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Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

nature.com

41–50 of 91 posts

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#41

Yes that's why yoga is so good at calming you down and making you healthy. It soothes and calms the parasympathetic nervous system, and helps relieve and release many held tensions in the body. It's no good just to do meditation and calm your mind if your body and nervous system is still holding on to so much stress. The body remembers many things and "embodies" many emotions. You can notice this if you do part-by-pa…

> It soothes and calms the parasympathetic nervous system Wouldn't you want to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system? Not calm it?

Hehe. The linguist has identified a distinction. Whatever works for you: maybe some stimulation, maybe some relaxation. :)

We calm it and maybe it isn't active. We stimulate it and then it's relaxing us. I see what you're saying.

Is there another side to it? Isn't calm and soothed a form of stimulation? An active, easy coherence?

Maybe we don't want to be over-stimulated. Stimulated in the right way creates coherence, in the wrong way, chaos. We can be calm--and active. Or we can be stimulated--and uneasy.

You don't have to worry that it won't be stimulated in the right way when it's calmed and soothed: it will be. And that's what you want.

So, I don't think you can go wrong with a calm and soothed parasympathetic nervous system. That's the way to go. For me, soothes and calms is coherence. And that's good for your body, and good for you, it's what you'll feel when you do yoga.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#42
Anxiety is only ever created by the body. I understand the experiment, but I don't understand what this headline is supposed to mean. I think somebody is letting their liberal arts leak into their science.

External things don't cause anxiety. Anxiety often occurs as a reaction to external things. Of course anxiety might be caused by a faster heartbeat; one of the symptoms of anxiety is a faster heartbeat. You can also cause it with injections of adrenaline, or amphetamines. Lack of oxygen works, too.

Maybe this seems profound because the mice can't explain their feelings?

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#44
I had anxiety for years, coming and going unpredictably. Not being worried -about- something realistic, just a very jittery feeling paired with brain fog, concentration problems and mood swings. Eventually I was diagnosed with Celiac disease and I almost never feel that way any longer, except when I'm accidentally exposed to gluten.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#45
post #32

Yes that's why yoga is so good at calming you down and making you healthy. It soothes and calms the parasympathetic nervous system, and helps relieve and release many held tensions in the body. It's no good just to do meditation and calm your mind if your body and nervous system is still holding on to so much stress. The body remembers many things and "embodies" many emotions. You can notice this if you do part-by-pa…

Wouldn't a nicotine patch to sync para- and sympathetic systems help?

I don't know. Nicotine can produce that intense relaxation. But why take a toxin for what you can get with just your body and some intelligent practices? All upside. Except it takes effort! :) But the longer term effects are way better for yoga than nicotine. Those two paths diverge pretty quickly by a lot I think.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#46

I didn't even know that this was a matter of debate. I had moderately serious heart problem (atrial murmur, sort of the less-serious cousin of afib/atrial fibrilation) and it was extremely clear to me that whatever was happening in my chest was also directly spiking my feelings of anxiety. To be clear, I mean a direct heart->anxiety link, as opposed to "I'm thinking about my heart problem and therefore my anxiety is…

Are you saying that once I get my Aortic valve replacement that I'll be less anxious?

Most importantly: best wishes. I'm sure you've been through a looooot. I hope there are brighter days ahead.

Does your current valve situation cause an elevated heart rate, presumably because your heart is is compensating for not pumping as efficiently as it should?

I had a different issue and I'm extremely unqualified to have an opinion here, but based on my personal experience I'd be willing to put down a pretty decent sum of money on a bet that lowering your heart rate will reduce your anxiety directly.

(And then you'll of course have lower stress in general I should think, because you won't be worrying about the upcoming valve replacement and all the uncertainly surrounding a major operation. But that part is pretty clear, I would think)

Good luck!

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#47

I didn't even know that this was a matter of debate. I had moderately serious heart problem (atrial murmur, sort of the less-serious cousin of afib/atrial fibrilation) and it was extremely clear to me that whatever was happening in my chest was also directly spiking my feelings of anxiety. To be clear, I mean a direct heart->anxiety link, as opposed to "I'm thinking about my heart problem and therefore my anxiety is…

I have GERD.

Prior to properly getting diagnosed I went through a bunch of tests and episodes because the sensations manifested as heart-attack-like symptoms. I can tell you the anxiety produced was, ... palpable.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#48
Yes! And if you have problems with anxiety, it may be helpful to simulate your vagus nerve to help calm your body down. Taking cold showers, massaging your ear, eating probiotics are all things that I've personally been doing and I feel a general improvement of my own anxious feelings. It's such an easy/accessible way to manage anxiety; I would think it should be more mainstream.

Re: Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests

#50

I didn't even know that this was a matter of debate. I had moderately serious heart problem (atrial murmur, sort of the less-serious cousin of afib/atrial fibrilation) and it was extremely clear to me that whatever was happening in my chest was also directly spiking my feelings of anxiety. To be clear, I mean a direct heart->anxiety link, as opposed to "I'm thinking about my heart problem and therefore my anxiety is…

As far as I know, it isn't. I have anxiety as part of the bipolar package. And every psychiatrist I've had says that increased blood pressure can trigger anxiety. They can both feel like tightness in the chest and from what I was told, the brain isn't good at separating signals. So your body feeling anxious leads to your brain feeling anxious. It's a wonderful cycle. Throw in asthma for more fun. Now you have three p…

That's a wild package. You are dealing with a lot. I hope you are able to step back and give yourself credit once in a while for dealing with so much. The world is full of secret superheroes, mustering up a lot of strength and ingenuity to get through their days. You are one of them.

No bipolar here but for years I struggled with asthma for years. It is quite the addition to the whole anxiety mix. It definitely took me quite a while to figure out I was dealing with a heart issue, because the symptoms were really similar to asthma.

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