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Alejandro Chaoul
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MS 21 - Being Mortal: Learning from ZEN (ID 543)
- Event: WCLC 2017
- Type: Mini Symposium
- Track: Nursing/Palliative Care/Ethics
- Presentations: 1
- Moderators:M. Cummins, K. Kubota
- Coordinates: 10/18/2017, 11:00 - 12:30, Room 316
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MS 21.02 - Meditation: From the Temples to the Clinic (ID 7743)
11:40 - 12:00 | Presenting Author(s): Alejandro Chaoul
- Abstract
- Presentation
Abstract:
The Buddhist traditions are rich in meditation practices, utilizing them for their spiritual development as a tool towards enlightenment, and also for physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. For centuries, these practices were only for a select group of yogis in caves or nuns and monks in monasteries, but globalization and other movements of the Twentieth century helped bring these practices to a wider population, including people with illnesses such as cancer. This presentation will focus on how some of the philosophical Buddhist concepts, like the understanding of our own mortality or impermanence, and some of the meditation practices had been applied in a non-religious way as part of the offerings for cancer patients and their caregivers within contemporary western clinical settings in our Integrative Medicine Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. George Engel’s seminal 1977 paper in Science provides the background for a bio-psycho-social approach at our Integrative Medicine Center that is now part of the Department of Palliative, Rehabilitation and Integrative Medicine at MD Anderson. In other words, a healing focused not just on the physical (i.e., bio) but also on the psycho-social-spiritual aspects of the person, which sometimes seems to be forgotten in conventional allopathic medicine. The bio-psycho-social approach is very much in accordance to the Buddhist approach, and palliative care and integrative medicine are optimal settings. I will share how we bring these into our group classes as well as individual clinic sessions, where people with different kinds of cancers, including lung cancer, participate. In particular I will address cases of people with lung cancer, and issues of stigma, of facing one’s own mortality, and how the concepts and practices that stem from a Buddhist perspective can have positive impact in their quality of life, overall survival, and better relationship to others, in particular their family members and caregivers. In addition I will share the results of a single arm clinical study of Tibetan Yoga (meditation and simple movements) for people with lung cancer and their caregivers that was held at MD Anderson Cancer Center in collaboration with the Ligmincha Texas Center for the Tibetan Meditative and Healing Arts. The purpose of this study was to establish feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a mind-body intervention in lung cancer patients and caregivers. Patients with stage I-III non-small cell lung cancer undergoing radiotherapy and their family caregiver participated in a 15-session Tibetan Yoga (TY) program that included breathing exercises, guided visualizations, and gentle movements. This single-arm trial assessed pre/post intervention levels of mental health (CESD; BSI), fatigue (BFI), sleep disturbances (PSQI), spiritual well-being (FACT-SP) and overall QOL (SF-36). Patients (mean age: 73 yrs., 62% male, 85% stage III) and caregivers (mean age: 65 yrs., 73% female, 85% spouses) completed a mean of 12 TY sessions (range: 6-15) and 95.5% of them rated the program as useful or very useful. Paired t-tests revealed a significant increase in spiritual well-being (P=.03; d=1.12) for patients and decrease in fatigue (P=.03; d=.87) and anxiety (P=.04; d=.91) for caregivers. This first couple-based Tibetan yoga program appears to be a safe, feasible, acceptable and subjectively useful supportive care strategy for patients and their caregivers. Based on these promising preliminary findings regarding treatment gains, the next step is to conduct a randomized controlled pilot trial. Furthermore, based on this and other Tibetan meditation and Tibetan yoga studies with other cancer populations (namely, lymphoma and women with breast cancer), we have incorporated this as a new class of Tibetan meditation and movement as part of our free offerings for people with cancer and their caregivers in our Integrative Medicine Center.
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