This month we're talking about giving ourselves a mental and physical "sigh of relief." Let's start with a deep breath. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, letting your belly rise. Now exhale, all the way, through your mouth.

Try it once more, twice if you can spare a moment.

Releasing stress and feeling the calm is this simple. It helps if you turn off the noise machine—TV, music, the chatter in your mind—and close your eyes.

If your children are old enough to follow instructions, teach them how to do this breathing exercise and then do it with them a couple times each day. You'll all benefit, and they'll be learning a skill they can use for a lifetime.

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Dr. Edelberg's March Message
Tuning In to Your Mind’s Healing Power
Ponder the following and then ask yourself: what do these three studies have in common?

Each of these studies illuminates the link between mind and body—how emotions can both create disease as well as heal it. Virtually everyone involved in healing, whether a conventional family doctor, a chiropractor, or a very alternative Reiki therapist, has given some thought to this link.

One of the earliest people to actually demonstrate a powerful mind-body connection and a way to tap into it was Harvard cardiology researcher and physician Herbert Benson. In the early 1970s he described the relaxation response, literally the opposite of the heart-pounding fight-or-flight stress response that your body undergoes during a sudden stress, like a mugging.

Benson showed that the relaxation response provided the body with something of a mental and physical "sigh of relief." Breathing and heart rate slow. Blood pressure drops. The rate of all the chemical reactions in your body, collectively known as your metabolism, decreases. And most important, there's an overall speeding up of rebuilding, rejuvenation, and healing.

Until recently, modern scientists were reluctant to acknowledge the existence of this elusive mind-body connection, and treatment of mind and body disorders were kept strictly separate.

Fortunately, there is change on the horizon and mind-body medicine is getting the respect it deserves. Today there are hundreds of studies being conducted all over the world with research spanning many disciplines, from psychology and social science to neuroscience, physiology, and medicine. Many mainstream doctors now accept mind-body techniques, even if most still stop short of actually practicing them in their offices.

The new research has finally given some degree of credibility to the many mind-body practitioners who are not physicians. I myself have worked with a variety of these skilled therapists over the years, including teachers of yoga and meditation, self-hypnosis, biofeedback, and guided imagery. Most of these therapies are happily portable: once you learn them you can practice them in the comfort of your own home.

With ever more sophisticated scientific tools, it's now possible to sensitively and quantitatively measure the before and after effects of mind-body interventions, from hypnotism, meditation, and group therapy to soothing rituals such as aromatherapy and prayer. Using newer brain scanning devices and by measuring levels of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, scientists can actually see the effect of mind-body therapies before, during, and after treatment.

Clinical trials (research studies that involve people) sponsored by the National Institute of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine are slated to examine the ultimate body-mind issue: the placebo effect, in which a benign treatment such as a sugar pill produces a beneficial effect on health. This apparent leap from belief to healing has long mystified scientists, who couldn’t explain why it works so often, even for serious illnesses like asthma and chronic pain.

As research continues, the next step is up to you. I've included below several mind-body approaches to help release stress. You can do them yourself, and practice will improve your results.

Acquired Wisdom
The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person.
Norman Vincent Peale

You must learn to say no when something is not right for you.
Leontyne Price

Work with Your Whammies: Releasing Stress Using Mind-Body Power
If you're reading The Triple Whammy Cure (and if you’re not, you can buy the book here) you understand how stress, serotonin, and female hormones can conspire to create poor health—from feeling generally crummy day-to-day all the way to debilitating disorders like migraine, PMS, and irritable bowel.

Releasing stress is vital to the Triple Whammy Cure. Here are three mind-body approaches to help you let go of it:

1: Guided Imagery
Guided imagery promotes relaxation and is especially useful for conditions that are exacerbated by stress, including all Triple Whammy disorders as well as high blood pressure and pain. All you need to try it is a quiet spot and a CD player.

Your brain's visual cortex (which processes images) has a powerful connection to the part of the nervous system in charge of automatic activities such as pulse, breathing, and other physical responses to stress. Soothing, uplifting images introduced by CD can actually slow your pulse and breathing, as well as helping trigger the release of endorphins, which make you feel good and nurture your body's restorative powers. Guided imagery recordings are widely available in stores and on the internet. My patients have had especially excellent results with those created by Belleruth Naparstek and Alexandra Dickerman.

2: Journal Therapy
Journal therapy has been shown to improve the function of the body's immune system. This can occur by simply writing about emotionally charged memories for 20 minutes a day three or four days a week. How does it work?

The very act of journalling makes it one of the "emotional release" therapies. Journalling about an event from the past can open a floodgate of memories that your mind has been storing in its "hard-wired" system of nerve pathways and chemicals. Stress is stored in these same pathways. Releasing the trapped memory leads to a reduction in stress, which in turn leads to improved function of your immune system. The bottom line: by writing about anxiety and stress, you release them and their harmful effects on mind and body.

3: The Relaxation Response
Herbert Benson, MD, who developed this exercise in the 1970s, added that well-being could be further enhanced by combining these four steps with a focus on deep philosophical or religious convictions.

• Find a quiet place.
• Consciously relax your muscles.
• Focus on a brief prayer or a phrase (a mantra) for 10 to 20 minutes.
• Assume a passive attitude toward intrusive thoughts. This is by far the hardest part, as unwanted and uninvited thoughts appear like annoying flies buzzing around your head. It is for this reason that Zen Buddhist masters are frequently depicted holding a fly swatter (!).

If you'd like a little more guidance on what to say during this exercise, take slow deep breaths and repeat the following messages to yourself the specified number of times:

1. My hands and arms are heavy and warm (5 times).
2. My feet and legs are heavy and warm (5 times).
3. My abdomen is warm and comfortable (5 times).
4. My breathing is deep and even (10 times).
5. My heartbeat is calm and regular (10 times).
6. My forehead is cool (5 times).
7. When I open my eyes, I will remain relaxed and refreshed (3 times).

Eating the Triple Whammy Way
Since we’re relaxing this month, remember that oatmeal is the ultimate comfort food—cozy and calming. In addition to providing soluble fiber, which lowers your bad cholesterol and keeps your blood sugar steady (and you feeling full), oats are also thought to reduce the blood vessel inflammation that can lead to heart attack. Oatmeal’s a fine choice for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Nature’s Apothecary: Valerian for Calm and Better Sleep
The famous tranquilizer Valium was not specifically named after the herb valerian, but likely reflected an association with the root word "val," which gives us our English word "well." The word valeriana means "well being" in Latin.

Using valerian medicinally goes back to ancient Greece. By the 19th century, valerian was regularly found in pharmacies as a medication for both anxiety and insomnia, essentially the Valium of those days. The real advantage of valerian over Valium is that valerian is much gentler, not at all addictive or even habit forming. I’ve always liked the ancient Greek name for valerian, reflecting the odor you’ll encounter when you open a fresh bottle: pfui! (no kidding, that was its name).

How it works
Among the various neurotransmitters in your brain, like serotonin and dopamine, is GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), a chemical that acts just like a tranquilizer. You can increase your GABA in one of two ways. First, you can get GABA in capsule form without a prescription in most health food stores. Second, you can use valerian, which acts by preventing the breakdown of the GABA already in your brain. What you’ll discover is that a small amount of valerian taken during daytime hours will calm you without sedation. Increasing your dose at bedtime will put you to sleep about as quickly as a prescription sleeping pill and improve the quality of your sleep.

What it’s used for
You can use valerian just as it has been used for hundreds of years: during the daytime hours to quell mild-to-moderate anxiety, including panic attacks, and at bedtime as a sleep aid. In fact, throughout Europe today valerian has the blessing of conventional physicians and is prescribed regularly. For reasons that aren’t clear, valerian seems to work better the longer you use it. One study showed that only a minimal sleep-inducing effect was noticed after a single dose, but overall sleep structure improved considerably after 2 to 4 weeks of nighttime use.

What to buy
Valerian is available in both liquid and capsule form. As I personally dislike both the taste and the smell of valerian, I suggest you stick with capsules. I’ve been using a product called Sedaplex in my practice for years. In addition to valerian, Sedaplex contains several anti-anxiety and sleep inducing herbs (skullcap, hops, and passion flower) along with the amino acid L-Theanine. If you’d like to try Sedaplex, we’ve made it available here.

How to take it
The various encapsulated valerian products contain a range of 300 to 450 mg of valerian. The usual dose for anxiety is one capsule as needed, limiting yourself to no more than three capsules a day. If you find this a bit too sedating, you can either open the capsule and empty out half the powder, or simply try to locate 200-mg capsules. For insomnia, various medical studies as well as reports from my patients show you need 800 to 900 mg, taken about one hour before bedtime with a small amount of food. If you're taking Sedaplex, take three capsules at bedtime for sleep, or one capsule two or three times a day for anxiety.

Side effects?
The most obvious, of course, is drowsiness. Try a test dose first at home and see how you respond. Any kind of drowsiness will translate into poor performance of any activity, so it’s a good idea to avoid operating a punch press, skydiving, or signing any life-altering contracts. I’m certain you’re smart enough not to take an extremely large dose of valerian, but were you do to so, you’d get groggy, headachy, nauseated, and tremulous.

Reasons not to take
The sedative effect of valerian will add to other sedating substances. These include alcohol, prescription tranquilizers, sleeping pills, and other sedating herbs such as kava kava and passion flower. Using valerian during pregnancy or while breastfeeding has not been studied, so it’s probably best to avoid it during those times.

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