by Jo Marchant
14. Interview with David Patterson, Seattle, Washington, May 10, 2014.
15. Patterson, D.R. et al. The International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis 2004; 52: 27–38
16. Patterson, D.R. et al. The International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis 2010; 58: 288–300
17. Barnsley, N. et al. Current Biology 2011; 21: R945–946
18. Moseley, G.L. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 2012; 36: 34–46
19. Telephone interview with Candy McCabe, December 19, 2014.
20. McCabe, C. Journal of Hand Therapy 2011; 24: 170–179
Preston, C. & Newport, R. Rheumatology 2011; 50: 2314–2315
21. Rothgangel, A.S. et al. International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 2011; 34: 1–13
22. Interview with David Spiegel, Curie Institute, Paris, October 23, 2013.
CHAPTER SEVEN
1. “Childhood, Infant and Perinatal Mortality in England and Wales,” Office for National Statistics Bulletin 2012. Available at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_350853.pdf
2. Waldenstrom, U. et al. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology 1996; 17: 215–228
3. Olde, E. et al. Clinical Psychology Review 2006; 26: 1–16
4. In England in 2013–14, the rate of “unassisted deliveries” (without induction, caesarean, instrumental delivery or episiotomy, but including pain relief such as epidurals) was 44.5%. Available at: http://www.birthchoiceuk.com/Professionals/index.html
5. Hodnett, E.D. et al. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012; issue 10, article no. CD003766
6. Telephone interview with Ellen Hodnett, March 10, 2014.
7. Gibbons, L. et al. “The Global Numbers and Costs of Additionally Needed and Unnecessary Caesarean Sections Performed Per Year: Overuse as a Barrier to Universal Coverage,” World Health Report 2010. Background Paper 30. Available at: http://www.who.int/healthsystems/topics/financing/healthreport/30C-sectioncosts.pdf
8. England statistics: http://www.birthchoiceuk.com/Professionals/index.html
U.S. statistics: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/delivery.htm
9. This is well established in animals. There’s very little research on this in humans, but, for example, see:
Lederman, R.P. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 1978; 132: 495–500
Lederman, R.P. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 1985; 153: 870–877
10. Hodnett, E.D. et al. Journal of the American Medical Association 2002; 288: 1373–1381
11. Brocklehurst, P. et al. British Medical Journal 2011; 343: d7400
12. Symon, A. et al. British Medical Journal 2009; 338: b2060
Babies in the independent midwife group were more likely to die, but the authors concluded that this was because this group included significantly more “high-risk” women with pre-existing medical conditions and complications. When the researchers excluded these cases from their analysis, the death rate in both groups was the same.
13. Olsen, O. & Clausen, J.A. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2012, issue 9, article no. CD000352
14. “New Advice Encourages More Home Births,” NHS Choices, May 13, 2014. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/05May/Page275New-advice-encourages-more-home-births.aspx
15. My son was born on the morning of October 18, 2012. My midwives, Jacqui Tomkins and Elke Heckel, are from the London Birth Practice (www.londonbirthpractice.co.uk). Tomkins has been chair of Independent Midwives UK (IMUK) since 2013, and in 2014 was named midwife of the year at the British Journal of Midwifery Awards for her work in securing insurance for self-employed midwives.
16. As I’d previously had a C-section, my second pregnancy was officially “high-risk,” because of the possibility that my scar from the previous surgery might rupture during delivery, with serious consequences for the baby and me. According to NHS guidelines, I should not have attempted to give birth at home. However my partner and I researched the evidence on uterine rupture and concluded that in our case, the extra risk was very small. We decided—supported by the head of midwifery at my local hospital—that for us this risk was outweighed by the benefits of continuous care at home.
17. “NICE Confirms Midwife-Led Care During Labor Is Safest for Straightforward Pregnancies,” NICE Press Release, December 3, 2014. Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/news/press-and-media/midwife-care-during-labor-safest-women-straightforward-pregnancies
18. Hodnett, E.D. et al. Journal of the American Medical Association 2002; 288: 1373–1381
19. “The Cost of Having a Baby in the United States,” Truven Health Analytics Marketscan Study, January 2013. Available at: http://transform.childbirthconnection.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Cost-of-Having-a-Baby1.pdf
20. Skype video interview with Elvira Lang, April 24, 2014.
21. Lang, E.V. et al. The Lancet 2000; 355: 1486–1490
Lang, E.V. et al. Pain 2006; 126: 155–164
Lang, E.V. et al. Journal of Vascular and Interventinal Radiology 2008; 19: 897–905
22. Lang, E.V. & Rosen, M.P. Radiology 2002; 222: 375–382
23. Lang’s company is called Hypnalgesics (see www.hypnalgesics.com). Lang has also written two books about Comfort Talk—Patient Sedation Without Medication (2011), which is aimed at medical professionals, and Managing Your Medical Experience (2014), written for patients.
24. Lang, E.V. Journal of Radiology Nursing 2012; 31: 114–119
25. Lang, E.V. et al. Pain 2005; 114: 303–309
26. Providing tools that patients can use to cope for themselves, rather than simply chatting or comforting them in other ways, seems crucial. In a trial of 201 patients having tumors destroyed using chemicals or an electric current, Lang included a control group who were given “empathic care,” which included avoiding negative language and swiftly responding to requests (Lang, E.V. et al. Journal of Vascular Interventional Radiology 2008; 19: 897–905). These patients ended up far more anxious than those who received standard care. They needed more drugs, and suffered so many complications—things like falling oxygen levels, or a dangerous spike in blood pressure—that Lang had to stop the study early (patients in the Comfort Talk group, who were also read a relaxation script, did much better than standard care). Lang says the nurses in the empathic care group tried to comfort their patients—discussing their own experiences with illness, for example, or stroking a patient’s forehead—and she thinks that this interfered with the patients’ own coping efforts. This wasn’t part of the intended intervention, but, “suddenly everyone in the room wanted to be extra nice,” she says, “and sometimes patients just wanted to be left in peace.”
27. Lang, E.V. et al. Academic Radiology 2010; 17: 18–23
28. Temel, J.S. et al. The New England Journal of Medicine 2010; 363: 733–742
29. Telephone interview with Vicki Jackson, December 16, 2014.
30. Temel, J.S. et al. The New England Journal of Medicine 2010; 363: 733–742
CHAPTER EIGHT
1. Telephone interview with Robert Kloner, April 23, 2013.
2. Kloner, R.A. et al. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 1997; 30: 1174–1180
3. Meisel, S.R. et al. The Lancet 1991; 338: 660–661
Trichopoulos, D. et al. The Lancet 1983; 1: 441–444
Suzuki, S. et al. The Lancet 1995; 345: 981
4. When Kloner looked for a spike in cardiac deaths in New York after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, for example, he didn’t find one. He suggests that this is because most of the people who were in direct danger and therefore might have suffered from this effect—those who were inside the two towers—perished anyway when the buildings collapsed.
5. More information on the Whitehall studies is available here: https://www.ucl.�
�ac.uk/whitehallII
6. Bobak, M. & Marmot, M. British Medical Journal 1996; 312: 421–425
7. Dhabhar, F.S. et al. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2012; 37: 1345–1368
8. Glaser, R. & Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K. Nature Reviews Immunology 2005; 5: 243–251
Cohen, S. et al. Journal of the American Medical Association 2007; 298: 1685–1687
9. Cohen, S. et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2012; 109: 5995–5999
10. Christian, L.M. et al. Neuroimmunomodulation 2006; 13: 337–346
Godbout, J.P. & Glaser, R. Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology 2006; 1: 421–427
11. McDade, T.W. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2012; 109 supp. 2: 17281–17288
12. Chung, H.Y. et al. Aging Research 2009; 8: 18–30
13. Chida, Y. et al. Nature Clinical Practice Oncology 2008; 5: 466–475
Heikkilä, K. et al. British Medical Journal 2013; 346: f165
14. Jenkins, F.J. et al. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research 2014; 19: 3–23
15. Sloan, E.K. et al. Cancer Research 2010; 70: 7042–7052 (breast cancer)
Lamkin, D.M. et al. Brain, Behavior & Immunity 2012; 26: 635–641 (acute lymphoblastic leukemia)
Kim-Fuchs, C. et al. Brain, Behavior & Immunity 2014; 40: 40–47 (pancreatic cancer)
16. Lemeshow, S. et al. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 2011; 20: 2273–2279
17. Blackburn’s role in working out their function won her a share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
18. Epel, E.S. et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2004; 101: 17312–17315
19. Sapolsky, R. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2004; 101: 17323–17324
20. For a review, see: Lin, J. et al. Mutation Research 2012; 730: 85–89.
There are also clues to how stress influences telomeres; in lab studies, the stress hormone cortisol reduces telomerase activity, while molecules involved in inflammation erode telomeres directly. This process seems to work in both directions—when the telomeres of immune cells get too short, they pump out chemicals that further boost inflammation. See: Rodier, F. & Campisi, J. Journal of Cell Biology 2011; 192: 547–556.
21. This quote first appeared in “Can Meditation Really Slow Aging?” by Jo Marchant, published by Mosaic, July 1, 2014. Available at: http://mosaicscience.com/story/can-meditation-really-slow-aging. (The section from paragraph 2 on page27963 to paragraph 3 on page28064 is adapted from this article.)
22. Cawthon, R. M. et al. The Lancet 2003; 361: 393–395
23. Armanios, M. & Blackburn, E.H. Nature Genetics 2012; 13: 693–704
24. Codd, V. et al. Nature Reviews Genetics 2013; 45: 422–427
25. Epel, E.S. et al. Aging 2009; 1: 81–88
Zhao, J. et al. Diabetes 2014; 63: 354–362
26. “Poor” is defined by the federal government’s poverty thresholds—for example, for a family of four (with two children) in 2014, this was defined as an annual income of less than $24,008. For more information on the economic challenges facing rural communities in Black Belt counties, see: Brody, G.H., Kogan, S.M. & Grange, C.M. (2012). “Translating Longitudinal, Developmental Research with Rural African American Families into Prevention Programs for Rural African American Youth.” In V. Maholmes & R.B. King (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Poverty and Child Development. London: Oxford University Press.
27. Telephone interview with Gene Brody, January 8, 2015, and interview, Emory University, Atlanta, February 4, 2014.
28. Brody, G.H., Kogan, S.M. & Grange, C.M. (2012). “Translating Longitudinal, Developmental Research with Rural African American Families into Prevention Programs for Rural African American Youth.” In V. Maholmes & R.B. King (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Poverty and Child Development. London: Oxford University Press.
29. Miller, G.E. et al. Psychological Bulletin 2011; 137: 959–997
30. For example, see: http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson?language=en
31. Telephone interview with Greg Miller, December 4, 2014.
This research is summarized in Marmot, M. The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity (2005), Holt Paperbacks.
32. Miller, G.E. et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2009; 106: 14716–14721
33. Osler, M. et al. International Journal of Epidemiology 2006; 35: 1272–1277
34. Kittleson, M.M. et al. Archives of Internal Medicine 2006; 166: 2356–2361
35. Lin, J. et al. Mutation Research 2012; 730: 85–89
36. For example see:
Szanton, S.L. et al. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine 2012; 19: 489–495
Chae, D.H. et al. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2014; 46: 103–111
Brody, G.H. et al. Child Development 2014; 85: 989–1002
37. Blackburn, E.H. & Epel, E.S. Nature 2012; 490: 169–171
38. This quote (and the one in the following paragraph) first appeared in “Can Meditation Really Slow Aging?” by Jo Marchant, published by Mosaic, July 1, 2014. Available at: http://mosaicscience.com/story/can-meditation-really-slow-aging (paragraphs 2–5 on page28270 are adapted from this article)
39. Telephone interview with Elissa Epel, February 24, 2014.
40. This concept (as well as the example with the skier) is described further in: Jamieson, J.P. et al. Current Directions in Psychological Science 2013; 22: 51–56.
41. Telephone interview with Wendy Mendes, September 17, 2014.
42. Jamieson, J.P. et al. Current Directions in Psychological Science 2013; 22: 51–56
43. Jamieson, J.P. et al. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 2010; 46: 208–212
44. Chen, E. et al. Child Development 2004; 75: 1039–1052
45. Miller, G.E. et al. Psychological Bulletin 2011; 137: 959–997
46. McEwen, B.S. & Gianaros, P.J. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2010; 1186: 190–222
McEwen, B.S. & Morrison, J.H. Neuron 2013; 79: 16–29
47. Ganzel, B.L. et al. NeuroImage 2008; 40: 788–795
48. Miller, G.E. et al. Psychological Bulletin 2011; 137: 959–997
49. Sweitzer, M.M. et al. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 2008; 10: 1571–1575
50. Gianaros, P.J. et al. Cerebral Cortex 2011; 21: 896–910
CHAPTER NINE
1. Paragraphs 1–2 and 8–19 of this chapter are adapted from “Can Meditation Really Slow Aging?” by Jo Marchant, published by Mosaic, July 1, 2014. Available at: http://mosaicscience.com/story/can-meditation-really-slow-aging
2. Telephone interview with Mark Williams, February 9, 2009, confirmed via email, April 2015.
3. Pagnoni, G. et al. PLoS One 2008; 3: e3083
4. This quote is from Gareth Walker’s video testimonial posted at: http://www.everyday-mindfulness.org/gareths-video-testimonial (accessed April 2, 2015). All other quotes from Gareth Walker are from my interview, Barnsley, January 23, 2015.
5. Interview with Trudy Goodman, Santa Monica, November 22, 2013.
6. National Health Statistics Reports, no. 79, February 10, 2015. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr079.pdf
7. See Pickert, K. “The Mindful Revolution,” Time magazine, January 23, 2014. Available at: http://time.com/1556/the-mindful-revolution/
8. For example, see:
Lauche, R. et al. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 2013; 75: 500–510
Lerner, R. et al. Current Oncology 2013; 2: 62–72
Veehof, M.M. et al. Pain 2011; 152: 533–542
Piet, J. et al. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2012; 80: 1007–1020
Hofmann, S.G. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2010; 78: 169–183
Chiesa, A. & Serretti, A. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 2011; 17: 83–93
Cramer, H. e
t al. Current Oncology 2012; 19: e343–351
9. For discussions of this see, for example:
Blomfield, V. “Buddhism and the Mindfulness Movement: Friends or Foes?,” blog post April 6, 2012. Available at: http://www.wiseattention.org/blog/2012/04/06/buddhism-the-mindfulness-movement-friends-or-foes/
“Mindfulness: Panacea or Fad?,” BBC Radio 4, January 11, 2015. Presented by Emma Barnett. Produced by Phil Pegum. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04xmqdd
10. Szalavitz, M. Scientific American, July 2014: 30–31
11. Barker, K. Social Science & Medicine 2014; 106: 168–176
12. Interview with Gareth Walker, Barnsley, U.K., January 23, 2015.
13. See: http://www.everyday-mindfulness.org/
14. Interview with Willem Kuyken, University of Exeter, February 23. Since our meeting, Kuyken has moved to Oxford and is now director of the Oxford Mindfulness Center.
15. Teasdale, J.D. et al. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2000; 68: 615–623
Ma, S.H. & Teasdale, J.D. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2004; 72: 31–40
These two randomized controlled trials compared MBCT with usual care; however, they excluded patients currently taking antidepressants. Kuyken’s subsequent trials of the therapy compared MBCT against drug treatment.
16. Kuyken, W. et al. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 2008; 76: 966–978
17. Kuyken, W. et al. The Lancet 2015; doi: 10:1016/S0140–6736(14)62222–4
18. Interview with Sara Lazar, Harvard University, Boston, May 27, 2014.
19. This quote previously appeared in “Can Meditation Really Slow Aging?” by Jo Marchant, published by Mosaic, July 1, 2014. Available at: http://mosaicscience.com/story/can-meditation-really-slow-aging
20. Lutz, A. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2004; 101: 16369–16373
21. Eriksson, P.S. et al. Nature Medicine 1998; 4: 1313–1317
22. Hölzel, B.K. et al. SCAN 2010; 5: 11–17
Hölzel, B.K. et al. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 2011; 191: 36–43
23. Luders, E. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2014; 1307: 82–88
