August 13, 2019
In this Q&A session, Dr. Michele Burklund, Puriya’s Chief Science Officer, talks about the power of mind body medicine and the importance of mind body wellness.
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Right below, you will find the transcript of this video.
Transcript:
(00:00) – Hi, everyone. Now, did you know that doing this practice as little as 10 minutes a day can have profound effects on your health, and that there are over 19,000 studies on this practice? And we are talking about the mind-body connection. Now, I’m Dr. Michele Burklund. I’m the chief science officer here at Puriya. And besides formulating new products, writing the medical literature, researching, I am here with you every Friday at 10:00 AM Pacific Standard Time to talk about medical health, the botanical medicine, and holistic wellness, and to answer your questions as well. So, I love this topic. This is a great topic to remember the power within ourselves. And also here at Puriya, we believe in a holistic approach, which means that we deeply believe in the mind-body connection. So, as I’m waiting for more people to join in, be sure to follow us on Facebook so you can remember. If you happen to forget it, I’ll alert you that we have these sessions every week on different topics. And also, we have a link for e-book. Let me pull up a picture of it.
(01:21) – So this is our e-book. And what I love about it is that we talk a lot about the mind-body connection inside the book. So if you sign up for our newsletter, you can get lots of great information on what’s going on at Puriya, different things about our products, and then also lots of educational material and articles, and you get this e-book to download. And in the e-book, of course, I know a lot about it because I wrote it, is the mind-body connection to give you all the tools to help you with your overall health. And we talk about different studies in there, and one of my favorite things is that everything is referenced in the back. So, if you have more questions, or you want more details about all these great studies, you have this book and you have all the references to go through as well, and it’s completely free. So, it’s a win-win situation for this.
(02:18) – We are going to start, and I wanna start off with one of my favorite quotes that I learned in medical school, “The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force of getting well,” and that was from Hippocrates.
(02:33) – So, just think about that as we go along when we discuss different things. The first question is what is mind-body medicine? And this is actually a very difficult question, because mind-body medicine encompasses so many different practices, but the end result, what they all have in common, is to become more in tune with your body and the environment. So, the idea that the mind and body were separate actually came about in the Renaissance, in the enlightenment eras where they were two different things. And they’re definitely… It’s definitely becoming… Coming back full circle now. So, we went very far away from them, and looked at it as two different entities. And I think the placebo effect, which we’re going to in just a second really brought us back to the power of our perception in our mind. So, in the 1940s, modern science really started getting into trials and evidence-based medicine. And that’s when they really discovered what they call the placebo effect. And what the placebo effect is is that it’s the use of inert substances. So, sugar pills or saline injections that you give a patient, and they perceive it… They believe it’s a real treatment, and it produces a positive outcome.
(04:00) – So, it’s typically… Let’s say it’s in a hospital setting, and one patient gets the medication and the other patient doesn’t. But they both are getting medication, so they believe and they’re expecting this result. And you know, we… Science has tried to figure out, well, what causes the placebo effect? And there’s many different variables from perception, trust, expectations, cultural conditioning. So, you’re in a hospital setting. You see a doctor with a white coat. You give them trust. You’re used to this setting for medicine. You have expectations of what the medicine can be like, and the outcome, it’s supposed to happen. So, all these different things come into play. And then studies show that the placebo effect can be responsible for up to 35% of the outcome. So, these ideas we have about the perception, the expectation, all of these, whatever causes a placebo, we know it’s related to the mind-body connection, and that’s powerful information. That’s huge and incredibly important that we know that the mind plays a huge role in health, in both ways. In negative ways, if you’ve negative thoughts, and positive and the expectations of all of this.
(05:21) – So it’s a very important and powerful thing to study, and be aware of in medicine as well. It’s a huge part of it. So there’s actually a lot of studies going on right now to say, what do these practices… How can they help the body? And mind-body medicine, right, is a very large subject. It can encompass tai chi, meditation, yoga, so many different practices. And so the studies are looking at all these different types of mind-body medicine, and asking questions of how does it affect expression at a cellular level, at the gene expression? How does it interact with the brain, and how does it affect different areas of the brain? How does it interact with hormones and neurotransmitters in the body, or can it improve concentration or enhance cognition? And how does it even affect the GI function? So they’re studying all of these great aspects and all these different mind-body practices. What we do know is that it exists. There is a mind-body connection that’s proven. How to complete harness that… Completely harness that, we’re working on, and we can keep doing it step-by-step, because it really is a practice.
(06:36) – So, besides the placebo effect, the placebo effect was kind of in modern medicine, the original mind-body connection, the link. And we know it can happen in so many different forms, in so many different ways. Like, for example, have you noticed that when you get stressed, you get sick more? Well, a study actually showed that stress and negative emotions can lower your white blood cell count. So lowering your white blood cell count lowers your immune function. Studies have shown that that mind-body medicine practices can help with pain perception, can improve your mood, help with headaches, cognition and concentration, improve sleep, improve stress, and overall quality of life. So, it’s deeply connected on many levels, your health, your well-being, and your emotions. And I think as we’re understanding so much more about a holistic approach, it’s very important for all areas of your health too. And a study that I referenced a little bit about at the beginning was that it showed 10 minutes of deep breathing, diaphragmatic breathing could improve your mood and concentration while decreasing stress levels.
(07:53) – So, something 10 minutes a day that can have profound effects on your mood, on your concentration on so many areas of life from breathing, from something we do all day, but starting to pay attention to it. I think it’s a great reminder of how we can start incorporating this into our day lives. And also here at Puriya, we know very well that stress is responsible for making a lot of skin conditions worse, from eczema, psoriasis, and pretty much everything. Fungal infections, when you have stress and a lowered immune system and emotional state, a negative emotional state, all of these come in and can make the condition worse. So, when we write our e-books, when we provide our guides, we keep them in mind because we wanna help with prevention and helping you recover faster too. And we believe that it’s a complete holistic approach that we need to take. So, one of… This is a very big question, how can you incorporate these methods into your daily life? And like I said, there’s so many different kinds, and it’s finding the right one for you. There is guided visualizations, muscle relaxation, hypnosis, Tai Chi?
(09:13) – What I have always recommended patients when I have wanted them to help get more connected to their mind and their body or ways for them to reduce stress is starting basic, starting simple. So, one very simple way is to sit in a quiet room, find a quiet room for one to two, three minutes at the beginning during the day, and focus on your breath. Just sit there and feel your breath. Feel where the air goes into your body, and thoughts are going to come up, you know, like, “Should I… I need to remember to go buy this at the grocery store. I can’t forget this,” or something about work. We know they’re going to come up, especially they’re going to come up a lot more at the beginning, but recognizing that thought and letting it go, and then continuing to focus on your breath, and then another thought will come and recognize it, and then move on. So doing this just a couple of minutes at the beginning, it’s a practice, and it takes time to get used to it, to learn to recognize your thoughts, to push them out of the way, to focus on your breathing. It’s a great way to reduce stress and to start becoming in tune with your body. Another one of my favorite things that I like to recommend patients is walking meditation.
(10:40) – And this is done more in a natural setting, because you’re feeling and you’re being aware of the surroundings. So ideally, it’s a calm and peaceful surroundings that you have because you wanna… You can take off your shoes, and you can feel how your feet feels on the earth, and you can feel how your body’s moving, and pay attention to that. Because we go through the day and we don’t pay attention to our arms moving or what our body is doing. And so this can… Sets us back and gives us that opportunity. You know, you feel the air on your skin, and you pay attention to that, and how the oxygen gets into your lungs, and then the sounds of the wind, and the trees, and the birds. So all of these things are helping you tune in to your environment. And everything that’s going on in that moment and what you’re feeling instead of, “Oh no, I need to go buy this from the grocery store this or that.”
(11:34) – So, it helps you focus on something instead of trying to clear your mind. It’s an easier way to start, to kinda bring it to your immediate environment and help you become more in tune with that as well. Now, also another simple way to start is listening to a CD or taking a class. So, having… If that feels too overwhelming to sit in a quiet room or to go out in nature, starting with something guided, like a guided meditation or a class on a specific type. Many different things, but I wanna remind all of you guys, the healing power you all have within yourselves. And I will close on that note, but I want to remind you, let me pull this up here, that we have an interview on Monday, August 5th at 10:00 AM Pacific Standard Time with the Dr. Jade Stefano. And she is an amazing physician, and on top of that, she owns an organic cannabis farm in Washington state, and she has a great knowledge on botanical medicine, phytoconstituents, different extraction methods, different growing methods.
(12:45) – All of these very important things, because if you go into stores now, if you go online, you see so many products that have CBD oil on them or different cannabis medicines, but there’s so much out there. And how do you decipher high quality, clean, good products from so many marketing claims and so much that it’s out there and Dr. Jade Stefano is a great person to talk to and to help educate us on that. So, highly recommend you guys join in and jump again Monday, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter too, so you can download our e-book and get more information on the mind-body connection. So, have an amazing weekend. Try to get out in nature, try to practice walking meditation or just sitting in a quiet room. And I will see you next week, Friday 10:00 AM Pacific Standard Time to talk about another subject. Take care.
