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What Happens to Your Body When You Relax
What Is the Relaxation Response?
Your Heart Rate Slows
Your Blood Pressure Goes Down
Your Digestion Gets Better
Your Breathing Slows Down
Your Muscles Relax
You Hurt Less
You Have Better Blood Sugar Control
Your Immune System Works Better
You Sleep Better
How Can You Relax?
Try the Benson Method
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SOURCES:
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UC Davis Health: "Heart Rate."
American Heart Association: "Managing Stress to Control High Blood Pressure," "Meditation to Boost Health and Well-Being."
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: "Specific Transcriptome Changes Associated with Blood Pressure Reduction in Hypertensive Patients After Relaxation Response Training."
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: "Mindfulness meditation-based pain relief: a mechanistic account."
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH): "Relaxation Techniques for Health."
JAMA: "Effect of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Usual Care on Back Pain and Functional Limitations in Adults With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Trial."
Loyola University Medical Center: "How Breathing Exercises Relieve Stress and Improve Digestive Health," "How Your Brain and Emotions Control Your Gut."
International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders: "Relaxation Techniques to Manage IBS Symptoms."
Johns Hopkins Medicine: "Hyperventilation."
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience: "How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing."
American Psychological Association: "Stress Effects on the Body," "The power of the relaxation response."
American Migraine Foundation: "Biofeedback and Relaxation Training for Headaches.”
American Diabetes Association: "Diabetes and Stress."
International Journal of Yoga: "Effect of 6 Months of Meditation on Blood Sugar, Glycosylated Hemoglobin, and Insulin Levels in Patients of Coronary Artery Disease."
Diabetes Care: "Stress Management Improves Long-Term Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes.
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Cleveland Clinic: "What Happens When Your Immune System Gets Stressed Out?”
BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies: "A relaxation technique enhances psychological well-being and immune parameters in elderly people from a nursing home: A randomized controlled study."
Frontiers in Immunology: "Immunosenescence and Its Hallmarks: How to Oppose Aging Strategically? A Review of Potential Options for Therapeutic Intervention."
Frontiers in Psychiatry: "Self-Regulation of Breathing as an Adjunctive Treatment of Insomnia."
Mayo Clinic: "Biofeedback."
Medicine: "The effect of Benson relaxation method on anxiety in the emergency care."
National Institutes of Health: "Relaxation Techniques for Health."
Cleveland Clinic: "IBS: What Your Brain Has to Do With It."
Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine: "Cardiorespiratory Dynamic Response to Mental Stress: A Multivariate Time-Frequency Analysis.:
CDC: "Type 2 Diabetes."
American Psychological Association: "Taking control of your diabetes."