Connectedness: ParuchMD

Life skills play a key role in promoting educational and occupational success in early life, but their relevance at older ages is uncertain. Here we measured five life skills-conscientiousness, emotional stability, determination, control, and optimism-in 8,119 men and women aged 52 and older (mean 66.7 y). We show that the number of skills is associated with wealth, income, subjective wellbeing, less depression, low social isolation and loneliness, more close relationships, better self-rated health, fewer chronic diseases and impaired activities of daily living, faster walking speed, and favorable objective biomarkers (concentration of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, vitamin D and C-reactive protein, and less central obesity)...

Research suggests that contact with nature can be beneficial, for example leading to improvements in mood, cognition, and health. A distinct but related idea is the personality construct of subjective nature connectedness, a stable individual difference in cognitive, affective, and experiential connection with the natural environment. Subjective nature connectedness is a strong predictor of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors that may also be positively associated with subjective well-being. This meta-analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between nature connectedness and happiness...

Research has shown that the strength of the implicit affiliation-intimacy motive moderates the effects of satisfaction and frustration of the need for affiliation-intimacy: Low relatedness was more closely related to envy for people high in the implicit affiliation-intimacy motive. The present study tests a moderating effect of the strength of the implicit affiliation-intimacy motive on the association between low relatedness and social cynicism in samples of elderly people from Germany, the Czech Republic, and Cameroon...

Yoga is a multifaceted spiritual tool with enhanced health and well-being as one of its positive effects. The components of yoga which are very commonly applied for health benefits are asanas (physical postures), pranayama (regulated breathing) and meditation. In the context of asanas, yoga resembles more of a physical exercise, which may lead to the perception that yoga is another kind of physical exercise. This article aims at exploring the commonalities and differences between yoga and physical exercise in terms of concepts, possible mechanisms and effectiveness for health benefits...

BACKGROUND: The metabolic syndrome is thought to be a contributor to coronary heart disease (CHD), and components of the syndrome have been identified as possible therapeutic targets. Previous data implicate neurohumoral activation related to psychosocial stress as a contributor to the metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of transcendental meditation (TM) on components of the metabolic syndrome and CHD. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 16 weeks of TM or active control treatment (health education), matched for frequency and time, at an academic medical center in a total of 103 subjects with stable CHD...

BACKGROUND: This research report presents findings on 'start in life' from a qualitative study of 90-year-olds from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921. The study aimed to contextualise the LBC1921 cohort in time and place, describe cohort members' experiences of family and schooling and stimulate further inquiry into the relationships between 'start in life' and risk and resilience factors relating to longevity and healthy ageing. Scottish education and family life in the early 1930s are briefly described...

Using data from the International Dating Violence Study, this study examined the roles of early socialization, family social structure, and relationship dynamics factors on physical aggression in dating among U.S. college students in emerging adulthood. The interaction effects between these three domains of interest (early socialization, family social structure, and relationship dynamics) were explored to understand the underlying mechanisms that influenced victimization and perpetration in dating. In general, we found that family and relational variables associated with dating victimization and perpetration were fairly similar...

In this meta-analysis we investigated differential associations between maternal and paternal parenting behaviors (overcontrol, overprotection, overinvolvement, autonomy granting, challenging parenting) and anxiety and its precursors (fearful temperament, behavioral inhibition, shyness) in children (0-5years). Two meta-analyses were conducted, one for mothers (k=28, N=5,728), and one for fathers (k=12, N=1,019). In general, associations between parenting and child anxiety were small. Associations between child anxiety and overcontrol, overprotection, and overinvolvement did not differ for mothers and fathers...

Early life stress may have a lasting impact on the developmental programming of the dopamine (DA) system implicated in psychosis. Early adversity could promote resilience by calibrating the prefrontal stress-regulatory dopaminergic neurotransmission to improve the individual's fit with the predicted stressful environment. Aberrant reactivity to such match between proximal and distal environments may, however, enhance psychosis disease risk. We explored the combined effects of childhood adversity and adult stress by exposing 12 unmedicated individuals with a diagnosis of non-affective psychotic disorder (NAPD) and 12 healthy controls (HC) to psychosocial stress during an [18F]fallypride positron emission tomography...

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of disability and death worldwide. Yoga, a mind-body exercise, utilizes breathing techniques with low-impact physical activity that may be an alternative treatment for cardiovascular disease. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine yoga interventions for patients at-risk for and/or suffering from cardiovascular disease. The inclusion criteria for interventions were ( a) published in the English language between 2005 and 2015; ( b) indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL, or Alt HealthWatch; ( c) employed a quantitative design; and ( d) applied a yoga intervention...

This group study explored how an intervention of diet and lifestyle, including a vegan diet, fruit and vegetable juicing, nutritional supplements, regular exercise, and destressing techniques, would affect 27 subjects with anxiety, depression, poor memory, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, history of stroke, or multiple sclerosis. Several subjects had overlapping conditions. Videotaped testimonials were obtained describing subjective results. Testimonials stated multiple benefits across all conditions addressed by the study, with subjects often reporting substantial benefits...

The transition to adulthood in the US has become increasingly diverse over the last fifty years, leaving young adults without a normative pathway to adulthood. Using Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N=7803), I draw from a cumulative advantages/disadvantages (CAD) perspective to examine the relationships between union formation, parenthood, college attendance, full-time employment, home-leaving, and changes in health-promoting behaviors between adolescence and young adulthood...

The present study examined the trajectory of self-esteem from adolescence to mid-adulthood and its predictors in adolescence in a prospective cohort sample with a 26-year follow-up. Participants of a Finnish cohort study in 1983 at 16 years (N = 2194) were followed up at ages 22 (N = 1656), 32 (N = 1471) and 42 (N = 1334) years. Self-esteem development was analyzed using latent growth curve models with parental socioeconomic status (SES), parental divorce, school achievement, daily smoking, and heavy drinking as time invariant covariates...

According to the social withdrawal hypothesis, a personal network becomes smaller when a person starts dating, cohabitates and marries. This phenomenon is widely established in the literature. However, these studies were usually done with cross-sectional data. As a consequence, it is still unclear whether or how personal networks actually change after the formation of a romantic relationship (i.e. dating), after starting cohabitation and after getting married. It is also unclear how long and to what extent social withdrawal continues...

Social and behavioral scientists have shown a growing interest in the study of virtues due, in part, to the influence of positive psychology. The underlying premise in this research is that adopting key virtues promotes a better quality of life. Consistent with this orientation, the purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between humility and self-forgiveness over time. The analyses are organized around three issues. First, it is proposed that older Blacks will be more humble than older Whites and older Blacks will be more likely to forgive themselves than older Whites...

This study was designed to assess the association between stress, positive affect and catecholamine levels in meditation and control groups. The meditation group consisted of 67 subjects who regularly engaged in mind-body training of "Brain-Wave Vibration" and the control group consisted of 57 healthy subjects. Plasma catecholamine (norepinephrine (NE), epinephrine (E), and dopamine (DA)) levels were measured, and a modified form of the Stress Response Inventory (SRI-MF) and the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) were administered...

Mindfulness meditation has beneficial effects on brain and body, yet the impact of Vipassana, a type of mindfulness meditation, on heart rate variability (HRV) - a psychophysiological marker of mental and physical health - is unknown. We hypothesised increases in measures of well-being and HRV, and decreases in ill-being after training in Vipassana compared to before (time effects), during the meditation task compared to resting baseline (task effects), and a time by task interaction with more pronounced differences between tasks after Vipassana training...

Converging evidence demonstrates that physical activity evokes a brain state characterized by distinctive changes in brain metabolism and cortical function. Human studies have shown that physical activity leads to a generalized increase in electroencephalography power across regions and frequencies, and a global increase in brain nonoxidative metabolism of carbohydrate substrates. This nonoxidative consumption of carbohydrate has been hypothesized to include increased de novo synthesis of amino acid neurotransmitters, especially glutamate and GABA...

Emotion regulation in the ongoing presence of a threat is essential for adaptive behavior. Threatening situations change over time and, as a consequence, require a fine-tuned, dynamic regulation of arousal to match the current state of the environment. Constructs such as cognitive flexibility, heart rate variability, and resilience have been proposed as resources for adaptive emotion regulation, especially in a moment-to-moment fashion. Nevertheless, none of these constructs has been empirically related to the dynamic regulation of arousal as it unfolds over the course of a prolonged threatening episode...

INTRODUCTION: Heart rate variability is a measure of modulation in autonomic input to the heart and is one of the markers of autonomic functions. Though there are many studies on the long term influence of breathing on HRV (heart rate variability) there are only a few studies on the immediate effect of breathing especially alternate nostril breathing on HRV. This study focuses on the immediate effects of alternate nostril breathing and the influence of different breathing rates on HRV...