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In the news: Two Ways to Help Reduce Stress:Meditation & the Med Diet

Downside to Chronic Stress & Help to Tame It

We all know the downsides of too much stress: it can disrupt our sleep, interfere with work and relationships, and increase the risk of many chronic conditions such as heart disease and Alzheimer's.

According to the American Psychological Association, Americans report some of the highest perceived levels of stress worldwide – and that’s even before the pandemic and other stressful events of this past year.

So, what can we do to help tame the effects of chronic stress? In addition to strategies like physical activity and reducing triggers of stress, studies suggest that meditation and certain eating patterns can help ease stress too.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Helps Eyes

One meditation technique called mindfulness-based stress reduction is based on observing the breath by focusing attention on the natural relaxed flow of air going in and out of the body. A newly published study(1) tested this practice in glaucoma patients, and the results are worth highlighting.

In the study, glaucoma patients who were already being fully treated with topical medication but whose intraocular pressure (IOP) was still high, were assigned to 45 minutes daily of a mindfulness meditation program for 3 weeks while another group continued on medication alone.

At the end of 3 weeks, IOP had dropped significantly in the meditators compared to the non-meditators. Biochemical measures also indicated that the meditation actually exerted beneficial effects on eye tissues.

Last year a review(2) looked at mindfulness-based intervention studies and found that 79 of the 85 included trials reported significant positive effects on at least one health-related outcome. Most of the studies were focused on anxiety, depression, stress and cognitive outcomes. The studies all tested brief and less intense mindfulness-based interventions often used as self-management tools.

For those interested in exploring mindfulness meditation, it’s possible that your physician may have a referral. You can also try contacting an academic center, or local yoga center. Some universities – e.g. UCLA, UC San Diego, Brown University, and University of Massachusetts – have established mindfulness centers, some with online resources.

Go for the Mediterranean (Med) Diet?

According to investigators from Wake Forest Medical School, eating a Med diet(3)(4) may provide a relatively easy way to help lessen the physiological effects of stress and promote healthy aging.

A number of studies have linked a higher intake of fruits and veggies with lower perceived stress, but a new study examined the diet-stress relationship in a controlled way. Since the typical “Western” diet is rich in animal protein, saturated fat, salt and sugar, the researchers wanted to find out if that diet worsened the stress response compared to a Med diet, where much of the protein and fat come from plant sources.

Testing the stress response to the two diets in animals under chronic and acute stress conditions, they measured changes in the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous systems and in the stress hormone cortisol. High sympathetic nervous system activity can be harmful to health, so maintaining a healthy balance between the two systems is important.

Compared to the Western diet, those fed the Med diet showed enhanced stress resilience as reflected by lower sympathetic nervous system and cortisol responses to stress, and more rapid recovery after the stress ended. The Med diet also slowed the aging of the sympathetic nervous system as the animals aged.

References

1. Dada T, et al. Effect of mindfulness meditation on intraocular pressure and trabecular meshwork gene expression: A randomized controlled trial. Am J Ophthalmol. Epub Oct 22, 2020
2. Howarth A, et al. Effects of Brief Mindfulness-Based Interventions on Health-Related Outcomes: a Systematic Review. Mindfulness. 10:1957–1968, 2019.
3. Shively CA, et al. , Mediterranean diet, stress resilience, and aging in nonhuman primates. Neurobiol Stress, 13: 100254, 2020.
4. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "Mediterranean diet helps reduce effects of stress in animal model." ScienceDaily, Nov. 16, 2020.