Mindfulness treatments help reduce fatigue and stress associated with joint disease.
Chronic pain is commonly coupled with stress and fatigue. A mindful approach to treatment proves helpful in reducing the added stresses of daily life for those experiencing chronic pain.

-Team@CMHF

A study published online in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases demonstrates how mindfulness exercises ease the stress and fatigue coupled with joint diseases.

• Heidi Zangi from the National Resource Center for Rehabilitation in Rheumatology conducted a study, which noted how these strategies show improvements, which indicate that the participants may have incorporated some mindfulness strategies into their daily lives and that these strategies have strengthened their ability to respond to their stressful experience in a more flexible way.
• Seventy-three patients of ages twenty to seventy, all suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, or psoriatic arthritis took part in the study.
• Mindfulness treatments lasted fifteen weeks with a total of ten lessons and an additional booster course occurring six months after the initial completion.
• Half of the patients underwent “mindfulness” exercises, the other patients acted as controls.
• Mindfulness, the ability to attend to the present moment, helps limit our focus on the past or future, which can otherwise result in emotional distress. In mindfulness, we learn to ‘be with’ what we are experiencing rather than judging it or trying to escape.
• The ability to work through physical and emotional pain using the breath and attention to thoughts and feelings is remarkably successful.The techniques are meant to address personal limitations and the emotions that tend to follow them (frustration, happiness, sadness, etc.) in order to create a stress-free environment of healing understanding.
• Mindfulness tactics involve creativity expression such as music or drawing, as well as sharing experiences, meditating, and other introspective techniques.
• In order to compare their effectiveness, the control group underwent standard care and received a take-home CD to practice more conventional methods
• Although no difference in pain levels, disease presence, or communication existed amongst groups, those who underwent mindfulness programs displayed lower levels of stress and fatigue.
• Effective coping skills are critical to work through these inherent disappointments and adaptations. This often includes dealing with many perceived intangible losses, such as social status or feelings of power, that occur when one is unable to work or contribute to the household in the same way.
• Other changes such as loss of independence and role reversal within the family can be especially difficult for everyone.

For further reading log on to
http://www.dailyrx.com/news-article/mindfulness-treatments-help-reduce-fatigue-and-stress-associated-joint-disease-16572.ht