A Flourishing Brain in the 21st Century: A Scoping Review of the Impact of Developing Good Habits for Mind, Brain, Well-Being, and Learning

Emerging scientific knowledge such as the role of epigenetics and neuroplasticity—the brain\u27s capability to constantly rewire with every action, experience, and thought—is fundamentally changing our understanding of the potential impact we can have on our brain. Our brain is formed by our habits in interaction with our body, the environment, influenced by our lifestyle, successes, failures, and traumas. Neuroplasticity proves that every student\u27s brain is a work in progress, and it is never too late to take better care of one\u27s cognitive fitness. This review presents a repertoire of good habits (GHs). Combined, we suggest that these GHs provide conditions for optimal brain health, by acting as a “Mental Vaccine” which enhances the brain\u27s resilience to brain health-degrading challenges. We argue that schools have a crucial role to play in empowering students to increase their own stress resilience, well-being, and learning by developing their own GHs profile

Monocyte Chemotactic Protein-1 (MCP-1) and Growth Factors Called into Question as Markers of Prolonged Psychosocial Stress

BACKGROUND:Psychosocial stress is becoming a major contributor to increased mental ill-health and sick leave in many countries. Valid markers of chronic stress would be valuable for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. A recent study suggested monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as markers of chronic stress. We aimed to confirm these potential biomarkers of prolonged psychosocial stress in female patients. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Circulating levels of MCP-1, EGF and VEGF, along with several other cytokines, were measured in plasma from 42 female patients suffering from exhaustion due to prolonged psychosocial stress and 42 control subjects, using a protein biochip immunoassay. There were no significant differences between patients and controls in any of the cytokines or growth factors analyzed. Furthermore, when using a different protein bioassay and reanalyzing MCP-1 and VEGF in the same samples, markedly different levels were obtained. To further explore if inflammation is present in patients with exhaustion, the classical inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP) was measured in another group of patients (n=89) and controls (n=88) showing a small but significant increase of CRP levels in the patients. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:MCP-1, EGF and VEGF may not be suitable markers of prolonged psychosocial stress as previously suggested. Furthermore, significant differences were obtained when using two different protein assays measuring the same samples, indicating that comparing studies where different analytic techniques have been used might be difficult. Increased levels of CRP indicate that low-grade inflammation might be present in patients with exhaustion due to prolonged stress exposure but this inflammation does not seem to be reflected by increase in circulating MCP-1 or other cytokines measured

Novel Biochemical Markers of Psychosocial Stress in Women

Background: Prolonged psychosocial stress is a condition assessed through self-reports. Here we aimed to identify biochemical markers for screening and early intervention in women

The preparatory Set: A Novel Approach to Understanding Stress, Trauma, and the Bodymind Therapies

Basic to all motile life is a differential approach/avoid response to perceived features of environment. The stages of response are initial reflexive noticing and orienting to the stimulus, preparation, and execution of response. Preparation involves a coordination of many aspects of the organism: muscle tone, posture, breathing, autonomic functions, motivational/emotional state, attentional orientation, and expectations. The organism organizes itself in relation to the challenge. We propose to call this the preparatory set (PS). We suggest that the concept of the PS can offer a more nuanced and flexible perspective on the stress response than do current theories. We also hypothesize that the mechanisms of body-mind therapeutic and educational systems (BTES) can be understood through the PS framework. We suggest that the BTES, including meditative movement, meditation, somatic education, and the body-oriented psychotherapies, are approaches that use interventions on the PS to remedy stress and trauma. We discuss how the PS can be adaptive or maladaptive, how BTES interventions may restore adaptive PS, and how these concepts offer a broader and more flexible view of the phenomena of stress and trauma. We offer supportive evidence for our hypotheses, and suggest directions for future research. We believe that the PS framework will point to ways of improving the management of stress and trauma, and that it will suggest directions of research into the mechanisms of action of BTES

Substance P and vasoactive intestinal peptide in bullous and inflammatory skin disease.

Immunoreactivity (IR) of substance P (SP) and Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide (VIP) were determined by radioimmunoassay in serum of 56 patients with inflammatory skin diseases, in blister fluid of 40 patients with spontaneous blisters and 31 subjects with induced skin blisters. Serum concentrations of SP-IR and VIP-IR were mostly low or non-detectable. Spontaneous blisters contained high amounts of SP-IR, particularly in bullous pemphigoid and in some inflammatory dermatoses, while VIP-IR levels usually were low. Suction blisters from inflamed but not from normal skin often contained SP-IR but more seldom VIP-IR

Covariation of plasma ghrelin and motilin in irritable bowel syndrome.

We have previously shown that ghrelin is mainly localized to the stomach but also occurs, together with the prokinetic hormone motilin, in endocrine cells in the proximal small intestine. This study explored ghrelin and motilin concentrations in plasma in relation to gastrointestinal motility and whether plasma ghrelin is changed in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Nine patients with severe IBS and 10 healthy subjects underwent stationary antro-duodeni-jejunal manometry; blood was sampled during similar motility phases in the two groups. The motility phases were monitored and blood samples were collected during fasting and after food intake. Plasma was analyzed for two forms of ghrelin (octanylated and desoctanylated) as well as for motilin. In IBS patients circulating motilin levels covaried with total ghrelin levels (r=0.90; p<0.004), octanylated ghrelin (r=0.77; p<0.02) and desoctanylated ghrelin (r=0.69; p<0.04). No such correlations were seen in the control group. Octanylated ghrelin comprised 35.3+/-3.9% (mean+/-SEM) of the total circulating ghrelin in the IBS patients compared to 40.4+/-4.5% (mean+/-SEM) in the control group (NS). Ghrelin covaried with motilin in plasma in IBS but not in plasma from healthy subjects. This suggests the two peptides act together in IBS