Why doesnt everyone try to wage peace? My boyfriends been watching the military channel all night long and I just cant stand to sit here and watch all of this continuously negative stuff. They rarely ever talk about anything positive, but then again, what positive could come from a war? What good comes from innocent people, going overseas to kill other innocent people? Its something I just dont understand. Maybe I never will.

My grandmother ultimately died of congestive heart failure.. wish i were spiritual at that time.

Science Daily — In this high-tech age of modern medicine, could it be possible to treat the leading cause of death in the U.S. through the power of meditation? According to a first-of-its-kind randomized study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, a widely practiced, stress-reducing meditation technique can significantly reduce the severity of congestive heart failure. The study appears in the Winter 2007 issue of Ethnicity & Disease.

 

 

 

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“The results of this study indicate that transcendental meditation can be effective in improving the functional capacity and quality of life of congestive heart failure patients” said Ravishankar Jayadevappa, PhD, lead author and Research Assistant Professor in Penn’s Division of Geriatric Medicine. “These results also suggest long-term improvements in survival in these individuals.”

Jayadevappa and fellow researchers from Penn evaluated 23 African American men and women, average age 64, who were recently hospitalized with New York Heart Association class II or III congestive heart failure. Participants were randomized to either the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) technique or health education – in addition to standard medical treatment.

Researchers measured changes in heart function with a six-minute walk test, and measures for quality of life, depression, and re-hospitalizations. Changes in outcomes from baseline to three and six months after treatment were analyzed.

According to Jayadevappa, the TM group significantly improved on the six-minute walk test after both three and six months of TM practice compared to the control group. The TM group also showed improvement in quality of life measurements, depression, and had fewer re-hospitalizations.

This present finding is consistent with previous research demonstrating that TM reduces factors that contribute to the cause or progression of heart failure, such a high blood pressure, stress, metabolic syndrome, left ventricular hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart) and severity of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Further validation of the outcomes of this study is planned via a large, multi-center trial with long-term follow-up.

According to the study authors, TM most likely improves heart failure by reducing sympathetic nervous system activation associated with stress that is known to contribute to the failing heart.

This study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health-National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, in a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania with the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management.

Ok. When I was like..16 and 17 I went through this “black magic, satanic” phase (havent we all? HAH). I wore a black rosary around my right wrist and I let the crucifix part dangle down. Well, I have a VERY impressionable younger cousin named Tyler (who turns 16 tomorrow..weird.) and he was probably about, eh, I dunno..11 or 12. Well, my other cousin and best friend, Kelley (boogher.com for some reason my fucking hyperlink thing isnt working) used to convince him of ALL kinds of things. Once I convinced him I was a demon, one time we convinced him that the bell witch had gotten us while we were locked in the bathroom, one time we convinced him that “mama” from the movie “Psycho” was gonna get him, we convinced him we contacted someone through a seance. We used to put eyeshadow in his hair and just..for the most part…TORMENT HIM.

Well, I convinced him that I knew magic and I knew a spell that would make the flame on a candle rise just by looking at it. So we went into my bedroom..lit a candle..turned off all the lights. I spread my black cloth across a stool and began to chant something I totally made up…

Then out of nowhere i convined him there was a spirit in the room it was so cool!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!!!

Oh yeah, his dad just got baptised. Happy Baptism.