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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

New Hours for Learning Resources


Library and Success Center Hours


Monday - Thursday

7:30 am - 9:00 pm

Friday
7:30 am - 5:00 pm

Saturday
7:30 am - 1:00 pm

Monday, September 12, 2011

High blood pressure genetic clues


More than 20 new sections of genetic code have been linked to blood pressure by an international team of scientists.
Almost everyone will carry at least one of the genetic variants, according to studiespublished in Nature and Nature Genetics.
Researchers believe their findings could be used to develop new treatments.
The British Heart Foundation said lifestyle was still key to a healthy blood pressure.
High blood pressure - or hypertension - can run in families as well as being influenced by obesity, exercise and the amount of salt in the diet.
While the lifestyle risks are well known, the genetic element of hypertension has been poorly understood.
Researchers now say they have made a "major advance" in understanding the role of genes.
In the first study, scientists from 24 countries around the world analysed data from more than 200,000 people.

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There is substantial potential for moving the findings from the lab to the clinic”
Prof Mark Caulfield
They identified 16 new points on the genome which were linked to blood pressure.
One of the lead researchers, Prof Mark Caulfield, from Barts and The London Medical School, said each genetic variant was in at least 5% of people, while some were much more common.
"This is having an influence across the population," he said.
Uncovering the genetic basis of blood pressure has revealed processes in the body which could one day be targeted with drugs.
One series of chemical reactions involving nitric oxide, which opens up blood vessels, has been highlighted as a potential target.
Gene puzzle
Prof Caulfield said: "There is substantial potential for moving the findings from the lab to the clinic.
"There are, in development or in existence, drugs which could be considered."
However, researchers say they have still uncovered only 1% of the genetic contribution to blood pressure.
A second study, presented in Nature Genetics, identified a further six new stretches of genetic code.
The British Heart Foundation's medical director, Prof Peter Weissberg, said: "Researchers from across the world have now identified some of the genes linked to blood pressure control, which could pave the way for new treatments in the future.
"But your genes are only one piece of the puzzle. You are less likely to have high blood pressure if you stick to a healthy diet, do plenty of exercise, and maintain a healthy weight."

Malaria report sees near-zero deaths by end of 2015


(Reuters) - The world has made impressive progress against malaria in the past 10 years, increasing optimism that an end to the killer mosquito-borne disease could be in sight, a World Health Organization-backed report said on Monday.
A man fumigates against mosquitoes through the streets of Lahore March 28, 2011. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza
Deaths from malaria have fallen by an estimated 38 percent in the past 10 years with 43 countries -- 11 of them in Africa -- cutting malaria cases or deaths by 50 percent, reversing the previous decade's trend and saving more than a million lives.
The progress -- partly due to a substantial increase in funding for fighting malaria -- means deaths from the disease could be brought down to near zero by the end of 2015, the report by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership said.
The WHO, which helped set up the RBM partnership, has also said the world can stop malaria deaths by 2015 if massive investment is made to ramp up control measures, but this is seen by some experts as an ambitious target.
RBM also aims to reduce global malaria cases by 75 percent by the end of 2015 from the levels seen in 2000, and eliminate malaria in 10 more countries.
Total eradication of the parasitic disease, which is spread through the bites of infected mosquitoes and threatens around half the world's population, is still a long way off. Some think it could take another 40 to 50 years.
"The results of the past decade exceed what anyone could have predicted and prove that malaria control is working," Robert Newman, director of WHO's global malaria programme, said in a statement released alongside the report.
According to the WHO, the number deaths from malaria worldwide dropped to 781,000 in 2009 from nearly a million in 2000. But there are still around 225 million cases a year and the disease remains endemic in 106 countries.
Malaria can damage the nervous system, kidneys and liver and severe cases can kill. Most malaria deaths are in Africa, where a child dies from the disease every 45 seconds.
The RBM report found that international funding for malaria had increased more than 15-fold since 2003, jumping from 62 million pounds ($98.5 million)a year then to 93 million pounds ($148 million)a year by 2010. Certain donor countries such as Britain, France and the United States had also stepped up contributions, the report noted.
"We are light years away from where we were 10 years ago," said Awa Coll-Seck, RBM's executive director.
She said this progress was partly down to the development of new tools such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor spraying strategies and more effective anti-malarial medicines, but also because of "vastly improved policies, financing, and strategies" and better international coordination.
Yet despite impressive gains, the RBM report said many people at risk of malaria still did not have good enough access to treatment and prevention options, such as insecticide treated nets, indoor spraying, proper diagnostic testing, and effective drugs, including drugs to treat and prevent malaria in pregnant women.
Progress is also being threatened by the emergence of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes, and of malaria parasites resistant to artemisinin, a key component of the most effective anti-malaria drug combinations.
"There is more to be done to address these issues, but with appropriate commitments, the gains can accrue rapidly," the report said.
The RBM partnership is a global health group set up in 1988 by the WHO, the United Nations children's fund UNICEF, the World Bank and others to coordinate the fight against malaria.
(Editing by Alison Williams)

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

'Anti-cancer virus' shows promise'



An engineered virus, injected into the blood, can selectively target cancer cells throughout the body in what researchers have labelled a medical first.
The virus attacked only tumours, leaving the healthy tissue alone, in a small trial on 23 patients, according to the journal Nature.
SPL
Modified vaccinia virus can target cancer


Researchers said the findings could one day "truly transform" therapies.
Cancer specialists said using viruses showed "real promise".
Using viruses to attack cancers is not a new concept, but they have needed to be injected directly into tumours in order to evade the immune system.
Smallpox to cancer
Scientists modified the vaccinia virus, which is more famous for being used to develop a smallpox vaccine.
The virus, named JX-594, is dependent upon a chemical pathway, common in some cancers, in order to replicate.
It was injected at different doses into the blood of 23 patients with cancers which had spread to multiple organs in the body.

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I believe that some day, viruses and other biological therapies could truly transform our approach for treating cancer”
Prof John BellUniversity of Ottawa
In the eight patients receiving the highest dose, seven had the virus replicating in their tumours, but not in healthy tissue.
Prof John Bell, lead researcher and from the University of Ottawa, said: "We are very excited because this is the first time in medical history that a viral therapy has been shown to consistently and selectively replicate in cancer tissue after intravenous infusion in humans.
"Intravenous delivery is crucial for cancer treatment because it allows us to target tumours throughout the body as opposed to just those that we can directly inject."
Infection prevented further tumour growth in six patients for a time. However, the virus did not cure cancer. Patients were given only one dose of the virus as the trial was designed to test the safety of the virus.
It is thought that the virus could be used to deliver treatments directly to cancerous cells in high concentrations.
Prof Bell acknowledges that the research is still in the very early stages, but he said: "I believe that some day, viruses and other biological therapies could truly transform our approach for treating cancer."
Cancer Research UK's Prof Nick Lemoine, also director of Barts Cancer Institute, said: "Viruses that multiply in just tumour cells - avoiding healthy cells - are showing real promise as a new biological approach to target hard-to-treat cancers.
"This new study is important because it shows that a virus previously used safely to vaccinate against smallpox in millions of people can now be modified to reach cancers through the bloodstream - even after cancer has spread widely through the patient's body.
"It is particularly encouraging that responses were seen even in tumours like mesothelioma, a cancer which can be particularly hard to treat."

Friday, August 19, 2011

Test Taking Strategies Video Series

        Test Taking Strategies (Video Series)

Test-Taking Strategies 1 (of 12): Eliminating Wrong Answers
http://youtu.be/l0P5U9s4wYE

Test-Taking Strategies 2 (of 12): Working Backwards
http://youtu.be/vEF_mkeFawU

Test-Taking Strategies 3 (of 12): Solving Easy Problems First
http://youtu.be/4XYMkBib9Cw

Test-Taking Strategies 4 (of 12): Staying Relaxed
http://youtu.be/bvQHk9WUjKg

Test-Taking Strategies 5 (of 12): The Secret Spill (Brain Dump)
http://youtu.be/f5YjVNgWjpU

Test-Taking Strategies 6 (of 12): Show Your Work (Use Your Pencil!)

Test-Taking Strategies 7 (of 12): Tricky Words (Game Changers)

Test-Taking Strategies 8 (of 12): "All" or "None" Answers

Test-Taking Strategies 9 (of 12): The Comfortable Pace
http://youtu.be/FnXQ5cepJXA

Test-Taking Strategies 11 (of 12): Estimate or Do the Minimum
http://youtu.be/fphJw_G2iZY

Test-Taking Strategies 12 (of 12): How to Feel Great!

Monday, August 15, 2011

'Serial Killer' Cells Demolish Leukemia Tumors

'Serial Killer' Cells Demolish Leukemia Tumors

MIT Researchers Discover New Drug That May Cure Nearly All Viral Infection


By IBTimes Staff Reporter | August 15, 2011 1:02 PM EDT
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, have developed what could be a groundbreaking drug that seems effective at curing nearly any viral infection to include the common cold, influenza and other such illnesses.
The drug, dubbed DRACO, or Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizers, works by targeting a type of RNA produced only in virus-infected cells, and because it's so broad-spectrum, DRACO could potentially be used to fight outbreaks of new viruses, such as the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, outbreak, says Todd Rider, who invented the drug, in a statement. Rider is a senior staff scientist in MIT's Lincoln Laboratory's Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group.
"In theory, it should work against all viruses," Rider says in a statement posted on MIT's Web site.
A paper on the drug can be read in the journal PLoS One.
According to a press release on DRACO, Rider had the idea to try and develop a broad-spectrum antiviral therapy some 11 years ago. This was after inventing CANARY (Cellular Analysis and Notification of Antigen Risks and Yields), a biosensor that can rapidly identify pathogens.
"If you detect a pathogenic bacterium in the environment, there is probably an antibiotic that could be used to treat someone exposed to that, but I realized there are very few treatments out there for viruses," Rider says.
He drew inspiration for DRACO from living cells' own defense systems. Researchers tested the drug against 15 viruses and found it was effective against all of them to include rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, H1N1 influenza, a stomach virus, a polio virus, dengue fever and several other types of hemorrhagic fever.
When viruses infect a cell, they take over its cellular machineryto use for their own purpose. Their purpose is to create more copies of the themselves, and during this process, the viruses make long strings of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), which isn't found in human or other animal cells, a press release notes.
The human cells, as part of their natural defenses against viral infection, have proteins that latch onto dsRNA, which then sets off a cascade of reactions that prevents the virus from replicating itself. But many viruses can outsmart that system by blocking one of the steps further down that cascade.
So Rider had the idea to combine a dsRNA-binding protein with another protein that induces cells to undergo apoptosis (programmed cell suicide) — launched, for example, when a cell determines it's en route to becoming cancerous. And so, when one end of the DRACO joins to dsRNA, it signals the other end of the DRACO to initiate cell suicide, the press release states.
Karla Kirkegaard, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University, says combining those two elements is a "great idea" and a very novel approach.
"Viruses are pretty good at developing resistance to things we try against them, but in this case, it's hard to think of a simple pathway to drug resistance," she says in a statement.
Researchers say most of the tests reported in this study were done in human and animal cells cultured in the lab, but the they also tested DRACO in mice infected with the H1N1 influenza virus. When mice were treated with DRACO, they were completely cured of the infection. The tests also showed that DRACO itself is not toxic to mice. Researchers are now testing DRACO against more viruses in mice and beginning to get promising results.
Rider says he hopes to license the technology for trials in larger animals and for eventual human clinical trials.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Cancer You Can Beat Today

By Bill Phillips and the Editors of Men's Health
Jul 18, 2011
When Eric Adams, a senior editor here at Men’s Health, tells stories about his mother, we all listen. She had, hands down, the coolest job of any Mom I know: She was a U.S. spy.
Bonnie Adams worked for a secret government agency whose nickname—"No Such Agency"—riffed off its true acronym. She started there in the 1980s as an analyst monitoring communications within the Soviet Union, and was eventually promoted to internal affairs, where she became a field agent sniffing out "security risks." She possessed a gun, a badge, and a lot of stories she could never tell her son, no matter how much he begged.
She was tough, but not quite tough enough. The whole time she was stalking those security risks, an internal threat of her own was sneaking up on her: colon cancer. It took her life in 2004; she was only 55 years old.
Here’s the truly tragic part: Researchers are now learning that her death was entirely preventable. And so is nearly every one of the more than 50,000 deaths caused by colon cancer annually in the United States.
Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, but it takes 30 years or longer to develop, as polyps grow on your colon wall and slowly morph into tumors. It's only during the last few years of that period that it's lethal and capable of spreading. Cancer had lingered in Bonnie Adams’ system undetected and unanticipated for decades.
"Everyone who dies does so because the tumor wasn't detected in the first 25 years of its existence," explains Bert Vogelstein, M.D., a cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins University and one of the leading authorities in the genetic foundations of colorectal cancer. "There's a huge window of opportunity to beat this disease."
In other words, had Bonnie Adams scheduled a colonoscopy at any point during that time, she might be alive to enjoy her four grandchildren today.
WHAT'S YOUR RISK? Take these quick quizzes to find out if heart disease, stroke, and the other biggest man killers are stalking you!
Because family history increases a person’s risk of developing the cancer, Eric Adams had his first colonoscopy two years after his mother passed away. So far, he’s had 14 polyps snipped from his colon wall. Those polyps could have—and with his family history, probably would have—turned into a deadly cancer. Because of Eric’s vigilance, he’s beating his death sentence.
But even if you have no family history, you can’t let your guard down. "More than 75 percent of the 100,000 new diagnoses each year have no family history at all," says Dr. Vogelstein.
If thousands of fatalities could be avoided through early detection, why aren't more cases caught? Because people are still squeamish about the exam. Fewer than half of those at the highest risk (due to family history or factors like age, obesity, or inactivity) opt for screening, a 2011 University of Utah study found. Experts say that at this point the disease is more a public-health concern than a medical one.
Even though your colon-cancer risk rises as you grow older (most men aren't advised to have colonoscopies until age 50), you'll benefit most from preventive strategies that you deploy as a young man. "I can't impress enough how much risk reduction can occur by taking control of your life," says Ray DuBois Jr., M.D., Ph.D., a professor of cancer biology and cancer medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
And it’s really not that difficult. Here are three simple ways to reduce your risk of colon cancer every day.
DID YOU KNOW? 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetimes. Learn how to prevent it, spot it, and treat it by checking out The Men's Health Skin Cancer Center.
1. Step away from your desk. In a 2011 study in theAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, people who spent a decade or more doing sedentary work were almost twice as likely to develop distal colon cancer, which affects the lower colon, than those with physically active jobs. This was true even when the researchers factored out recreational physical activities that participants enjoyed.
That's not all. A new meta-analysis from Washington University in St. Louis says that inactivity may encourage tumor growth, possibly due to inflammation. "Activity prevents polyp formation," says lead researcher Kathleen Wolin, Sc.D. "And the evidence is stronger for large and/or advanced polyps, which are more likely to become cancerous."
The easiest solution is to make sure you're frequently up and about—use a standing desk or take brisk, regular walks around the office. This can help return blood-sugar levels and inflammatory biomarkers to healthier levels.
2. Pop an aspirin a day. A recent study in The Lancet noted that people who took a daily aspirin for at least five years had a 38 percent lower risk of developing colorectal cancer. The painkillers reduce cancer-friendly inflammation throughout your body by inhibiting COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes, which are involved in the production of hormonelike substances called prostaglandins.
Bonus: Others studies have found that a daily baby aspirin can reduce your risk of heart disease.
Just consult your doctor before popping any pills. There are potential downsides to regular aspirin use, such as ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding.
3. Drink more milk. Vitamin D and calcium offer a two-pronged attack against colon polyps. "Strong though not definitive evidence suggests that adequate amounts of vitamin D can reduce your risk," says researcher Walter Willett, M.D., M.P.H., of the Harvard school of public health. "Most Americans do not get adequate vitamin D." Shoot for the recommended 600 IU a day. An 8-ounce cup of milk has more than 100 IU.
Calcium may also reduce the occurrence of precancerous polyps, according to a new study review from the University of California at San Diego. Aim for the recommended daily allowance of 1,000 milligrams from milk or other dairy sources. That glass of milk contains about 300 milligrams.
Milk! It does a colon good. Bottoms up, men!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

FROM THE VISION CARE CLINIC:

Our appointment book is now open!

Beginning available appointment times for the Fall Semester (beginning September 7th) are as follows:
Monday                       9:15 am  (Contact Lens)
Tuesday                      8:30 am and 12 noon
Wednesday                 9:15 am  and  1:45 pm  (Contact Lens)
Thursday                     8:30 am and 12 noon
Friday                         8:30 am and 12 noon

The Frame Room and Optical Dispensary will be open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays between 9-11 am and 1-3pm.  Due to the schedule of our Contact Lens Clinic, patients will be unable to select or pickup glasses on Mondays and Wednesdays.

If you are new to the clinic or have not had a general exam in over 2 years, we want to see you in the regular clinic first. Eye conditions change so we want to ensure you get the best of care. As such you will be required to make an appointment in the regular clinic first. If you are a contact lens patient, you must return for a follow-up evaluation after the initial fitting.  

COST: The examinations are $20 and approximately two (2) hours in length, so please plan accordingly. Please bring the fee to your first visit. We are unable to provide estimates for eyeglasses due to the broad range of options and frame selections available. Trust us when we say, we have something for everyone! You will be receiving a quality product so your eyeglasses may take up to 4 weeks to be ready and contact lenses may take 7-10 business days.

CLINIC HOURS: We are proud to say that our clinics are student-run. As such, phones are answered during the semester's clinic hours (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9 am to 3 pm). Our clinic will be closed for the summer after July 29th and will reopen on September 7th. Please call for an appointment as soon as you can.

Please call us at (305) 237-4127 to schedule an appointment for the Fall. Appointments are on a first-come, first-served basis.  When leaving a voicemail message, speak slowly and clearly and let us know what day and time you prefer. Leave your name and phone number, and we will do our best to accommodate your request.  Messages will be returned in the order that they are received.

We look forward to seeing you next semester!

THE VISION CARE TEAM

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Please consider participating in this year’s American Lung Association Fight For Air 5K Run/Walk!



Please consider participating in this year’s American Lung Association Fight For Air 5K Run/Walk!

This annual event raises money to fund research and health services for persons affected by lung diseases such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma. Funds raised are also used for community smoking prevention and cessation activities. More information about the American Lung Association’s activities is available at www.lungusa.org.

The 5K Run/Walk is scheduled for Saturday, October 1, 2011 in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The run/walk starts at 8:30am in Huizenga Park.
Registration is currently discounted at $15. From August 15 to September 25th, the fee is $25. After September 25th, it goes up to $35.
Register early to get the discounted rate.

If you can’t walk, consider donating whatever you can to this worthy cause. Also, consider asking friends and family to participate or donate. The link for registration and donation is listed below. Please use this link so that our Miami Dade College team gets credit for any registrations or donations.


Thanks!



Randy De Kler, M.S., RRT
Program Director, Respiratory Care
Miami Dade College
950 NW 20th Street
Miami, FL 33127
(305) 237-4423 (office)
(305) 237-4278 (fax)
tinyurl.com/MDCRC

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Health Highlights: July 7, 2011


HealthDay
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Smokers Who Quit Can Have Normal-Weight Babies: Study
A female smoker who quits when she learns she's pregnant can have a baby with a normal birth weight, according to a new study.
The findings are based on data from more than 50,000 pregnant women in Southampton, England, from 2002 to 2010. The average weight of babies born to smokers who kicked the habit when they found out they were pregnant was 33 grams (10.6 ounces) more than babies born to women who kept smoking during their pregnancy, Agence France-Presse reported.
Birth weight is an important predictor of long-term health. The study was presented this week at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.
"Once you find out you're pregnant, it's not too late to do something about your smoking," study author Nick Macklon, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Southampton, told AFP. "If you stop smoking, you can have a baby with the same birth weight as if you'd never smoked."
-----
Maker Seeks to Prevent Drug's Use in Lethal Injections
A Danish drug company says it will restrict distribution of its Nembutal drug to prevent it from being used in lethal injections to execute prisoners in some U.S. states.
Nembutal is the trade name for Lundbeck's pentobarbital sodium injection. It's used to treat severe epilepsy but is also used by a number of states in a three-drug mixture used to execute death row inmates, Agence France-Presse reported.
Lundbeck said Friday that Nembutal will now "be supplied exclusively through a specialty pharmacy drop ship program that will deny distribution of the product to prisons in U.S. states currently active in carrying out the death penalty by lethal injection."
Distributors were notified of the plan in late June, AFP reported.
-----
Paycheck Can Be Dangerous: Study
Payday can be life threatening, according to a new study.
A U.S. researcher looked at four major demographic groups -- military personnel, people receiving tax rebate checks, seniors on Social Security, and recipients of Alaska's Permanent Fund dividends -- and found a spike in death rates in the week after they received their checks, msnbc.com reported.
The largest increases occurred in deaths caused by substance abuse, external causes (accidents of various kinds), and heart attacks.
"After getting paid, people are just more active -- they go out to dinner, head to the store, drive more, go to bars, etc.," said University of Notre Dame economist William Evans, msnbc.com reported. "Some of this behavior is inherently risky, like drinking too much or driving drunk. Some of the activity will naturally increase risk -- if you drive more, the risk of being in a car accident has increased."
"Some of the links are not so obvious," he added. "For example, more activity may spur on a heart attack. And some of it is increased risk taking, as with substance abuse."
The study appears in the Journal of Public Economics.
Copyright © 2011HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Fewer U.S. Teens Having Babies, Binge Drinking: Report


Fewer U.S. Teens Having Babies, Binge Drinking: Report

To Soothe Chronic Pain, Meditation Proves Better Than Pills

Chronic pain is estimated to affect over 76 million people, more than diabetes and heart disease combined, and back pain is our country's leading cause of disability for people under 45. And though the pharmaceutical industry seems very adept at introducing one new painkiller after another, the pills don't always help. A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience, however, suggests something else might: meditation. It seems that improving your meditation technique could very well be more effective than painkillers at cutting down on pain, and that could save you hundreds in prescription drug costs.
The details: This was a small study that looked at just 15 adults who sat through four 20-minute training sessions on mindfulness meditation. However, before and after the training, the participants' brains were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and during each scan, the researchers put a heating device that induced pain for a five-minute period on each of the meditators' right leg at varying intervals. The brain scans revealed that before meditation, the section of the brain that processes pain was very active, while after meditation training, activity levels were virtually undetectable. Furthermore, after the meditation training, the study participants reported an average 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and an average 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness. The study authors noted that morphine and other pain-relieving drugs usually reduce pain perception and unpleasantness by just 25 percent.
What it means: It's no surprise that mindfulness meditation techniques can help us cope with difficult situations, and this mind-body connection has been so extensively studied by researchers that doctors already know that meditation can lower blood pressure, depression, anger, and anxiety. Some evidence suggests it can boost your immune system and prevent the flu, among other illnesses. However, this is the first study to show that it can lower actual physical pain. "This study shows that meditation produces real effects in the brain and can provide an effective way for people to substantially reduce their pain without medications," the authors write.
If you find yourself suffering from some form of chronic pain, try mindfulness meditation. Fortunately, it's easy to learn, and as this study shows, you only need a few minutes a day to reap the benefits.
Get the basics down. Here are some basic instructions for starting out with mindfulness meditation from Rodale.com advisor Jeffrey Rossman, PhD, director of life management at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA, and author of the Mind-Body Mood Solution (Rodale, 2010).
1. Sit up comfortably, eyes closed, making sure your head and neck are held upright.
2. Focus attention on your breathing, following the inward breath and the outward breath. This is not so much about thinking about breathing as much as experiencing the sensation of breathing.
3. Notice when your attention is drawn to a thought, sound, or sensation, and bring your attention back to the breath.
4. If you find yourself judging any aspect of what you are experiencing—for instance, if you find yourself lost in thought and judge that doing so is "wrong" or "bad"—just notice the judgment as "thought," and bring attention back to your breathing.
5. Just stay present. If what you are experiencing is pleasant and you notice any tendency to want to hold on to that experience, just let it go by retuning to the breath. If what you are experiencing is unpleasant and you notice any tendency to push it away, just notice what you are experiencing and return to the breath.
6. Remember, we are not trying to get anywhere when we meditate. We are practicing the art of being here.
Focus on your breath. The hardest part about mindfulness meditation is keeping your mind from wandering. An easy meditation tip for beginners is to focus on your breath whenever you find yourself worrying about a problem at work or focusing on whatever physical pain you're trying to deal with. Think about where your breath is coming from (your belly or chest), where you feel it (in your nose, on your upper lip), how deeply you're breathing, and so forth.
Practice daily. Begin with 10 minutes a day of mindfulness meditation, Rossman suggests, and try to work your way up to 20 or 30 minutes. You can meditate pretty much anywhere that's comfortable—on the floor, in bed, in a straight-back chair, even. Wherever you choose, try to do it in the same place every day in order to maintain consistency, and do it at a time when you aren't sleepy.