Impact of Chronic Illness on Mind-Body Wellness and Applicable Mind-Body Therapy

This article explores the impact of chronic illnesses like chronic pain, morbid obesity, and dementia on mind-body wellness. It discusses applicable mind-body therapies for each condition. The article concludes with the importance of designing a care plan that is integrative of the emotional and mental wellbeing of the patients.

Running head: MIND BODY WELLNESS ASSIGNMENT
Mind body wellness assignment
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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MIND BODY WELLNESS ASSIGNMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Physical, emotional and mental wellbeing:.....................................................................................2
Chronic pain:...................................................................................................................................3
Impact on physical, emotional and mental health:......................................................................3
Mind-body therapy:.....................................................................................................................4
Morbid obesity:................................................................................................................................5
Impact on physical, emotional and mental health:......................................................................5
Mind-body therapy:.....................................................................................................................5
Dementia:.........................................................................................................................................6
Impact on physical, emotional and mental health:......................................................................6
Mind-body therapy:.....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................7
References:......................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
The impact of a disease on the overall wellbeing of the patient has been a highly
researched and explored area of concern among the medical scientists. The impact of chronic
diseases has been established to not only affect the physical state of the patient, but also have a
profound impact on the emotional or spiritual health and wellbeing. According to D'Silva et al.
(2012), the patients dealing with a particular chronic illness have to suffer through the process of
adjusting their lifestyles, aspirations and even employment in order to cope with the restrictions
caused by the different chronic illnesses. This assignment will focus on three adverse health
conditions, chronic pain, morbid obesity, and dementia and will discuss their impact on the
mental and spiritual wellness of the patient. The assignment will conclude with applicable mind-
body therapy that can help the patients overcome the negative impact of these health adversities
on physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of the patient.
Physical, emotional and mental wellbeing:
According to the ancient cultural concepts, the understanding of health is not just limited
to the physical manifestation of a disease. Rather, the cultural or ethnic understanding of health
presents a more elaborative idea of health. According to the Ventola (2010), the construct of
good health is comprised of body, mind and spirit. Each of the three elements contributes to the
health or wellbeing of and individual. Integrative medicine and health psychology has now
recognized the influence of the spiritual, mental and emotional state of the patients on the overall
health and recovery. Considering from the point of view of human psychology, the overall
construct health of a particular patient is affected by the trickle-down effect, the physical body is
affected by the emotional distress. On the other hand, the cognitive health of an individual

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directs the thought, and the energy levels or spirit sways the thought process. When a patient is
burdened by any chronic illness, there is a detrimental impact on the emotional and mental state
of the different individual and along with the spiritual health of the patient is also affected.
Hence, as a result of the trickle-down effect, the physical health and recovery potential of the
patient is also deteriorated (Santos et al. 2015).
Chronic pain:
Impact on physical, emotional and mental health:
The first chosen health adversity is chronic pain, which has been proved to have a marked
impact on the psychological and emotional health of the different individuals. On a more
elaborative note, it has to be mentioned that chronic pain has a unique pathology. According to
Müller et al. (2017), this kind of pain facilitates alterations throughout the nervous system of the
patient, which in most cases, worsens over time. Chronic pain has distinct psychological and
cognitive correlates; it represents a severe and separate disease entity on itself. Hence, it can be
mentioned that chronic pain affects each and every aspect of human life, including psychology,
spirituality and emotions.
Chronic pain can be caused by various different health disorders; it can be traumatic or
can be due to health conditions like cancer, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and many other
concerns. According to Simons, Elman and Borsook (2014), the understanding of chronic pain
involves complex brain circuits including sensory, emotional, cognitive, and interoceptive
processing. Hence the impact of chronic pain is high on the emotional and mental wellbeing of
the patient as well. There is a distinct link between the construct of chronic pain and depression.
It has to be understood in this context that the increasing intensity of pain in the patients there is

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loss of functional ability. The sense of helplessness and anxiety, coupled with the consequential
loss of function, can together manifest into pain catastrophising. This concept leads to immense
psychological and emotional burden on the patient and prolonged exposure to pain
catastrophisng can lead to severe psychotic disorders, affecting the behavioral pattern and spirits
of the patients (Linton and Shaw 2011).
Mind-body therapy:
In order to cope with the biopsychosocial impact of the chronic pain, there is need for
mind-body based therapeutic intervention along with pharmacological or medical care plan.
Mind-body based therapies act on the mental and emotional state of the patient and hence help in
decreasing the biopsychosocial impact of chronic pain. The mind-body approach that can be
applied to this condition is meditation. Meditation related pain relief is a very common and
frequently used technique for nonpharmacological pain management. According to Hassed
(2013), this mindfulness based therapy targets the cognitive modulation of chronic pain. As a
result this therapeutic intervention can alter the subjective experience felt by the patient suffering
from chronic pain. This mind-body therapeutic intervention is generally employed in conjunction
with pharmacological intervention. However, it can be used alone as a complementary
intervention as well.
However, it has to be mentioned that this mind-body based intervention is associated
with just overcoming the psychological interpretation of pain. This mind-body based intervention
does not actually cure the pain. In certain cases, the patients depend on the alternative mind-body
based therapies excessively and expect miraculous results. The impact of the mind-body based
therapies is limited, and hence, on their own they cannot cure the pain. Hence this therapeutic
intervention cannot be used as a long term solution (Kerns, Sellinger and Goodin 2011).

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Morbid obesity:
Impact on physical, emotional and mental health:
Another health concern that has a significant impact on the mental and emotional
wellbeing along with physical health is the morbid obesity. There are various factors associated
with morbid obesity and it is considered to be the facilitator for other related diseases like
diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and renal disorders. Hence, the impact of morbid obesity is
also extremely high on the psychosocial aspects of life. First and foremost, obesity is associated
with altered body image which has a significant impact on the emotional and mental health of the
patient. Along with that, the altered body image also contributes effectively to the bullying,
discrimination and social isolation. According to Agrawal et al. (2015), the impact of these
psychosocial factors has a significant role in deteriorating the emotional and spiritual health of
the patient. Hence, a vast majority of the obese patients have been reported to be going through
different psychotic disorders, especially depression. Furthermore, obesity management is
associated with many lifestyle restrictions; the helplessness and inability to revert to old lifestyle
can also trigger behavioral disorders and depression in the morbidly obese patients. Hence,
mind-body based therapeutic interventions are employed in the most cases as complementary
therapies.
Mind-body therapy:
The mind-body based intervention that can be employed in this scenario is the cognitive
behavioral therapy (CBT) which can help in the patient accepting their condition with positivity
and optimism and work towards targeted weight loss. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps is the
client understanding the impact of obesity and how to overcome it with achievable goal setting
helps in generating the essential behavioral and thinking style change. In cognitive behavioral

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therapy, the therapists emphasizes on the maladaptive thoughts and behavior leading to different
unhealthy lifestyle habits, so that they can identify it and take reasonable actions or initiatives to
change them.
However, the use of this mind-body based intervention has a few limitations as well. It
has to be mentioned that this therapeutic intervention can only work as an allied care program, it
will not target the root cause of the obesity will not take any direct action reducing the obesity.
Along with that, as mentioned by Santos et al. (2015), the success of the CBT depends entirely
upon the commitment of the client to the therapy, without honest efforts and complete co-
operation from the client; this therapy will not be beneficial. Moreover, for the patients with
complex mental health needs, the use of CBT will not be sufficient, owing to its complex
structured nature (D'Silva et al. 2012).
Dementia:
Impact on physical, emotional and mental health:
Dementia can be considered as one of the key degenerative disorders that disrupts the
quality of life among the elderly populations. The impact of dementia is associated with the
practical effects of the condition. Even the diagnosis of dementia has a huge impact on the social
and personal life of the patient. It has to be mentioned that dementia alters the living experience
of the patient by altering their ability to feel, think and respond properly. Along with that, it has
to be mentioned that the restrictions posed by the disease social isolation, depression and even
self imposed isolation (Lawrence et al. 2012).

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Mind-body therapy:
The use for mindfulness based cognitive therapy can be applied as a complementary
therapy for patients struggling with dementia (Vasse et al. 2012). This alternative mindfulness
based approach integrates the concepts of mindfulness based meditation and cognitive behavioral
therapy. It helps the dementia patients to change the manner that they feel about their
experiences and the struggles, by instilling thoughts of positivity and optimism. According to
Boersma et al. (2015), this therapeutic intervention helps in enhancing their ability to pay
attention to their thoughts and feelings and helps them pay attention to formulate well articulated
response to the issues that they face.
However, the only flaw in this therapeutic intervention is the lack of direct result on the
direct manifestations of the disease; the therapeutic intervention does nothing to slow down the
progress of the disease as well. As argued by Wang et al. (2012), on the other hand, the
mindfulness based cognitive therapies have a complex structured nature as well, which can be a
stressful burden on the patients with severe dementia or co-occurring disorders.
Conclusion:
The patients that are dealing with a chronic illness grieve regarding their predicaments
before they can try to adjust to it. In many cases the overwhelming grief has a profound
detrimental effect on the emotional and mental health of the patients. In many cases, the patients
have been reported to develop different mental and behavioral disorders as a result of the
unattended grief. Hence, it is very important for the health professional to design a care plan that
is integrative of the emotional and mental wellbeing as well, instead of just focusing on the
physical health or wellbeing of the patients. Hence, the need for mind-body based interventions

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is crucial. This article has illustrated three different health adversities and their impact on mind-
body health and wellbeing, followed by mind-body based interventions targeted for each
adversity with critically reviewing the benefits and possible limitations.

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References:
Agrawal, P., Gupta, K., Mishra, V. and Agrawal, S., 2015. The psychosocial factors related to
obesity: a study among overweight, obese, and morbidly obese women in India. Women &
health, 55(6), pp.623-645.
Boersma, P., van Weert, J.C., Lakerveld, J. and Dröes, R.M., 2015. The art of successful
implementation of psychosocial interventions in residential dementia care: a systematic review
of the literature based on the RE-AIM framework. International psychogeriatrics, 27(1), pp.19-
35.
D'Silva, S., Poscablo, C., Habousha, R., Kogan, M. and Kligler, B., 2012. Mind-body medicine
therapies for a range of depression severity: a systematic review. Psychosomatics, 53(5), pp.407-
423.
Hassed, C., 2013. Mind-body therapies: Use in chronic pain management. Australian family
physician, 42(3), p.112.
Kerns, R.D., Sellinger, J. and Goodin, B.R., 2011. Psychological treatment of chronic
pain. Annual review of clinical psychology, 7, pp.411-434..
Linton, S.J. and Shaw, W.S., 2011. Impact of psychological factors in the experience of
pain. Physical therapy, 91(5), pp.700-711.
Müller, R., Landmann, G., Béchir, M., Hinrichs, T., Arnet, U., Jordan, X. and Brinkhof, M.W.,
2017. Chronic pain, depression and quality of life in individuals with spinal cord injury:
Mediating role of participation. Journal of rehabilitation medicine, 49(6), pp.489-496.

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Santos, T., de Matos, M.G., Simões, C. and Machado, M.D.C., 2015. Psychological well-being
and chronic condition in Portuguese adolescents. International Journal of Adolescence and
Youth, 20(3), pp.334-345.
Simons, L.E., Elman, I. and Borsook, D., 2014. Psychological processing in chronic pain: a
neural systems approach. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 39, pp.61-78.
Vasse, E., Vernooij‐Dassen, M., Cantegreil, I., Franco, M., Dorenlot, P., Woods, B. and Moniz‐
Cook, E., 2012. Guidelines for psychosocial interventions in dementia care: a European survey
and comparison. International journal of geriatric psychiatry, 27(1), pp.40-48.
Ventola, C.L., 2010. Current issues regarding complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in
the United States: part 1: the widespread use of CAM and the need for better-informed health
care professionals to provide patient counseling. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 35(8), p.461.
Wang, H.X., Wahlberg, M., Karp, A., Winblad, B. and Fratiglioni, L., 2012. Psychosocial stress
at work is associated with increased dementia risk in late life. Alzheimer's & dementia: the
journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 8(2), pp.114-120.