Today, in the U.S., one in three people over the age of 45 are affected by chronic non-communicable disease. Up to 70% of these diseases are lifestyle related. Lack of personal time, excessive worry, too little rest, addictions, overeating, destructive mental patterns, overstimulation from media/technology, isolation from community, and nature deprivation all have a role to play in the chronic non-communicable disease epidemic. On healthcare along, we spend 3 trillion dollars per year; yet, the U.S. ranks 37 in the world in terms of longevity of life, a primary measure of healthcare quality. The simple process of integrating the person into the equation in her/his health plan is vital to prevent and treat chronic non-communicable diseases. When an individual realizes his or her participation affects the biology, this will open up a whole new game-changing paradigm for dealing with disease. Our research furthers this paradigm shift by validating its underlying principles.
In ancient systems of knowledge, such as Ayurveda, an etiology-based approach is taken against disease, aiming at the root cause of a body imbalance–unlike the damage-based model of the current biomedical system which aims at symptom care. For example, long-standing spiritual practices such as Audible Mantram Repetition (AuMR) are prescribed to increase a state of inner transparency (within an individual) leads to a disruption and an eroding of paradigms and lifestyles that fuel chronic diseases. A study of Dr. David Wolf demonstrated that AuMR techniques increased states of clarity (sattva) and decreased anxiety and stress in healthy American volunteers without prior experience in meditation. Our study demonstrated AuMR increases vagal tone thereby decreasing the chances of cardiovascular, cancer, stroke and dementia-related morbidity and mortality. In this way, we are studying the effects of implementing whole-system approaches in healthcare.
