Passion and risk of addiction in experienced female yoga practitioners.

Yoga is a popular leisure activity and health practice worldwide, especially among women. It could become a long-term lifestyle involving passion, but, like other exercises, it may become addictive. While exercise addiction is widely studied, addiction to yoga remains unexplored. In this cross-sectional study, we examined 215 highly experienced women who practiced yoga for at least three years and at least twice weekly. We scrutinized harmonious passion (HP), obsessive passion (OP), risk of exercise addiction (REA), and various yoga-related measures. Only 2/215 (0.93%) of the sample were at REA. Reported HP, OP, feeling guilty when missing a yoga session, and the tendency to practice yoga when injured predicted the REA by accounting for 42% of the variance. Yogis who regularly practiced pranayama (breathing exercises) scored higher on HP, weekly yoga practice, and posting messages on social media than those who never or seldom used breath regulation. Participants choose yoga primarily for health and social reasons. The posting of yoga-related messages on social media was positively related to HP, OP, REA, and frequency of practice. The conclusions of this study are 1) the REA among experienced female yogis is negligible, 2) HP is higher in yoga forms that involve pranayama, 3) yoga practice is primarily related to health and social factors, and 4) a more intense passion for yoga is related to more frequent social media activities.

Altered States of Consciousness during Exercise, Active-Alert Hypnosis, and Everyday Waking State.

This retrospective study was a nonrandomized comparison of exercisers' (runners and participants of a spinning class) states of consciousness with subjects of active-alert hypnosis (AAH) and students in a class (control). Three hundred and seventy-five participants completed the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI). Runners, spinners, and participants of AAH scored higher on the altered experience and altered state of awareness dimensions of the PCI than the control group. Runners scored higher than participants of AAH and the control condition on the rationality dimension, and spinners scored higher than participants in the AAH condition. The AAH group scored lowest on the self-awareness dimension. On the volitional control dimension, the spinning and control groups scored significantly higher than the runner and AAH groups. The results suggest that exercise may lead to states of consciousness similar to AAH and thus increase responsiveness to a coach's training suggestions.

Psychedelics as a novel approach to treating autoimmune conditions.

With a rise in the incidence of autoimmune diseases (AiD), health care providers continue to seek out more efficacious treatment approaches for the AiD patient population. Classic serotonergic psychedelics have recently been gaining public and professional interest as novel interventions to a number of mental health afflictions. Psychedelics have also been shown to be able to modulate immune functions, however, while there has been great interest to researching into their psychotherapeutic applications, there has so far been very little exploration into the potential to treat inflammatory and immune-related diseases with these compounds. A handful of studies from a variety of fields suggest that psychedelics do indeed have effects in the body that may attenuate the outcome of AiD. This literature review explores existing evidence that psychedelic compounds may offer a potential novel application in the treatment of pathologies related to autoimmunity. We propose that psychedelics hold the potential to attenuate or even resolve autoimmunity by targeting psychosomatic origins, maladaptive chronic stress responses, inflammatory pathways, immune modulation and enteric microbiome populations.

Effects of Yoga on Stress Among Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Yoga was recommended in both clinical and nonclinical populations as therapy methods. The diversity of yoga practice as a therapy method has rarely been discussed and it is essential to address the effects of yoga on stress. PRIMARY STUDY OBJECTIVE: This article aims to investigate the effect of different types of yoga on stress in healthy population. On the other hand, the authors intended to figure out yoga effects on stress systematically. METHODS/DESIGN: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify articles that assess the effect of yoga and yoga-related interventions on stress reduction in nonclinical populations. Studies were classified according to the length of the intervention, yoga type, and measures of outcome. The studies were selected throughout last 5 years (January 2014 to November 2018) by using the key searching term yoga and stress incorporation with tension and pressure. The selection process followed the Prisma flow diagram. RESULTS: Totally, 12 articles elaborating on the effects of yoga or yoga-related interventions on stress management and remission were included in the review. This review included various types of yoga practice (e.g., Hatha yoga, Bikram yoga, Kundalini yoga, Sudarshan Kriya yoga, Kripalu yoga, Yin yoga). A time spectrum was conducted from 4 wks to 28 wks. This review revealed that most types of yoga have positive effects on stress reduction in heathy populations. CONCLUSION: Further studies are recommended to examine the long-term effect of yoga and underlying psychological mechanisms causing stress and mental restrain. In addition, it is suggested to consider age as a risk factor affecting the effect of yoga on stress.

The Placebo and Nocebo effect on sports performance: A systematic review.

The aim of this review was to determine the magnitude of the placebo and nocebo effect on sport performance. Articles published before March 2019 were located using Medline, Web of Science, PubMed, EBSCO, Science Direct, and Scopus. Studies that examined placebo and nocebo effects of an objective dependent variable on sports performance, which included a control or baseline condition, were included in the analysis. Studies were classified into two categories of ergogenic aids: (1) nutritional and (2) mechanical. Cohen's d effect sizes were calculated from 32 studies involving 1513 participants. Small to moderate placebo effects were found for both placebo (d = 0.36) and nocebo (d = 0.37) effects and when separated by nutritional (d = 0.35) and mechanical (d = 0.47) ergogenic aids. The pooled effect size revealed a small to moderate effect size across all studies (d = 0.38). Results suggest that placebo and nocebo effects can exert a small to moderate effect on sports performance.

Prospective examination of synthetic 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine inhalation: effects on salivary IL-6, cortisol levels, affect, and non-judgment.

RATIONALE: 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine is a psychotropic substance found in various plant and animal species and is synthetically produced. 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine is used in naturalistic settings for spiritual exploration, recreation, or to address negative affect and mood problems. However, scientific knowledge on the effects of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine in humans is scarce. OBJECTIVES: The first objective was to assess the effects of inhalation of vaporized synthetic 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine on neuroendocrine markers. The second objective was to assess effects of the substance on affect and mindfulness. In addition, we assessed whether ratings of subjective measures were associated with changes in stress biomarkers (i.e., cortisol) and immune response (i.e., IL-6, CRP, IL-1ß), as well as the acute psychedelic experience. METHODS: Assessments (baseline, immediately post-session, and 7-day follow-up) were made in 11 participants. Salivary samples were collected at baseline and post-session and analyzed by high-sensitivity enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine significantly increased cortisol levels and decreased IL-6 concentrations in saliva immediately post-session. These changes were not correlated to ratings of mental health or the psychedelic experience. Relative to baseline, ratings of non-judgment significantly increased, and ratings of depression decreased immediately post-session and at follow-up. Ratings of anxiety and stress decreased from baseline to 7-day follow-up. Participant ratings of the psychedelic experience correlated negatively with ratings of affect and positively with ratings of non-judgment. CONCLUSION: Inhalation of vaporized synthetic 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine produced significant changes in inflammatory markers, improved affect, and non-judgment in volunteers. Future research should examine the effect of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamineamine with healthy volunteers in a controlled laboratory setting.

Psychological effects of deep-breathing: the impact of expectancy-priming.

Outcome expectancy could mediate the psychological effects of exercise-related interventions, which implies that part of the psychological benefits of physical activity could be ascribed to placebo effects. In this framed field-experiment, 89 healthy participants were studied in three groups, (1) breathing-primed (deep-breathing with an exercise-related expectancy), (2) breathing-unprimed (deep-breathing with no exercise-related expectancy), and (3) control (no intervention). Deep-breathing lasted for three minutes. Before and after deep-breathing, or sitting quietly in the control group, participants completed two questionnaires assessing their positive- and negative affect (NA) and subjective well-being (WB). In contrast to the control group, both the breathing-primed and breathing-unprimed groups showed decreased NA and increased subjective WB. The breathing-primed group reported larger changes in WB than the breathing-unprimed group, in addition to also exhibiting significant increases in positive affect. These findings support the hypothesis of the work that expectations mediate the psychological effects of deep-breathing beyond the intervention's specific effects. Therefore, future research should control for expectations related to an intervention when gauging psychological changes.

An in-situ investigation of the acute effects of Bikram yoga on positive- and negative affect, and state-anxiety in context of perceived stress.

BACKGROUND: Bikram yoga is a relatively new, but an increasingly popular form of exercise. Its health benefits were demonstrated on physical and psychological measures. AIMS: The current field study tested the acute effects of Bikram yoga on practitioners' positive-/negative-affect and state-anxiety, and their link to the self-perceived stress, in Bikram yoga participants. METHOD: Field study, within-participants design, testing perceived stress and its relation to changes in positive-/negative-affect and state-anxiety in 53 habitual Bikram yoga participants. RESULTS: Statistically significant positive changes emerged in all three psychological measures after the 90-min Bikram yoga session. The decrease in negative-affect and state-anxiety were significantly and positively related to the perceived stress. Estimated effort was unrelated to the magnitude of the changes recorded in the psychological measures. Heart rates and self-report measures indicated that physically Bikram yoga is only mildly challenging. CONCLUSIONS: The findings illustrate that, independently of the physical effort, Bikram yoga is a new mild form of exercise that reduces negative-affect and state-anxiety, and the reduction is directly related to the perceived stress. Therefore, Bikram yoga appears to be beneficial for all practitioners, but even more so for the individuals who experience substantial stress in the daily life.

[Psychedelics and quasi-psychedelics in the light of contemporary research: medical cannabis, MDMA, salvinorin A, ibogaine and ayahuasca]. / Pszichedelikumok és kvázi-pszichedelikumok a modern kutatások tükrében: orvosi kannabisz, MDMA, szalvinorin A, ibogain és ayahuasca.

In lack of professional research and appropriate concepts our scientific knowledge of psychedelic agents is limited. According to the long-held official view these drugs are entirely harmful and have no medical use. However, a recent surge of clinical and pharmacological studies in the field indicates that many psychedelic-like agents have therapeutic potentials under proper circumstances. In this paper, from a biomedical and psychological perspective, we provide a brief review of the general effects and promising treatment uses of medical cannabis, 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA), salvinorin A, ibogaine and the dimethyltryptamine-(DMT)-containing ayahuasca. In Hungary - similarly to many other countries - these compounds are classified as "narcotic drugs" and their research is difficult due to strict regulations.

EMOST: elimination of chronic constipation and diarrhea by low-frequency and intensity electromagnetic fields.

Previously, we reported about the effectiveness of the EMOST (Electro-Magnetic-Own-Signal-Treatment) treatments in reduction of phantom limb pain as well as improvement of the quality of sleep and mood in subjects under clinical circumstances. We also presented the successful application of EMOST for mental stress management of humans under catastrophic conditions. Our some years experience indicated that the efficiency of EMOST is much greater in children than in adult subjects. In addition, in children much less treatment is needed for recovery compared to adult subjects, as well as the duration of the treatment is shorter. It is possible that this particular success is due to the large plasticity of the central and the autonomic nervous system in young patients. Thus, our research pays special attention regarding the EMOST effectiveness in the field of chronic childhood diseases. Here we report about results of routine alternative treatments carried out at Biolabor Biophysics and Laboratory Services Ltd. by EMOST device regarding to the elimination of chronic constipation and persistent diarrhea in the case of two children. We also briefly present two important possible biological mechanisms such as redox processes and the bidirectional communication between skin cells and the nervous system regarding the efficiency of low-frequency and low-intensity electromagnetic fields (LFI-EMF) treatments.

Perceptual characteristics of nutritional supplements determine the expected effectiveness in boosting strength, endurance, and concentration performances.

The aim of this work was to examine the link between the physical-perceptual characteristics of nutritional supplements and their expected effectiveness in enhancing sport performance. Participants (n = 267) ranked nine images of fictive nutritional supplements, varying in shape, color, and route of administration (e.g., pill, powder, lotion, etc.), in ranked- order of expected effectiveness. They performed the task three times, (1) for strength, (2) endurance, and (3) for concentration. Results have revealed that the perceived effectiveness of the supplements was statistically significantly different for the three types of performances (p < .001). A significant interpersonal variability was observed in the ranking-order of the supplements. The findings reveal that perceptual characteristics of 'believed to be nutritional supplements', aimed at sport performance enhancement, influence their perceived effectiveness. Future inquiries in sport nutrition should examine the relationship between expected and experienced effectiveness of various nutritional supplements in enhancing sport performance.

The RIP1-kinase inhibitor necrostatin-1 prevents osmotic nephrosis and contrast-induced AKI in mice.

The pathophysiology of contrast-induced AKI (CIAKI) is incompletely understood due to the lack of an appropriate in vivo model that demonstrates reduced kidney function before administration of radiocontrast media (RCM). Here, we examine the effects of CIAKI in vitro and introduce a murine ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI)-based approach that allows induction of CIAKI by a single intravenous application of standard RCM after injury for in vivo studies. Whereas murine renal tubular cells and freshly isolated renal tubules rapidly absorbed RCM, plasma membrane integrity and cell viability remained preserved in vitro and ex vivo, indicating that RCM do not induce apoptosis or regulated necrosis of renal tubular cells. In vivo, the IRI-based CIAKI model exhibited typical features of clinical CIAKI, including RCM-induced osmotic nephrosis and increased serum levels of urea and creatinine that were not altered by inhibition of apoptosis. Direct evaluation of renal morphology by intravital microscopy revealed dilation of renal tubules and peritubular capillaries within 20 minutes of RCM application in uninjured mice and similar, but less dramatic, responses after IRI pretreatment. Necrostatin-1 (Nec-1), a specific inhibitor of the receptor-interacting protein 1 (RIP1) kinase domain, prevented osmotic nephrosis and CIAKI, whereas an inactive Nec-1 derivate (Nec-1i) or the pan-caspase inhibitor zVAD did not. In addition, Nec-1 prevented RCM-induced dilation of peritubular capillaries, suggesting a novel role unrelated to cell death for the RIP1 kinase domain in the regulation of microvascular hemodynamics and pathophysiology of CIAKI.

The psychological benefits of recreational running: a field study.

Running yields positive changes in affect, but the external validity of controlled studies has received little attention in the literature. In this inquiry, 50 recreational runners completed the Exercise-Induced Feeling Inventory (Gauvin & Rejeskí, 1993) before and after a bout of self-planned running on an urban running path. Positive changes were seen in all four measures of affect (p < .001). Multivariate regressions were performed to examine the contribution of four exercise characteristics (i.e., duration of the current run, weekly running time, weekly running distance, and running experience) to the observed changes in affect. The results have revealed that exercise characteristics accounted for only 14-30% of the variance in the recreational runners' affect, in both directions. It is concluded that psychological benefits of recreational running may be linked to placebo (conditioning and/or expectancy) effects.

EMOST: Report about the application of low-frequency and intensity electromagnetic fields in disaster situation and commando training.

Recently, we published our results (Bókkon et al., 2011. Electromagn Biol Med.) regarding the effectiveness of the EMOST (Electro-Magnetic-Own-Signal-Treatment) method for the reduction of phantom limb pain under clinical circumstances. However, EMOST treatments not only significantly reduced phantom pain, but that most of the patients also reported about additional benefits such as improvement of their sleep and mood quality after treatments. Here we report some unusual applications of EMOST method under special situations. That is, we report about our effective EMOST treatments of humans under catastrophic conditions and commando training course. This article points out that it is reasonable to apply biophysical electromagnetic management under unique circumstances. We also report some preliminary experiments on 12 members of our BioLabor regarding the effectiveness of single EMOST treatment on some serum parameters and electrocardiogram.

Phantom pain reduction by low-frequency and low-intensity electromagnetic fields.

Although various treatments have been presented for phantom pain, there is little proof supporting the benefits of pharmacological treatments, surgery or interventional techniques, electroconvulsive therapy, electrical nerve stimulation, far infrared ray therapy, psychological therapies, etc. Here, we report the preliminary results for phantom pain reduction by low-frequency and intensity electromagnetic fields under clinical circumstances. Our method is called as Electromagnetic-Own-Signal-Treatment (EMOST). Fifteen people with phantom limb pain participated. The patients were treated using a pre-programmed, six sessions. Pain intensity was quantified upon admission using a 0-10 verbal numerical rating scale. Most of the patients (n = 10) reported a marked reduction in the intensity of phantom limb pain. Several patients also reported about improvement in their sleep and mood quality, or a reduction in the frequency of phantom pain after the treatments. No improvements in the reduction of phantom limb pain or sleep and mood improvement were reported in the control group (n = 5). Our nonlinear electromagnetic EMOST method may be a possible therapeutic application in the reduction of phantom limb pain. Here, we also suggest that some of the possible effects of the EMOST may be achieved via the redox balance of the body and redox-related neural plasticity.

Effect of inhibition of neuronal nitric oxide synthase and L-arginine supplementation on renal ischaemia-reperfusion injury and the renal nitric oxide system.

The role of nitric oxide synthases (NOS) and the nitric oxide (NO) substrate l-arginine in renal ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) has been studied extensively. However, the results reported are often controversial. In the present study, we examined the effects of the neuronal (n) NOS inhibitor 7-nitroindazole (7-NI) and L-arginine administration on renal I/R injury and the renal NO system in rats. Following 7 days pretreatment with 7-NI (50 mg/kg per day), L-arginine (2 g/kg per day) or vehicle (dimethylsulphoxide : sesame oil, 1 : 9), the left renal vascular pedicles were clamped for 50 min in male Sprague-Dawley rats and kidneys were removed 24 h after reperfusion (n = 7/group). Neither 7-NI nor L-arginine had any effect on parameters of renal function, the grade of tissue injury or the number of terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-digoxigenin nick end-labelling (TUNEL)-positive tubular cells compared with vehicle-treated rats. 7-Nitroindazole decreased nNOS mRNA expression and inducible (i) NOS protein levels, but had no effect on endothelial NOS expression. L-arginine supplementation increased mRNA expression of all NOS isoforms, but only increased protein expression of iNOS. The results of the present study demonstrate that selective inhibition of nNOS has no effect on renal injury, indicating that nNOS does not play a central role in the pathophysiology of renal I/R. In addition, although L-arginine has no effect on renal I/R injury in the model used in the present study, its administration increases the mRNA expression of NOS isoforms.

Negative psychological effects of watching the news in the television: relaxation or another intervention may be needed to buffer them!

The psychological effects of televised news were studied in 2 groups (n = 179) of undergraduate students who watched a 15-min random newscast followed by either a 15-min progressive relaxation exercise or a 15-min lecture (control condition). Subjective measures of state anxiety, total mood disturbance (TMD), positive affect, and negative affect were obtained before and after the news, as well as following relaxation exercise or the lecture. The results show that state anxiety and TMD increased, whereas positive affect decreased in both groups after watching the news and 15 min later they returned to baseline (pre-news) only in the relaxation group, whereas they remained unchanged in the control group. These findings demonstrate that watching the news on television triggers persisting negative psychological feelings that could not be buffered by attention-diverting distraction (i.e., lecture), but only by a directed psychological intervention such as progressive relaxation.