Meditation Can Shrink The Painkiller Dose You Need

PLUS: New ways to fight antibiotic-resistant infections

Jessica Tezak for NPR Use Mind And Matter To Ease Pain Pain treatment is often framed as an either-or proposition: Potent painkilling drugs vs. something else. But recent research finds that mind-body interventions – such as meditation, guided imagery, hypnosis or cognitive behavioral therapy – can help pain patients who are reliant on opioids ease their suffering with a smaller drug dose. This week Dr. Wayne Jonas, a family physician, scientist, and author of the book How Healing Works, tells NPR’s Allison Aubrey why severe pain can be a gut punch to your body’s physical defenses. "It bumps up a variety of dysfunctions," Jonas says. Pain ups your levels of the stress hormone cortisol and increases inflammatory processes in your body. "This starts a continual negative feedback loop that produces more pain," Jonas explains. As mind-body techniques quiet the stress storm, they interrupt that pain loop, too, Jonas says. Read on to learn how one woman was able to cut her opioid dose by 75% with mindfulness techniques. BONUS: Think Meditation’s Too Hard? Try These Tips For Stressed-Out-Cynics    Science Photo Library/Science Source New Approaches For Fighting Tough Germs Antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the U.S. are now responsible for more than 2.8 million treatment-resistant infections a year and 35,000 deaths annually, according to a report released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a big increase from their 2013 estimate, CDC doctors say. What’s more, several common bacteria – including the one that causes gonorrhea – are becoming more drug-resistant. With the pipeline of new antibiotics slowed to a trickle, some scientists argue that disrupting the evolution of resistance is a better strategy. Read on to learn more about these approaches, and how you can avoid incubating nasty germs. BONUS: Longer Course Of Antibiotic Better Than A Brief One For Some Ear Infections? Klaus Wagensonner/Yale Babylonian Collection 4,000-Year-Old Recipes? Yum! Hunting new recipes for your holiday feast? A team of international scholars reading stone tablets say they’ve deciphered and recreated a bit of culinary delight, based on what Babylonians ate nearly four millennia ago. Think stews, soups and pies. The stone recipe cards are part of the Yale Babylonian Collection at the Yale Peabody Museum. Three of the tablets date back to 1730 B.C. or earlier, the scientists say. The fourth is 1,000 years younger – but still aimed at ancient taste buds. All come from a region that today includes parts of Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. The researchers put together a “cooking team” – heavy on scientists and historians, with a pinch of professional chef – to whip up three of the stews. Read on to learn what was in the dishes and how they tasted. BONUS: A Blue Apron Thanksgiving: Three Recipes You Should Try At Home  More of this week's health stories from NPR Learn What Hospitals And Insurers Bill Upfront China Reports 2 Cases Of The Most Dangerous Type Of Plague A Novelist Doctor Takes On Corporate Medicine   We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth. Your Shots editor, Deborah Franklin   What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: shots@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Goats & Soda, Daily News, Best of NPR and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Health emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy