Love, the Ultimate Painkiller

Researchers say just a photo of one's beloved activates the brain's reward centers something like a drug might. Learning how to harness this could help relieve pain without drug-induced side effects, scientists suggest.

Sooner or later, love usually ends up hurting. But in its early, blissful throes, it actually lessens pain — at least of the physical kind. That's the finding, reported Wednesday, of a study by pain scientists and a psychologist who studies love.

The study, published online in the journal PLoS ONE, sprang from a meeting of minds between Arthur Aron of State University of New York at Stony Brook, a longtime researcher of the science of love, and Dr. Sean Mackey, a pain scientist at Stanford University. The two shared a hotel room while attending a neuroscience conference a few years back. Their epiphany came one evening over drinks.

"I'd had a couple glasses of Zinfandel and was chatting about pain and the brain systems involved … and he was chatting about love and the brain systems involved," Mackey said. "And we realized, you know, they could be influencing each other." Read more

Stay Fit with Pranayama in Twenty Minutes a Day

V.N. Mittal explains how to perform the seven pranayama techniques that he learned from Swami RamDev. The original program is supposed to take from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but Mittal has condensed it to a twenty minutes routine, by reducing the length of time for performing each technique.

INTRODUCTION
When I started learning the package of seven yogic pranayama techniques of Yogiraj Swamy Ram Dev in India about two years back, I did not realize that it would turn out to be the greatest healer for me and would become a part of my regular practice, eventually. I was already into natural healing arts through teaching of Reiki, Art of Living ,Sujok therapy, Acupressure and Reflexology, which I practiced regularly to keep my body and soul together in my late sixties but I always missed something which could bring me to a deeper meditative state besides addressing my physical problems effectively. The amazing package which has healed hundreds of thousands of people in India and worldwide provided me the answer.

IMPORTANCE OF PRANAYAMA
The importance of Prana or the breath as an instrument to control diseases is recognized universally. In fact, no life is possible without breathing. Breathing may be considered as the most important of all the functions of the body for indeed all the other functions depend on it. .Prana (Chi) is thus rightly called as the life force energy and the art of modification of normal form of prana through its conscious control is known as pranayama. In view of its importance, the Yogis from times immemorial have emphasized on the need of regular practice of Pranayama for harmony of body, mind and spirit. Pranayama is the fourth limb of the eightfold Yoga system founded by Maharishi Patanjali and is capable of addressing all kinds of physical and mental ailments effectively. Read more

Meditation Cuts Heart Attack Risk in Half

Meditation significantly reduces the risk of a heart attack for people with heart disease, scientists have discovered. Though Transcendental Meditation was used in the study, any "empty mind" type of meditation would achieve similar results, I'm sure.

Patients with heart disease who practised Transcendental Meditation cut their chances of a heart attack, stroke and death by half, compared with non-meditating patients, the first study of its kind has found.

Stress is a major factor in heart disease and meditation experts say the technique can help control it. Read more