For me Christmas is a good excuse to satisfy with family and friends, change presents and eat and drink an excessive amount of — however I additionally love the truth that we sing carols, go to church and replicate on God.
I come from a protracted line of Christian missionaries, a few of whom misplaced their lives in pursuit of their religion, though I need to confess that I’m an agnostic.
However I do consider that the nice religions have quite a bit to show us about easy methods to dwell a superb and longer life. And there may be loads of scientific proof to again this up.
For instance, again in 1999 researchers on the College of Colorado checked out information collected from 28,000 individuals as a part of the Nationwide Well being Interview Survey – which has been monitoring the well being of People since 1957. As a part of that survey contributors had been requested in the event that they attended any form of spiritual service and in that case, how typically.
Analysis exhibits that individuals who stated they went to a church, mosque or synagogue at the least as soon as every week lived, on common, seven years longer than those that stated they by no means went
It turned out that individuals who stated they went to a church, mosque or synagogue at the least as soon as every week lived, on common, seven years longer than those that stated they by no means went.
A newer examine, revealed in 2018 with the fairly fantastic title, ‘Does Faith Stave Off the Grave?’, researchers at Ohio State college trawled via the obituaries of greater than 1,000 individuals revealed on newspaper web sites between August 2010 and August 2011.
They discovered that the individuals whose obituaries talked about that they had some type of spiritual affiliation lived a mean of 5.64 years longer than these whose didn’t.
Why? Properly we all know from analysis that folks — together with my 93-year-old mom — who’re spiritual, are likely to drink and smoke much less and usually lead more healthy lives.
They’re additionally extra prone to do voluntary work and get profit from belonging to a close-knit, supportive social group — each of which fight loneliness and scale back the chance of despair.
However in accordance with Dr Baldwin Approach, an affiliate professor of psychology who helped arrange the obituary examine, taking these elements into consideration nonetheless doesn’t account for the scale of the longevity impact.
He thinks extra profit comes from the truth that, ‘many religions promote stress-reducing practices which will enhance well being, comparable to gratitude, prayer or meditation’.
On prime of that, analysis exhibits that experiencing a way of awe, whether or not it’s from being someplace lovely or believing that you’re within the presence of God, has a robust impact on our immune system.
Experiencing a way of awe, believing that you’re within the presence of God, has a robust impact on our immune system
In 2015, a examine of 200 college students by the College of California found that those that reported experiencing constructive feelings, comparable to awe, had decrease ranges of pro-inflammatory cytokines, proteins which may trigger power irritation and in flip result in well being issues comparable to diabetes and coronary heart illness, of their blood.
It’s price stating that the constructive results of faith appears to rely, partly, on believing in a loving, benevolent deity.
In a hanging examine of greater than 100 HIV-positive sufferers, by the College of Miami in 2011, sufferers who noticed God as benevolent and forgiving stayed more healthy for longer and had greater ranges of immune cells than those that noticed God as judgmental and punishing.
Equally, research have proven that individuals who have spiritual beliefs are much less prone to develop despair and anxiousness, partly as a result of they supply that means and hope. However when spiritual beliefs result in emotions of guilt and failure, this could set off psychological sickness.
However what if, like me, you don’t consider in God and barely go to church?
Properly as a substitute of praying you would possibly need to strive one thing referred to as ‘loving-kindness meditation’, the place you spend a couple of minutes every day bringing to thoughts somebody who has been sort to you.
The thought is that you simply sit quietly someplace when you quietly meditate and assume grateful ideas about that individual.
As Dr Fuschia Sirois, who researches gratitude on the College of Sheffield, just lately instructed me: ‘Individuals who categorical gratitude regularly are extra immune to anxiousness and despair, and it could actually even make it easier to deal with power ache’.
If meditation doesn’t enchantment then you would strive ‘Three Good Issues’: Put a pocket book by your mattress and each evening for every week, write down three issues that went nicely for you that day.
It may be something from ‘I noticed a beautiful sundown’ to ‘I had espresso with a good friend’. Put in as a lot element as potential and embody how this made you are feeling. Analysis exhibits it will make you are feeling higher and may enhance sleep.
Or you would merely go for a stroll someplace that’s inexperienced and quiet and take a second to understand the world round you, cultivating a way of awe.
A 2020 examine, revealed within the journal Emotion, discovered that occurring a 15-minute ‘awe stroll’ every week helped boosts constructive feelings and reduces stress. Selfies taken all through the 12-week experiment additionally confirmed the contributors smiled extra.
I hope you’ve a contented, grateful Christmas.
2022: A yr of breakthroughs set to rework drugs
2022 has additionally introduced a number of the most exceptional developments in well being
This yr has witnessed world occasions of such big significance that many medical breakthroughs have been overshadowed — however 2022 has additionally introduced some exceptional developments in well being.
In January, for instance, we discovered of the primary profitable pig-to-human coronary heart transplant. David Bennett, 57, had terminal coronary heart illness and acquired a pig coronary heart, genetically modified to be appropriate in a human, in an operation carried out within the U.S.
With hundreds of individuals dying whereas ready on a transplant listing, I believe this is a vital advance. Sadly, David died two months after the operation, however his bravery has proven this method actually can work.
Then in February I wrote a few new gadget being pioneered in Switzerland that was serving to paralysed sufferers to stroll once more, with the assistance of a body.
The gadget stimulates nerve cells within the spinal wire – and some weeks in the past the identical Swiss group reported that 4 out of 9 sufferers implanted with comparable units now not wanted to change on the units with a view to stroll. Plainly only a few months {of electrical} stimulation had ‘rebooted’ particular nerve cells they usually had been now working by themselves.
That is nice information and plans are afoot to conduct greater trials in 2023.
It has additionally been good yr for vaccine analysis. A examine in June, revealed within the Lancet, discovered that Covid-19 vaccines had helped forestall almost 20 million deaths of their first yr of use alone.
Maybe much more extraordinary is that a few weeks in the past, the drug firm Moderna introduced {that a} most cancers vaccine it had developed, primarily based on the mRNA know-how used to create its Covid jab, had nearly halved the chance of pores and skin most cancers returning in a gaggle of 157 sufferers.
These had been sufferers who had melanomas (a very harmful type of pores and skin most cancers) however had been at a excessive threat of creating new tumours as a result of the most cancers had already unfold. Moderna plans to begin a trial involving at the least 1,000 sufferers subsequent yr.
And although I’m typically sceptical about ‘miracle’ weight-loss medicine, two medicines do appear to make a distinction, with out inflicting vital side-effects.
Semaglutide and tirzepatide mimic the actions of a hormone that’s usually produced in our guts, referred to as glucagon-like peptide-1. This hormone makes you are feeling full after a meal by performing on urge for food centres in your mind and likewise by slowing the emptying of your abdomen.
In July a examine within the New England Journal of Medication confirmed that sufferers given weekly injections of tirzepatide for 18 months misplaced between 15kg and 20kg, in comparison with 3kg for these getting a placebo jab. And in December a examine by the College of Pittsburgh, utilizing semaglutide on youngsters, produced comparable outcomes.
I’m an important believer in attempting to shed some pounds via modifications in food plan fairly than medicine, however that is actually a formidable advance.
Motive you don’t take pleasure in train . . .
Train prompts the discharge of the feel-good hormone, dopamine
I’ve associates whose concept of a superb time is to go for a five-mile run however I hate working and do it sometimes solely as a result of I do know that it’s good for me.
At no level do I get a runner’s excessive or really feel something however ache. I’ve been examined and I get nearly no launch of feel-good hormones after I go for a run.
That is partly right down to genetics, however a latest examine within the journal Nature suggests my intestine micro organism might also play a component.
U.S. scientists took a gaggle of 106 mice and measured how keenly and the way typically they voluntarily went for a run on an train wheel. They then appeared on the make-up of their intestine microbiomes and found that the eager runners had greater ranges of two several types of micro organism, Eubacterium rectale and Coprococcus eutactus.
Investigations revealed that these microbes churn out chemical compounds generally known as fatty acid amides, which prompts the discharge of the feel-good hormone, dopamine, of their brains whereas they had been exercising.
Additional research are deliberate to see if the identical course of happens in people, with the hope that this might result in diet-based methods of boosting these exercise-loving bugs and getting individuals, like me, working — and having fun with it.
