People with severe depression could benefit from a new form of therapy that combines ancient forms of meditation with modern cognitive behavior therapy, early research by Oxford University psychologists suggests.

The results of a small-scale randomesed trial of the approach, called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), in currently depressed patients are published in the journal Behavior Research and Therapy.

The group receiving the MBCT treatment demonstrated improvement, while the control group receiving traditional “talking therapy” treatment, showed no improvement.

The professors leading the program are continuing in their work to pinpoint the exact elements of meditation and talking therapies that seem to offer the most help, curently to preventing future relapse.

Also,  Positive thinking,  or healthy thinking, is a way to help you stay well or cope with a health problem by changing how you think.  It’s based on research that shows that you can change how you think.  And how you think affects how you feel.

If you think in a positive way, you may be more able to care for yourself and handle life’s challenges.  You will feel better.  And you may be more able to avoid or cope with stress, anxiety,  and depression.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy, also called CBT, is a therapy that is often used to help people think in a healthy way.  It focuses on thought (cognitive)  and action (behavioral).  Studies have shown that CBT can help people sleep better and help them lose weight.  It also can help treat depression and keep it from returning.

CBT can help you notice the discouraging thoughts that make you feel bad.  These thoughts are sometimes called irrational or automatic thoughts.  Using CBT, you can learn to stop these thoughts and replace them with helpful thoughts.

Healthy thinking also involves calming your mind and body.  You can use one or more techniques.  These may include meditation, yoga, muscle relaxation, or guided imagery.

Many people work with a therapist or a counselor to learn CBT.  But you also can practice healthy thinking on your own.

HOW DOES CBT HELP YOU THINK IN A HEALTHY WAY?

CBT involves techniques that you can practice every day so that healthy thinking comes naturally.  For example:  May be you’re upset about a job review at work.  Your boss praised several things about your work.  But you’re feeling down because he or she had one small criticism.  You might even think, “I’m no good at my job” or “he or she doesn’t like you. 

Focusing on only the bad and not the good is an example of negative or distorted thinking.    You can teach yourself to watch for negative thinking.  You can ask yourself  how true or helpful your thoughts were.  “Why do I focus only on one criticism?”

You can learn to see that the harsh things you say to yourself may keep you from enjoying your life and work.  With time and practice, you can learn to tell yourself more accurate and helpful statements.  you might say, “I’ve done a lot of good work this year, and my boss noticed it.   She thought there was one area I can improve.  So I’ll think of some things I can do to get stronger in that area.”

CBT combines several ways to help you change how you think:                                                                

1-You learn to notice irrational thoughts about yourself.       2-You learn to stop the thoughts.    3-You learn to replace the negative thoughts with more positive thoughts.        4-You can learn to relax your time better.  This also can lower your stress.

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Less than one minute into the first game of the season, NY Liberty women’s  basketball star Rebecca Lobo tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).   This injury almost always requires surgery to reattach the ligament, and lengthy rehabilitation.  She was out for the season.  Six months later during a supervised practice as part of her rehabilitation she tore the same ligament again. 

Since the mid 90′s  several studies have revealed females athletes suffer eight times as many anterior cruciate ligament injuries as that of men involved in the same sports.  This year alone.  Soccer, volleyball, track and field, and gymnastics are among the growing number of sports with this problem.

If this same statistics were true for the men’s college finals they would probably call upon all the living Noble Prize winners to find a cure.  Men’s college basketball leads to the pro ranks and big money for athletes, coaches, teams, sponsors, etc.   basketball doesn’t have the same financial benefit (yet).  And, unfortunately, in my opinion, that’s how much of the world currently works.  It is not the way it should be.  Many articles are currently pointing out the dilemma of increasing Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury but too often conclude there are no clear answers.  True.  But with all the comparative studies and ongoing research the clearest cause.  In high school 1/100 student’s suffer Anterior Curciate Ligament injury.  In college that statistic leaps to 1 to 10.

With college level competition increasing in intensity each year, the importance of a strong foundation, built up gradually, becomes essential for both safety and performance.  That means effective training, recovery and competitive technique must be developed in Junior, Middle and High School.  As one top volleyball coach pointed out, while a student in High School she felt that female athletes received less effective training than her male counterparts.  In the words of this former All American, “They trained them  like “girls”.

Train women like the athletes they are.  Let’s end the double standard of training women with inferior technique.

Support:  The knee is impacted by stress from both above and below.  Excessive bodyweight will increase pressure on the knee-four pounds of pressure for every single pound the athlete is overwight.  From below the support of proper footwear  (molded shoe/arch)  support can be a big help.  If an athlete has a fallen arch (flat feet) and excessive pronation it dramatically changes the angle of quadriceps creating damaging stess.

Core Stability:  The use of ‘wobble boards’ , physio balls and other devices to develop stabilizing muscles that support the knee is crucial.  The stronger the support muscles-the abs, hip and back muscles should be a priority.  Twisting movement should come from a powerful ‘core’.

Pre-Training:  Athletes should begin a pre-training program 6 to 8 weeks before the season begins.  In a true sense, the training season never ends for the serious athlete.

Jumping/Landing Technique:  Coaches need to drill their athletes constantly on jumping straight up and landing light – toe to heel without twisting movements.  It should be noted that in a recent study it was found that more injuries occur in non-contact sports as oppposed to cantact.  Avoiding straight knee landing, one-step stop landing and sharp planting  and cutting maneuvers may decrease injury.

Balance between Hamstring and Quadriceps:   There is a normal 3.2 ratio in Quad/Ham  Strength.  Men tend to use Hamstring as stabilizers, women  use Quadriceps as stabilizers and tend to be more “ligament’ dependant. Reaction time of female athletes is slightly slower and needs to be improved to place the stress on the muscles, not ligaments  Drills like “land- strength -start “”can help and athlete develop correct form and play technique. 

Pelvic Stability:  Balance of the pelvis and lumbar spine impacts core stability and strength.   Chiropractic evaluation and manipulation with corrective training technique as a follow-up support is essential.   Modern Chiropractic treatment is uniquely qualified to correct these common biomechanical imbalance.

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