Is mind a factor in health and healing?
Mind does matter when it comes to
health and healing, says a new research.
Nurse researchers and clinicians at the Johns Hopkins University School of
Nursing (JHUSON) and the Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) are working at this
mind-body intersection. They are exploring how to prevent the damage excessive
stress can do to a child's development and how the mind can help speed or slow
healing and help control pain.
And they're helping nurses recognize and recover from their own stress-induced behavioral
problems. Stress causes excessive secretion of the brain's
"fight-flight" hormone, cortisol that can damage a child's growing
body and brain.
It's a hurt Gross's working to help stop. She has found that some behavioral
disorders in young people are preventable, particularly if resilience is taught
and risk factors for stress are reduced.
Among the foremost stressors are factors like poverty and unemployment,
community violence and family discord -- facts of life for millions of children
across the country, according to a JHUSON release.
Through her research, Gross has identified a key protective factor that can
help reduce the effects of these stressors: parenting. "Parents are a
child's entire world," notes Gross.
"If parents are preoccupied, or emotionally or physically absent, their
child loses out... If a child doesn't feel safe and protected, the drive toward
exploration and to answer the question... may be lost," says Gross.
The quality of parenting suggests one reason why some children thrive in a
challenging environment while others succumb to the environmental stresses.
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