4/5/2023 0 Comments The fish brain app![]() ![]() When practiced, the relaxation response slows down breathing rate, relaxes muscles, and reduces blood pressure.Ī 2008 study by the Benson-Henry Institute, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found that more than half of the study participants who practiced the relaxation response experienced a drop in blood pressure values after eight weeks, and 50 percent of those who practiced the technique were able to have their dosages of blood pressure medication lowered. The relaxation response is the purposeful initiation of a physical state of deep rest, one that changes a person’s physical and emotional responses to stress. In 1975, Benson described the relaxation response, a mechanism that can counterbalance the stress response. If cortisol levels remain too high for too long, the immune system can be harmed, increasing our susceptibility to infection and illness and decreasing the number of brain cells, impairing memory and other neural functions. This process is a perfect stopgap measure for dealing with short-term stress, says Benson, but experiencing stress on a prolonged basis can damage our brains and bodies. At the same time, the hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland, located near the base of the brain, to release substances that travel through the bloodstream to the adrenal cortex, where a stress hormone called cortisol is produced. When our brain senses danger, it sends signals along the spinal nerves to the adrenal glands, prompting the adrenals to release the hormone adrenaline, which helps activate the fight-or-flight response by affecting certain physiological processes, such as by initiating increases heart rate and blood pressure. Although we don’t face some of the dangers of yesteryear, such as being chronically vulnerable to death or injury, the modern stressful situations of unemployment, financial distress, divorce, or chronic illness, can also be permanently damaging. This protective mechanism has given humans an edge when faced with a life-threatening situations throughout the millennia. That stress response is triggered when we perceive threats to our well-being. Many of these prospective anglers think the soothing sound of flowing water and the pull of a fishing line would be enough to drive their stress away. The Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation and the Outdoor Foundation reports that among the people in this country hope to take up fly-fishing and other forms of angling, 38 percent say they see fishing as a means to relax and relieve stress. Today, in the United States, more than 38 million people participate in the sport annually, mostly on cold-water rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds west of the Mississippi River. Many fishing historians credit the first use of an artificial fly for fishing to Macedonian fisherman whose technique was described by Claudius Aelianus, a Roman author, in one of his works produced near the end of the second century: “They throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the color, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful when, however, it opens its jaw, it is caught by the hook, and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive.” “What better example of this than fly-fishing,” says Benson, “with the repetitive back-and-forth motion of the rod and line and fly? You’re focusing on where that fly is going to land on the water and that breaks the train of everyday thought.” Sensing danger What is it about this so-called quiet sport, with its incantation of rod and fly, river, and nature, a sport of both stealth and strategy, that helps to lessen stress and calm the brain? Herbert Benson, MD '61, the Mind Body Medicine Professor of Medicine at HMS and director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, says humankind has learned over millennia how to turn off stress by “breaking the train of everyday thinking.” “Fly-fishers,” he said, “are usually brain-workers in society. Along the banks of purling streams, beneath the shadows of umbrageous trees, or in the secluded nooks of charming lakes, they have ever been found, drinking deep of the invigorating forces of nature-giving rest and tone to over-taxed brains and wearied nerves-while gracefully wielding the supple rod, the invisible leader, and the fairylike fly.” Harvard COVID-19 Information: Keep Harvard Healthy.Celebrating 50 Years of Diversity and Inclusion.Research Departments, Centers, Initiatives and more. ![]()
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