(Neuro)biologische Aspekte der Regeneration: Entspannung als Instrument der Stressregulation

Zusammenfassung

Früher war es selbstverständlich, nicht nur im „Wellness-Urlaub“, sondern bereits im Alltag regelmäßige Entspannungs- oder Meditationsrituale - auch zur Regeneration - zu praktizieren. Das war sinnvoll, nicht nur medizinisch, da Entspannung als ein physiologischer und (neuro)biologischer Gegenspieler des Stresses wirken kann. Daher sollten Entspannungsverfahren heute wieder aktiv gelehrt und gelernt werden und in Freizeit, Arbeit und Ausbildung zum Einsatz kommen, insbesondere zur Gesundheitsförderung und Vorbeugung (Prävention).

Résumé

Avant, il était déjà évident que les rituels de relaxation, de méditation et aussi de régénération devaient être pratiqués de manière régulière et pas seulement lors de vacances détente. Cette observation est pleine de bon sens, et ce pas seulement d’un point de vue médical. En effet, la relaxation peut exercer un effet physiologique et (neuro) biologique contre le stress. Aujourd’hui, les procédés de relaxation doivent être à nouveau enseignés et appris. Cette formation doit avoir lieu lors des temps libres (loisirs) et au travail. Elle doit en particulier viser à renforcer la santé et à améliorer la prévention.

Abstract

Over the last 200 years, relaxation and regeneration periods have been expelled from the work environments or daily work routines and delegated to leisure and “recreational” times. This was due, in parts, to modern labor conditions, where productivity and short-term outcome effects determined the organizational structure of labor, and long-term health maintenance or sustainability of the work force became less important: Mobile employees, for example, became increasingly replaceable and workers who spent some time “doing nothing”, while supposedly working, where unproductive, as it seemed-at least in the short run. However, where relaxation was still “allowed”, i.e., outside work, ritualized practices, such as religious procedures (e.g., prayer, churchgoing, or chanting) or regular gatherings with friends or family, including regeneration, slowly disappeared or simply became more difficult to practice due to privacy or separation or the new phenomenon of “consumption and leisure stress”, characterized, e.g., by an excess of social liabilities and opportunities. Consequently, less people used the natural potential of ritualized relaxation or “decelerating” group meetings as an effective means of stress reduction and recovery. As a result, we now putatively experience a steepening increment of (subjective) stress or a diminution of general stress coping capabilities. Accordingly, diseases and stress-associated ailments seem to accumulate almost everywhere. However, stress is a natural phenomenon that is not pathological in itself: It can be examined from different angles and derivations, but we continuously find an astonishing biological stress management potential in each individual, representing, in a sense, a common ground or denominator of our self-healing capabilities, and this physiological potential stems from our ability to auto-/ self-regulate stress and the daily challenges we encounter, including work. Hence, this healthy potential is imbedded in our central nervous system and can be professionally used and trained for better coping and living with stress. Critical ingredients of almost every such stress management concept are formal relaxation techniques. Relaxation techniques, in a scientific sense, are procedures that elicit the so-called “relaxation response”, which is the physiological counter-player of stress or the biological stress response. These techniques are usually easy to learn, quickly rewarding by giving pleasure and “wellness” (mentally and physically), and they can be kept at almost no costs in the daily self-management or self-care regiments. Meanwhile, many studies have proved their effectiveness in a broad array of conditions and stress-associated diseases. From the medical perspective, however, stress management and relaxation techniques seem to be especially useful in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular risks and illnesses (e.g., hypertension), in addition to some relevant neuro-psychiatric conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety, pain syndromes). Meditation techniques also belong to the repertoire of relaxation response methods. However, to many people the word “meditation” elicits less relaxation but more feelings of discomfort and lack of understanding or even defense. While looking more deeply into the various meditation procedures and their underlying physiology, however, one will find striking parallels and similarities throughout diverse cultures: It almost seems as if the various rituals and techniques, which principally have the potential to elicit the health-promoting relaxation response, as illustrated, have “intentionally” slipped into cultural evolution (independent of the actual region of its origin or emergence or its specific content), not least because of the simple fact that they are healthy. When one tries to scientifically examine the core or common ground of diverse meditation practices, a rather simple meditation instruction turns up, i.e., proto-type. In this way, that is, by scientific reductionism, the Harvard cardiologist Herbert Benson more or less accidentally discovered the relaxation response in the 1970s and, as a consequence, founded the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School. Moreover, by this means, he also established the new medical field of “mind-body medicine”, which has become increasingly popular over the last 15 years, especially in the United States’ medical community. Today, in Germany too, mind-body medicine is of growing importance in academic medicine, e.g., medical universities and courses, usually in connection with integrative or evidence-based complementary medicine. Yet, it actually is a rather implicit and “non-academic” matter of course: The use, re-discovery, and further development of our inner resources and self-help potentials and the necessity to incorporate this capacity for regeneration and health maintenance into our daily routines (particularly in the midst of a stressful work, leisure and social life) has to become applicable and tangible again-and therefore we simply need to re-train it. Current science is examining the underlying mechanisms and molecular pathways (and even the genetic fit) of the relaxation response: On the receptor level, the autoregulatory molecule nitric oxide and its signaling pathways seem to play a role in the mediation of relaxation’s health-promoting potentials. For example, nitric oxide seems to “desensitize” the organism to stress and reduces a hyper-reactivity against stress hormones by decreasing their molecular impact. In addition, endocannabinoids and just recently detected endogen.