing through esoteric publications and obscure research studies, including many not readily available to Western audiences. Through it all, he continued his own practices, studies, and writing.
    "At the NIH gathering in September," McCall disclosed in a recent interview, "my plan is to talk about how yoga and modern medicine are not simply complementary ways to treat a variety of health conditions, but are actually different systems of 'knowing.' Whereas yoga involves direct awareness in a holistic way, in medical science we are reductionist: breaking big things into small pieces in an attempt to better understand the whole."
    Neither path of knowledge is definitive in and of itself, said McCall, but combining them can have a synergistic or multiplicative effect: "It's a case of one plus one plus one not equaling three, but ten."
    The physician-author, a writer and medical editor for Yoga Journal magazine, believes Western medicine is gradually opening itself to non-conventional practices and therapies such as yoga, but sees system-related hurdles that impede wider acceptance. "We [yogis] intervene gently in many different places to impact the overall systems of the body," he pointed out. "The changes may occur slowly. But in conventional medicine, a drug may be prescribed and significant changes seen within days or weeks."
    Moreover, the U.S. medical community is oriented toward research often underwritten by drug companies who have a financial interest in a study's outcome. The model of treatment has evolved into a system that "makes more use of drugs than ever before." It relies on high-technology, extensive testing, and limited timeframes for patient interviews, physical examinations, and counseling. In contrast, mind-body therapies cannot be rushed, may involve changes in diet and lifestyle, and frequently are highly individualized. Insurance companies often will not pay for these non-traditional interventions in part because they are thought to not have sufficient scientific support, particularly from large, randomized, controlled studies.
    "We are relying more and more on so-called 'evidence-based' medicine," according to McCall, "and we think we are being purely objective. But it's a deck stacked against things like yoga, tai chi, chi gong, and mindfulness meditation. For one thing, there is no industry, like there is for pharmaceuticals, to cover the cost of research. Government will pay for some of this research, but nowhere near enough for it to compete on a level playing field with drug therapy."
    Nonetheless, McCall is hopeful that methodologies and quality controls in yoga research will continue to improve, and thereby bring yoga wider acceptance in the medical community. In India, he pointed out, the cost of labor is so much lower that randomized studies with large sample sizes can - and are - being conducted more frequently than in the West, and the methodology is getting better all the time. As these research results trickle in, along with more Western studies, he predicted that more Western doctors will see how yoga may help a person ease a constellation of chronic conditions while generating few serious negative side-effects. Indeed, he noted, the side-effects of yoga therapy are "almost all positive. But in evaluating study results no credit is given [by those in conventional medicine] for results like that. Conversely, few demerits are given for drug therapy's potentially negative side-effects, many of which may not become apparent in short-term studies that are done on mostly healthy subjects."
    And while many of yoga's health-affirming impacts accumulate gradually over months, years, or even decades, McCall said in some cases the benefits come more quickly. During his NIH lecture, he intends to teach his audience a form of yogic breathing that can palpably calm the nervous system within a minute or two. "When you try it," said McCall, "it's pretty persuasive. Yogis believe it has great utility for anxiety, insomnia, and so on, yet it doesn't have the side-effects and addiction risks of a powerful drug like Xanax." Yet Xanax, which many physicians - including McCall - feel is generally ill-advised due to its worrisome side-effects, has clinical evidence of effectiveness, mostly from manufacturer-sponsored trials. "So are we to believe," he asked rhetorically, "that prescribing this clinically proven but problematic drug is more scientific than recommending this untested breathing technique? Are we supposed to wait for proof of the effectiveness of a technique we have good reason to believe to be safe, gentle, and useful? Why should we wait to implement something like this?"
    Questions such as these are likely to be raised in a new book, yet untitled, that McCall is currently writing for an undated release. "It's basically about how holistic traditions fit into modern medicine," he said, "and suggests a re-examination of our evidence-based health care system." The forthcoming book will be his third, added to an oeuvre that already includes Examining Your Doctor: A Patient's Guide to Avoiding Harmful Medical Care.

Learn more about Timothy McCall and his work at www.drmccall.com

Richard Mahler is a free-lance writer and editor based in Silver City, New Mexico. In 2000 he received professional training as a facilitator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and since then he has taught MBSR in California and New Mexico. The author of "Stillness: Daily Gifts of Solitude"
and 10 other books, Richard's by-line has appeared in Yoga Journal, Body + Soul, Alternative Medicine, and the Los Angeles Times, among many other publications. Learn more at www.RichardMahler.com

NIH 1st Annual Mind-Body Week, September 8-11,2009

Click here for more Information on the NIH Mind-Body Week Conference

Click here for NIH Mind-Body Week Travel and Logistics Information

Mindful Musings  Copyright © 2009  eMindful

Editor: Kelley McCabe  Writer: Richard Mahler 
Design: Alan L. Kosow
Editorial Advisor: Paul Sugar  Support: David Lesak