“Joy Factor” vs. “Fear Factor”

A new Harvard study out today indicates that in the past several decades our general mood and sense of well-being have declined, making it harder for us to stay on what I call, in THE LAST BEST CURE, The Life Channel. I’ve written a great deal about rising rates of stress-reactivity, and how stress-reactivity is linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety and chronic illness. What intrigues me about this new study is that it’s a subtle but telling sign of a change in how we view the world. And not a good one. In a review of literature in the 20th Century, Harvard researchers  analyzed trends in the use of ‘mood words’ that convey joy, anger, fear and other emotions. Here’s what they found: words conveying fear have increased markedly since the 1970s, whereas the use of other “mood words” including those that convey joy decreased. This shift has occurred during the same years that we Baby Boomers have come of age. Researchers call this “Fear Factor increase” a “cultural trend.” I think it’s a trend that most of us are feeling inside, too. Here are 5 Key Facts to bear in mind about our National Stress-Disease Crisis: 1. Studies show that American’s stress levels are rising. 2. So are our rates of chronic illness, depression and pain — not just in adults but in children. 3. We are not as healthy as our parents were in mid-life, and we’re more likely than they were to suffer from chronic illness — at earlier ages. 4. Research links our higher stress levels to every imaginable disease, including inflammation, depression, autoimmune disease, heart disease and cancer. 5. Stress reactivity is as toxic to our immune system as a virus or environmental toxin, and does similar physical damage. And here are 2 more Key Factors: 1. We’ve developed many medications (such as anti-anxiety drugs and anti-depressants) to decrease our stress reactivity and calm our sympathetic nervous system (that branch of our nervous system that activates fight or flight, and sends forth inflammatory hormones and cytokines that damage our body and cells). 2. BUT there is no known drug to help us activate our parasympathetic nervous system; that part of our nervous system which activates deep feelings of well-being, homeostasis, calm. Our portal to a sense of joy and well-being. So. There are many drugs that help us turn down the volume of The Pain Channel. But no known drug to turn on The Life Channel. And yet. Nature has given us a remarkable tool box to shift our nervous system to a place of well-being, calm, joy.  And it is just so simple. And free. And available to us anytime, anywhere. And fully under our control. Our brain is our Last Best Cure. THE LAST BEST CURE (which by the way, uses the word “joy” a lot!) is my own personal journey to walk away from the “Fear Factor,” and move toward what I think I’m going to start calling the “Joy Factor,” in hopes that I can help all of you to do the same. ### Acerbi A, Lampos V, Garnett P, Bentley RA (2013) The Expression of Emotions in 20th Century Books. PLOS ONE 8(3): e59030. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059030  

Let Go of Regret

Today I had an unexpected conversation with a lovely woman, whom I’ll call K, who trims my hair. It began when I walked into the salon and the sweet receptionist, whom I’ll call A, surprised me by having a copy of THE LAST BEST CURE in her hand so I could sign it (her mom had bought three copies, and given one to each of her daughters, so sweet). As I signed, K said to me, “I really need this book right now…” K told me she couldn’t stop thinking about a recent health-related decision she’d made and “how unhappy” she was about what had transpired afterwards in her body and in her life. I won’t tell you her story but it was very moving. She got a little teary as she said, “I just can’t stop the thoughts from coming. It’s so painful, I just want to get away from thinking about it all the time.” I told her about a time in my life, when my kids were little, babies really, and we were moving to Japan. My husband, Zen, was already overseas, and my daughter, Claire, was two months old. As I packed up the house and went through the enormous stress of moving little ones to the Far East, I developed mastitis. I couldn’t breast feed because of the medications I was on, and then — my breast milk dwindled. My daughter turned out to be allergic to every formula and developed reflux. I spent much of our time in Japan taking her to doctors who said very obscure Japanese things like “she doesn’t like the wind this time of year.” I finally flew her home to our beloved pediatrician, who diagnosed her with allergic reflux and slowly, over time, we set everything right again. But here’s the point of my story. During those months I couldn’t escape from my own mental, spinning tapes; this is all my fault, if I hadn’t gotten mastitis, if I’d been like other moms and I’d been able to keep breastfeeding, she would have been so healthy and wouldn’t have developed allergies… or had painful reflux ..or had to endure hospital visits…or take reflux meds, and if I hadn’t…”  I could not shut those tapes off. My ruminating thoughts became my constant companion. I just kept churning, over and over in my mind, how one bad thing had led to another and they all began with, as the vernacular would have it these days, my bad. That’s how the brain works. We get brain locked. It’s hard to rescue ourselves from ourselves. And when we’re at our most vulnerable (worried over an important health outcome, not feeling well) it’s all the more difficult. I told K this memory, this morning, as she cut my hair. And she teared up and I teared up, because it was a relief for her to feel that someone else understood how painful it is to be so deeply caught up in that place of ruminating self-lacerating. One more rendition of The Pain Channel. We have all tuned in too often to The Pain Channel, for one reason or another in our lives. Maybe the regret and ill-will we felt were directed toward ourselves. Maybe they were directed toward someone else. If you’re reading THE LAST BEST CURE you know I have a lot to say about ruminating and regret and how to break that cycle. I happened to have an extra copy of my book with me; I was planning to peruse what sections to read for my book readings, which begin tomorrow, and highlight passages while I sat under the dryer. Instead, I signed my copy and gave it to K. I told K something else, too. A fascinating new study in the journal Science offers some very interesting insights about regret.  It turns out that when we’re still quite young, regret can be an emotionally important tool. When we look back at our choices and reconsider them in retrospect it can be helpful to observe exactly how we might have made better decisions — because we still have our whole future ahead of us, to apply any lessons we’ve learned. But as we mature, research tells us that we have to begin to let go of our regret about any missed opportunities or mistakes we’ve made. We can’t go back in a time machine and change the way things happened. The likelihood of second chances gets smaller as we get older, and the benefit of ruminating over what went wrong or why it happened — or even how we felt about it — disappears. This is more important than it might at first sound. It turns out that there is a brain region called the ventral striatum, which is involved in feeling regret, and an area known as the anterior cingulate cortex, which is associated with emotion regulation. Studies show that older adults who have a lot of activity in the regret area of the brain also have less ability to manage low mood and feelings of depression. On the other hand, healthy older adults, those who feel better about their lives, show a different brain-activity pattern, suggesting that they experience less regret. They are, in turn, much better able to regulate their emotions. Researchers propose that healthy older adults may use helpful mental strategies to keep from ruminating, whereas depressed older adults may blame themselves for the outcome and hyper-fixate on what went wrong and why and how… Avoiding getting caught up in ruminating about the past helps to preserve emotional health, mood, and feelings of well-being as we age. It can take discipline to stop the tapes and get off The Pain Channel and onto The Life Channel. But the steps to do so are simple, manifold and available to all. I’m glad this morning, when I walked into my hair salon, that I had a copy of my book tucked under my arm. Because in those 277 pages

I’m Blown Away by Your Comments

Thank you, dear readers, for these comments. To know that the book is helping you to change your own life story is the greatest gift an author can receive. Mary Sometimes I have to re-read a line or close the book, it is that powerful to my soul. Someone understands what I am feeling. I am on this journey . Donna is taking me to and opening doors to my healing. I am so grateful for this book. It has changed my life forever.   Anna … the title drew me in as I am so desperate for that last best cure.  I sat down and began to read… reading about ACE and how you can change your pathways to new pathways, well it was just overwhelming. And important. And profound. I had to put it down and breathe … Rebecca I opened my copy last night and read at least 4 chapters. And then cried my eyes out. Looking back at my life I realize how much time I have spent in the fight or flight mode. And continue to do so to this day. In fact I am dripping tears writing this post … I know I am not the only one out there who will benefit from this book to make a change leading to better health and less pain. Donna thank you for sharing your journey… I am more grateful that you will ever know. Patti I have only read a bit into the first chapter and I’m already hooked. I’ve got my highlighter in hand … Kathryn Such an amazing thing. I can’t remember the last time I cried and laughed at a non-fiction book. Thank you for sharing your talent with the world. Sandy … just finished reading your book and loved it! Beautiful combination of intimate personal insights with extensive scientific research. Reading it is like having conversation with a friend over a cup of tea :). Betsy Hi Donna, Just read the first chapters of your new book …Please let me know if you do workshops or small group shares. I could fill the room … Dede Greetings, Donna. Started reading your new book last night and couldn’t put it down. Already, I can tell there is so much hope and practical solutions contained in its pages. Thanks for sharing yourself — and all you know — with us. Donna M. I am a 44 yr old mom who was recently diagnosed with scleroderma — the future felt bleak until I read The  Autoimmune Epidemic and now I am reading The Last Best Cure – The Last Best Cure is exactly what I was looking for.   I am NOT going to sit back and wait for something to happen to me – I am going to be proactive and reclaim my life – I find your story very inspiring. Barbara Very enlightening – I am highlighting all over the place! Kathy I have no idea how I found your Facebook page, but it was an immediate decision to buy your book! Something led me here today and I’m happy for that! Peggy I am fascinated! Knowing all you have gone through and embarking on a year long journey of discovery is one of the bravest undertakings of all. It surely is resonating with me. There are so many insights of yours that just touch my heart… Peggy (again, two days later): I wanted to share that I just finished Chapter 17. It took a while as it is difficult to read when tears are flowing down your face! Yours is one of the most amazing, not to mention informative, books I have read in years. Thank you! Stacy Hi Donna! I loved The Autoimmune Epidemic. I am reading The Last Best Cure and I’m astonished at how much the brain has to do with healing… It takes so much dedication to write a book and the process is even more intense when you aren’t always feeling well. This book will be a huge success. Sarah ..As the pages unfolded, I realized that your desire to find joy and move past pain …was EXACTLY the place I find myself in at this point in my life… this book helped me to understand, finding joy is like taking a vitamin that’s as protective as any medicine in our medicine cabinet…I will honestly be recommending this book to all my friends and will be buying more than a few copies next week to give as gifts! Nicole I would love to see you come and visit our local bookstore! Thank you for all your hard work! Stephanie This is a book that anyone would benefit from reading, it reminds people that there is hope, and there can always be a “last best cure”. You might just need to take the chance as Donna did, and you might find yourself living a life of more joy. Margaret … to experience the ups and downs of your personal journey in such a compelling, heartfelt and earnest recounting is enormously satisfying on so many levels. We laugh, we cry, but more importantly we learn and share in the joy that you experience with improved physical, emotional and spiritual being. We are enormously fortunate that you embarked on this quest and that you have so skillfully shared your story with us. Eliza I am really inspired by your writing… I intend to be part of the change, as the Gandhi quote says, on the cutting edge of future medical professionals writing the future of medicine as we learn to maintain health and prevent disease, rather than merely treating it. Rock on! I hope to meet you at some point in the future on this path. Kasia Last night I went through the first 30 pages. I wept a long time. It is a beautiful book. It is deeply profound. SO thankful for this book. So glad you wrote it. For me, it is like a gift falling into

Your Advice?

I know THE LAST BEST CURE has only been out for a week but some of you have (so sweetly!) already emailed to tell me you’ve read cover to cover with highlighter and sticky notes in hand, and are buying a copy for a friend or family member who you think “needs it.” You’ve told me that you’ve laughed and you’ve cried (which, of course, brings tears to my eyes). In 3 days I begin giving readings in bookstores. And I have a favor to ask. I’d love it if you would post a quick response here on my blog or on my Facebook fan page and tell me the pages or chapters of the book that spoke to you the most (don’t give any of the storyline away though, we don’t want any spoilers!) What pages made you underline, or laugh out loud, or get out the Kleenex? When I see what pages get the most “votes” I’ll add those to my upcoming book readings! Oh, and, if you have a suggestion for a bookstore that hosts author readings — for now I’m traveling close to home — inWashington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut — let me know and I’ll see about weaving them into the tour!

Play Back!

Being able to call up positive and detailed memories helps us to deepen our inner sense of well-being and joy. And we know that a greater sense of well-being and joy is oh so good for our body and cells. I found that out — and so much more — during the two years I spent researching and writing my new book, THE LAST BEST CURE: My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, and My Life. But research also shows that calling up good memories is particularly hard when we are feeling stressed or anxious or sad, which is of course when we need to switch our brain state the most. So investigators wanted to see what would happen if people used a specific trick to enhance their ability to bring back good memories— a technique called the “method-of-loci” strategy. Here’s how it works. Recall a great memory and think about an object that you associate with it, or the location where the memory was made. For me a few location-associated memories might be, say, the day 20 years ago when my husband got down on his knees on the steps of the Annapolis State House and asked me to marry him. Or the many times my Dad and family and I used to sail under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Meaningful objects include the carefully crafted (by tiny hands!) clay animal sculptures, necklaces or paintings my kids have made for me over the years (one favorite is the Mother’s Day card my son gave me when he was 10: he drew a sunrise on the handmade card and when I opened it up it said, “Mom, you are my sun.”). And I still remember the moment I looked up through the kitchen window while doing the dishes and he was painting the words “I LOVE YOU” on a giant piece of paper on an easel, smiling at me, ear to ear.  A much bigger object is their baby rocker, where I rocked them both from the day they were born, and for many years after. Making a concrete association between a vivid memory and an object or a location, and recalling the love or joy we felt in that moment — helps us to relive that positive emotion again each time we see that object or place. And that helps us to turn on what I call, in THE LAST BEST CURE, The Life Channel — and turn off The Pain Channel. Once we make that concrete association — between an object or a location and inner joy — then each time we see that particular location or object, our brain tracks to The Life Channel more easily. In the study, participants were asked to come up with 15 positive memories. One group was asked to use method-of-loci strategy to create strong associations with good memories, while a control group was asked to simply recall memories without associating them with objects and places. Later, participants received a surprise phone call from researchers, who asked them to recall their good-feeling memories one more time. Participants who used the method-of-loci technique were significantly more able to dial up positive memories and emotions and change their mind-states. Researchers say that associating vivid, positive memories with physical objects or locations makes it easier for us to not only recall positive memories, but “to elevate our mood in the long-term.” Elevating our mood in the long-term. I like that.

What Are You Cooking?

Today, my friend Mark Hyman, MD, author of The Blood Sugar Solution, has come out with a much needed cookbook that can help all of us who want to learn more about utilizing “food as medicine.” Many of you, like me, eat gluten and dairy free — but cooking gluten and dairy free meals (especially for our families!) can be a challenge. Well, Mark Hyman has made it so much easier, with 175 gluten and dairy free recipes. If you’ve read my book, The Autoimmune Epidemic, you know that a clean diet is instrumental to supporting your immune system and fighting inflammation. Mark Hyman explains why the 175 recipes — and way of cooking — in The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook are so important: “The cure for what ails us—both in our bodies and in our nation—can be found in the kitchen. It is a place to rebuild community and connection, strengthen bonds with family and friends, teach life-giving skills to our children, enrich and nourish our bodies and our souls. Yet, in the twenty-first century, our kitchens (and our taste buds) have been hijacked by the food industry. In 1900 only 2 percent of meals were eaten outside of the home; today that number is over 50 percent. The food like substances proffered by the industrial food system trick our taste buds into momentary pleasure. But our biology rejects the junk forced on our genes and on our hormonal and biochemical pathways. Here’s a video blog on the book. Thank you, Mark Hyman, for making it so much easier to prepare the healthy meals our bodies and brains need for mental and physical well-being. Here’s to healthy cooking with and for our families — and sharing meals as a family at the dinner table (my favorite time of day!).

Babies Get It, Grade Schoolers Get It, So Why is it So Hard For Us?

Several studies over the past few years have found that kids as young as 18 months old possess deep feelings of compassion. One study found that when toddlers show kindness to others, it’s motivated by innate feelings of compassion — not just a desire to please the adults in their lives. In the study, when toddlers saw someone in need of help their pupil sizes increased — a sign of empathic concern. After toddlers did something nice for that person, their pupils got smaller. Researchers say this means their kindness came from deep, genuine concern. In fact, toddlers showed greater signs of happiness when they gave away a special treat, than they did when they received one. Performing truly altruistic acts—acts that involve some measure of personal sacrifice—made the kids happier than helping others at no cost to themselves. This is the first study to show that altruism is intrinsic to who we are, and is rewarding even to very young kids, and that it makes them happier to give than to receive. When a behavior is intrinsically rewarding like this, especially at the earliest stages of life, it suggests to scientists that it has deep evolutionary roots. Other studies on compassion and kindness show that kids prefer other kids who are kind and, contrary to popular belief, being kind can even help kids boost their “popularity standing.” Researchers asked 400 students between the ages of 9 and 11 to perform three acts of kindness — or choose other easier tasks — over four weeks. Afterwards the kids who showed kindness saw a much greater spike in their popularity, gaining twice as many friends as their counterparts. And they also had more positive feelings about themselves. Kids said they did simple things like gave their mom a hug when she seemed stressed (always a welcome gesture at my house!), or shared their lunch with someone at school. But clearly, as we grow up and come of age, and especially when life gets more stressful, or life is hard, our innate sense of compassion goes underground. We compete at work. Drivers gesture angrily on the freeway, and turning on the news shows us that too many politicians and sports heroes choose to treat themselves well rather than others kindly, and that too many young people die in personal or gang violence, or spree shootings. It can seem there is too little kindness to spare. We face so much stress in our own day-to-day lives and see such callousness around us that we can become a little numb. And yet, even so, that innate compassion that we had at 2 or 9 or 11 is there, ready to bubble up, if we just call it up. And even those who’ve faced the hardest of lives can call it up. Researchers introduced a type of brain-changing practice known as compassion meditation — sending kind wishes to themselves, those they love and those they find problematic in their lives — to teenagers living in a foster care group in Florida. These were kids who faced a lot of day-to-day stress and adversity. Their lives were tougher than most of us can imagine. The foster teens underwent an eight-week loving kindness meditation class, keeping journals on how much they practiced.  Researchers measured their stress responses both before and after.  They also asked the teens to wear an electronically activated recorder that picks up the ambient sounds in a person’s environment – including disagreements, harsh words, altercations. And here’s what happened: the more troubled teens practiced loving kindness meditation on their own – about four or five times a week  – the more compassionate they became in their day-to-day interactions and the less altercations ensued.  Not surprisingly, teens’ stress hormone levels and inflammatory markers also went down, which we know is critical to improving physical health. Troubled foster teens, living calmer, healthier lives, simply by letting their innate compassion emerge from within for a few minutes a day. Similar work is going on in high security prisons where, after meditation classes using both compassion and breath as a focus, violence has gone down by twenty percent or more. Things haven’t changed that much from when we were 2 and 9. We feel better about ourselves when we extend kindness. Others feel better about being with us. We feel less stressed. Life is sweeter all around, for our brains, bodies and cells. I’ve found that it’s a decisive act to be compassionate — we have to choose compassion in our rush, rush lives. But learning to choose it — along with practicing the other techniques I test drove in my one year experiment to find The Last Best Cure — is a life-changing gift not only to others, but to ourselves.

Contest Winners!

Thanks to ALL of you who have been joining in THE LAST BEST CURE conversation on my blog. I’ve been so heartened to hear your stories, thoughts and well-wishes, it’s been lovely to hear from you all. As promised, today is the day we announce the winners of the raffle for 5 free signed copies of my book — if you posted on my blog your name was entered into the give-away drawing! Are you ready? Congratulations to: Pat Smith Paige Munro Stacy Heatherly Rebecca Benner Patricia Siroky If your name isn’t on this list, don’t despair! We’re running a new contest, for two more give-away books — signed copies. To win you can enter between now and March 15th EITHER by posting on my blog or by clicking “LIKE” on my Facebook fan page! I’ll post the winners here and on Facebook on March 15th! Congratulations to today’s give-away contest winners! We’ll reach out to you by email to find out your addresses so we can get your signed copies in the mail and headed your way!

Countdown Reason # 1: PUB DATE IS TODAY!

Hi Friends, Today is the day! The Last Best Cure: My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, and My Life is now in stores! LIKE my Facebook Fan page or post here on my blog by March 15th and you’’ll be entered into a drawing for a free copy of my book on March 15th! Winners of my last raffle will be announced today at 7:00 p.m. EST on my blog! Stay tuned to find out if you’re a winner! I’m so excited to hear what you think! Happy Reading!

Countdown Reason #2: Because We Need This, and We Need it Right Now

In just a few hours it will officially be February 21st, 2013 — pub day! Everyday I pick up another study which reminds me why I took on this challenging quest and wrote up my journey in THE LAST BEST CURE. The book I hope you’ll soon be holding in your hands. This week a new study came out in JAMA Internal Medicine showing that although we might assume that adults today are healthier than our parents were at the same age, the opposite is true. 32 percent of our parents reported being in “excellent” health in middle age. Today, only 13 percent of us in mid-life can say the same. The study discovered why. Those of us in our 40s, 50s and 60s have higher rates of chronic conditions than did our parents, and at younger ages.  Diabetes, high blood pressure, you name it. We are twice as likely as our parents were to be suffering from a disabling chronic illness. Study authors sum it up with these words: “You live longer, but those extra years you bought — you’re sicker. That’s not a good public health outcome.” Something is really wrong with this picture.  Something has to change.  THE LAST BEST CURE will be available everywhere in just a matter of hours. Here’s hoping it proves a powerful tool in helping to turn the health story of our generation around. — The Status of Baby Boomers’ Health in the United States: The Healthiest Generation? King DEet al. JAMA Intern Med. 2013 Feb 4:1-2. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.2006.