Simple Ways to Improve Health & Happiness
Can Indians
Fine Tune Our Attitudes for Greater Health and Happiness?
Image by truthseeker08 from Pixabay
Pravin J P Arapurakal, September 26, 2019
Incredible India
is sadly becoming Unhappy and Unhealthy India: According to the World happiness ranking, published in March 2019,
India ranks 140th out of 156 nations surveyed by the United Nations Sustainable
Development Solutions Network. The rankings
could be questioned by some because Pakistan is ranked way up at 67th,
while idyllic Bhutan at 95. Nepal (100), Bangladesh (25) and Sri Lanka (130) were
way ahead of India in the happiness rankings. We may quibble about the way these
rankings were arrived at, but the ranking for India has steadily gotten worse
since 2015 when we were at 117.
All
but one of the determinants of Happiness were related to Psychosocial issues: A closer look at the
methodology tells us that the key variables were GDP per capita (small, richer
countries tended to be happier). Other variables for happiness were social support,
healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, trust and generosity.
While some of these criteria can be subjective, healthy life expectancy is well
measurable and also vital to quality of life so this article is going to focus
on happiness, its connection to health and vice-versa.
Ancient
Indian wisdom has traditionally not emphasized wealth as a major determinant of
happiness so while essential needs must be met, let’s focus on the other
determinants: social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life
choices, trust and generosity.
As
one of these variables (healthy life expectancy) is impacted by all the others,
let’s explore this line of thinking and see if we can gain some useful insights.
Our brains produce
“Happy Chemicals” that we can learn to deploy: Loretta G. Breuning, writing in Psychology*1
today talks about the four “Happy Chemicals: that nature has provided us with. She
says, “You can enjoy a balanced happy chemical diet if
you know the distinct kind of happiness each brain chemical (has) evolved for.
Each (happy) chemical, Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphins (DOSE for
short) has evolved to do a job. They work by helping us feel good, thereby keeping
us healthy, motivating us to go after whatever triggered them. We have been
blessed with a brain that produces its own health chemicals.
Dopamine is deployed “when we get a
new reward, such as seeing the finish line in a race. It’s nature’s reserve
tank of energy” which keep us going while hunting prey or solving a problem. Even
little things such as a “like” on Facebook give us a little Dopamine hit.
Oxytocin is secreted “when we trust
people” around us. It promotes bonding between people such as a mother and child
or even sexual partners. It is stimulated when we are in a group of “like-minded
people” or even when you get a massage (which is a trusting act between two
people.”
Serotonin happens when you are recognized
or feel important. “Animals secrete Serotonin when they dominate a resource.
The brain perpetually analyzes information to balance the risk of pain with the
joy of winning.
Endorphins, “the body’s natural morphine”
help us with physical pain. With endorphins, the body can overcome pain for
short periods by briefly feeling euphoric, even when running while injured etc.
The Placebo or "Expectation Effect": Pulitzer Prize Grantee Eric Vance has written
the book “Suggestible You” about the human brain’s ability to transform, heal
and yes, occasionally deceive. In an interview on the NPR program “On Being.” he
talks about the role of the “Placebo Effect.” He explains how Placebo’s act and
that in medical trials there is still a vital role for a placebo because any
given medicine during a trial would have to outperform a patient group that was
given a medical placebo under exactly the same conditions. Vance claims that
placebos are often effective because “placebos tap into the drugs we already
have inside our heads.”
The brain can mimic
pain medications: Vance says, “Endorphins are little opium dens
tucked away insider our brains.” He goes on to explain what the brain does. He
says “the brain is a prediction machine, turning observations into predictions”
of healing, especially when there is a little drama that builds credibility around
the action.
Faith Healing: “Some therapies for Parkinsons (even) involve
“Sham Surgeries” to increase the credibility of the placebo effect. Placebos
are known to work well with certain conditions like, “Lower back pain.” In many
alternative therapies, the practitioner spends a lot of time understanding the
patient”, which in turn builds credibility and increases the likelihood that
the patient will believe he or she is cured. Says Vance, “chronic pain happens
when the drug level in our brains is not at the right level,”
The Growing Role of
Alternative Health Therapies in Facilitating Health and Happiness: Julia Belluz reviewed around 80 alternative
health studies and their impact on back pain in the US*2. She find
that while 29 percent of Americans (with their soft box spring mattress beds) suffer
from lower (usually non-specific) back pain, the medical fraternity has been
singularly ineffective in addressing it.
Hugs not Drugs? Many get hooked on Opioid medications that in
2016 may have killed 14,500 people. Stress has been identified as a big
accelerator of main. Hence the emergence of alternative therapies like meditation,
Yoga and Tai Chi finding increased acceptance. The Public Health Administrators
at Oregon State have been setting the pace in improving results and reducing
costs through the use of Alternative Therapies which reduce stress and keep
patients away from painkillers which only mask symptoms without solving the
problem.
What can India learn
from this Western trend toward Alternative Therapies?
The amount India
spends on public health per capita every year is Rs 1,112. That comes
to Rs 93 per month or Rs 3 per day. At 1.02 per cent of its gross domestic
product (GDP)– a figure which remained almost unchanged in nine years from 2009-2018–India’s public health expenditure is amongst the lowest in the world,
lower than most low-income countries which according to Health Minister J. P. Nadda, now spend 1.4 per cent of their GDP on
health.
There is no doubt
that India must increase its health spending by building less statues of dead politicians
and focusing particularly on maternal and child health. But many steps that do not cost
much should be prioritized. With limited resources we must tap into traditional
wisdom, focus on preventative healthcare and take advantage of our cultural heritage instead of feeding this blind
rush towards ever more expensive care of the sick.
Wouldn’t it be smarter to focus on reducing sickness with traditional therapies like Yoga and Meditation in the first place? A recent study for example even found that cooking with iron kadhais (woks) helped reduce anemia among women and children by introducing microscopic amounts of iron into their diets.
Wouldn’t it be smarter to focus on reducing sickness with traditional therapies like Yoga and Meditation in the first place? A recent study for example even found that cooking with iron kadhais (woks) helped reduce anemia among women and children by introducing microscopic amounts of iron into their diets.
Let’s also rebuild
our sense of community and caring wherever we can: Raghuram Rajan (India’s former Governor of
the Reserve Bank) recently wrote a book called “The Third Pillar.” In it, Rajan
explains that Society has three pillars, the State, Markets and the Community.
He goes on to make a case for rebuilding a sense of community in our towns and
villages. It is that sense of Community that provides
the other vital determinants of happiness as in, social support, trust and generosity. The practical and direct benefits of an engaged community apart, being more community connected helps us access the body's own reserves of "happy chemicals."
Stress the Silent Killer: Among the urban
well to do (in India and worldwide), the role of stress needs to be understood.
Rich and poor alike need to be educated on the manner in which stress hormones suppress
the immune system and chronically drive blood to the extremities to prepare for
a “fight or flight response.” This in turn leads people increasingly to
diseases as their immune system fails to respond as needed. Let us increasingly
learn to tap into the body’s own beneficial chemicals and limit the role of "alarm hormones" like adrenalin that are connected to stress.
So some of the best ways to improve health and happiness have little to do with hospitals and medicines. We need to live grounded socially connected lives and ease the stress out of our lives. After all, Stress leads to Distress...
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