Yoga And The Brain: A Possible Explanation For Yoga's Stress-Busting Effects from Huffington Post

The health benefits of yoga are far-reaching, with studies demonstrating its effects on easing chronic back pain, aiding sleep and relieving menopausal symptoms, as well as its intriguing role in helping the mind, by bettering mood and taming stress.

A new look at the research, published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, sheds light on just how yoga might have such benefits for the brain.

"Western and Eastern medicine complement one another. Yoga is known to improve stress-related nervous system imbalances," study researcher Dr. Chris Streeter, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry at BUSM and Boston Medical Center, said in a statement. "This paper provides a theory, based on neurophysiology and neuroanatomy, to understand how yoga helps patients feel better by relieving symptoms in many common disorders."

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine, New York Medical College and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons hypothesized that there are certain imbalances in the brain when a person has depression or stress-related conditions. Such imbalances include low activity of something called gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA); low activity of GABA is linked with epilepsy, chronic pain, depression, anxiety and PTSD, researchers said.

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The Pros and Cons of Continuing Education from Nurse Together

As Registered Nurses or Licensed Practical Nurses, fulfilling continuing education credits or units (CEU) is a requirement for the profession—it is necessary for relicensing. In certain states we are required to fulfill a certain number of CEUs every two years. Obtaining an education credit can be accomplished by reading a journal, attending a seminar, watching a video—any of these would relate to the practice of nursing. Completing CEU’s sounds like a wonderful idea, however, some members of the nursing profession disagree. After all, competence has been demonstrated by the proof of licensure and associated renewal, so mandating further credit hours seems redundant. To fully examine the debate: “Should Continuing Education be Mandatory?” consider the following pro versus con arguments:

PROs

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Traditional Education vs. Distance Learning from Nurse Together

I have often heard nursing students and colleagues proclaim, “If a nursing school isn’t accredited, it is no good.” “Regional accreditation is more important for getting a job.” “A traditional degree is better than an online one.”

What makes nursing education good? Is a traditional education program better than an online one? Do you receive better nursing education from an accredited program versus one that is not? Let us consider everything with a grain of salt and look at the facts as well as the reality.

The merits of receiving an education from an accredited institution speaks to the point that the particular school ranks average or better than average within a conglomerate of similar institutional programs. According to the US Department of Education, which does not accredit nursing schools but provides rationale for its purpose, an educational program that is accredited has shown that they provide quality higher education according to standards set by a private regional or national accrediting agency. Accreditation is a peer review process that evaluates educational programs based upon agency-set criteria. (US Department of Education, 2011)

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Time to Adapt from H and HN

PHOENIX— If there's one thing I've learned in my 20-plus years as a journalist it's this: listen to the experts. Or did my Mom tell me that? Either way, it's a valuable lesson.

For instance, the old newspaper reporter in me was all set to write a blog focused on the Advanced Payment ACO Program, which is aimed at testing the ACO concept in rural settings and among physician-owned organizations, but when I asked rural administrators and trustees what the highlight was of day one at the 25th Rural Health Care Leadership Conference, a number of them immediately mentioned the opening keynote address by Bridget Duffy, M.D., CEO of ExperiaHealth. Before joining the San Francisco-based company, Duffy was chief experience officer at the Cleveland Clinic. Her message today: hospitals need to focus on creating an exceptional patient experience. Central to that, she says, is for all staff at the hospital to show compassion or empathy for patients. It's something that is lacking throughout health care, she says. It's also something my colleague Bill Santamour has been writing about recently in H&HN Daily.

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7 Myths of Online Learning from Nurse Together

I am a proud RN and (many years ago) attended a traditional classroom program to earn my nursing degree! In 2007, I graduated the University of Phoenix's online program with my MBA. I can attest to the many myths regarding online or distance education, and can affirm the FACT that these are simply myths.

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