The Mind's Role in Keeping Your Heart and Appetite in Check
The phrase “mind over matter” is taking on a whole new meaning as research scientists uncover more and more links between our minds and our bodies.
They've found that your brain controls your eating patterns, blood pressure, heart rate, food consumption, digestion—and more.
Calm Your Mind, Calm Your Body
People who practice meditation say that by calming your body with the use of, say, breathing exercises, you also calm your mind, says Dr. Evan M. Gordon, assistant professor of radiology at the School of Medicine’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis, Missouri.
Those kinds of practices can be really helpful for those people who suffer from anxiety, for example, but up to now little scientific evidence has been found for how it works, he adds.
Now, however, scientists have found a connection. They have found the place where the goal-oriented, highly active, “go, go, go” part of your mind connects to those parts of the brain that control you heart rate and your breathing, Gordon explains.
If you calm one part of your brain down, it definitely has an impact on the other parts.
The mind-body findings might help to explain why anxiety causes people to want to pace back and forth and why people scratch their heads when they're puzzled. It could also explain why stimulating the vagus nerve, which regulates your digestion and your heart rate, might relieve depression. Or why people who exercise on a regular basis display a more positive outlook on life.
Brain’s Purpose
These connections make sense if you consider what the main purpose of the brain is, says Dr. Nico Dosenbach, Associate Professor of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine. He says the brain is to enable you to act successfully in the environment around you in order for you to reach your goals without killing or hurting yourself.
You move your body with a purpose, he explains. The motor areas, of course, must be linked with controlling functions, such as pain and blood pressure.
Pain is the strongest feedback, he says. You do something. It hurts. You decide not to do that again.
Supported in Other Studies
Two recent studies underline the Washington University School of Medicine findings on the mind-body link.
Exercise Enhances Brain Health
Scientists in Japan found that brain efficiency improves in people who do only three months of moderate exercise sessions three times a week. Such exercising as yoga and walking stimulate the brain, and the exercise routine strengthened their brain’s functional networks.
Brain’s ‘Appetite Control Center’
Scientists at the University of Cambridge in England have found that the hypothalamus—the key part of the brain that controls appetite—is different in the brains of people who are overweight compared with those whose weight is healthy.
These findings provide more evidence of the importance of the structure of the brain when it comes to food consumption and weight.
The overall volume of the hypothalamus was significantly bigger in the group of young adults who were overweight and obese, so they found a strong link between the size of the hypothalamus and the body-mass index (BMI).
A possible explanation is that the change results from inflammation of the hypothalamus which, in turn, results in obesity and insulin resistance.
The team members add that more research is needed to determine whether the increased volume of the hypothalamus is a result of being overweight or whether people with a larger hypothalamus are inclined to eat more in the first place.
Mind Over Matter
Understanding the complex relationship between your body and brain can be a powerful tool for improving our overall health and well-being. So, next time your brain is telling you something, think about listening. You never know what secrets it could unlock for a happier, healthier life.