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Meditation and Mindfulness for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s Disease

Alyssa Luck · Mar 14, 2022 · Leave a Comment

Summary: Meditation and mindfulness are becoming increasingly popular in the health sphere, and rightly so – ample evidence indicates that these practices are extremely beneficial for health. However, as far as their practical efficacy in managing IBD, the jury is still out. Clinical trials in IBD have fairly consistently shown improvements in overall quality of life, but thus far haven’t demonstrated improvements in flare rate or severity. That said, trials in a variety of patient populations have shown that mindfulness appears to down-regulate NF-κB activity, reflecting an overall less inflammatory gene expression profile. Other evidence supports the idea that mindfulness markedly changes how the central nervous system physiologically responds to stressors, including down-regulation of sympathetic nervous system and HPA-axis activity. Taken together, it appears likely that mindfulness could confer more measurable benefits with regards to inflammation and disease progression in IBD over the long term.

This article is part of the IBD Index. Last updated on March 14, 2022.

Mind-body medicine is currently an area of particular research focus for me, so you can expect this post to be expanded and updated in the near future! Follow me on Instagram for personal content related to mind-body medicine, as well as snippets of interesting research that might not make it into a blog post.

Mindfulness is one of those golden health practices that I call “no brainers” – in other words, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. At the outset, I can say that I’d recommend some type of mindfulness practice to every person with IBD, almost without exception (and anyone who knows me knows that I’m not usually in the business of recommending things).

So if you want to learn more, read on. Otherwise, save your time and go meditate!

Table of Contents
What exactly is “meditation”?
Is there clinical evidence that meditation or mindfulness is effective in IBD?
Can meditation reduce inflammation?
How does meditation “work”?
Resources to get started with meditation and mindfulness
Review of the literature

What Exactly is “Meditation”?

Terminology can be a challenge when discussing mindfulness-based practices and their clinical health benefits. Most people are familiar with the concept of “meditation,” although that word often has strong spiritual connotations that can be a turn-off for some people. The more basic concept of “mindfulness” is probably somewhat less well-known, although that’s certainly changing as more people become aware of the benefits.

Mindfulness can be defined as a non-judgmental awareness of one’s own thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and their interactions in the present moment. Awareness and acceptance are generally recognized to be the two key players here.

Meditation could be considered by some to be the “purest” form of mindfulness, since it typically involves sitting still and doing nothing aside from practicing that awareness and acceptance, but other popular practices such as yoga, tai chi, and qigong also cultivate mindfulness. And beyond that, it’s important to realize that absolutely anything can be done mindfully; indeed, the goal of any good mindfulness practice should be to bring more awareness and acceptance into all your daily activities.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is the most widely-used curriculum for teaching mindfulness in the clinical setting. It has been shown to reduce anxiety and depression among several different patient populations, and has improved inflammatory cytokine profiles in studies of cancer and HIV patients. The 8-week curriculum was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and consists of eight weekly 2.5-hour group classes, one day-long workshop, and 45 minutes per day of at-home practice guided by CD. (Source) The classes involve both formal “exercises” or “meditations” (including sitting meditation, body scans, and yoga postures) and informal practices (such as awareness of personal reactions to everyday events).

Other programs that have been used in IBD studies are often derivative of MBSR and include mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, multi-convergent therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy. Also note that “meditation” does not always mean “mindfulness meditation.” Loving-kindness meditation is another popular approach that is still very beneficial, but doesn’t have a strong emphasis on mindfulness.

Is There Clinical Evidence That Meditation or Mindfulness is Effective in IBD?

To date, we really only have about six trials testing the efficacy of mindfulness interventions in IBD (and several of them are either very small, somewhat poorly designed, or both): Neilson et al 2016, Gerbarg et al 2015, Schoultz et al 2015, Jedel et al 2014, Berrill et al 2014, and Elsenbruch et al 2005. We also have a couple review articles covering mindfulness interventions (usually including things like yoga as well) in IBD.

You can check out the lit list at the end of this article to see all the relevant papers, but the two that deserve special mention are Gerbarg et al 2015 and Jedel et al 2014.

The Gerbarg study, The Effect of Breathing, Movement, and Meditation on Psychological and Physical Symptoms and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial, was quite small, with only 29 participants total, but it was very well controlled and the experimental group experienced significant improvements in both psychological and physical symptoms, quality of life, and c-reactive protein.

The Jedel study, A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction to prevent flare-up in patients with inactive ulcerative colitis, was also very well controlled and was larger, with 55 patients total, and is the only study so far with disease flare-ups as an endpoint. At a high level, the results were disappointing – no significant difference in flare rate or severity. But looking more closely, they reported some very interesting findings: 1) for the subset of participants with the highest baseline stress and cortisol levels, the MBSR group did have a lower flare rate; 2) the MBSR group had higher levels of cortisol and IL-10 (an anti-inflammatory cytokine) during flare-ups, potentially indicating a more robust anti-inflammatory response; and 3) the MBSR group did not experience a decline in quality of life scores during flares, while the control group did.

Overall, the evidence we have so far in IBD doesn’t show consistent benefits of mindfulness to markers of inflammation or disease progression, but it does consistently show benefits to overall quality of life. And the several recently-conduced feasibility trials bode well for future research – hopefully we’ll see some larger RCTs coming down the pipeline soon.

Can Meditation Reduce Inflammation?

In light of the relative paucity of IBD-specific meditation studies, I wanted to broaden my scope for a minute and include a quick discussion of the potential effects of meditation and mindfulness on inflammation in general.

One review from 2016 (Mind-body therapies and control of inflammatory biology: A descriptive review) summarized all of the RCTs to date that evaluated inflammatory biomarkers (including but not limited to IBD studies) following mind-body interventions (including tai chi, qigong, yoga, or meditation). Most of the studies evaluated circulating inflammatory markers or cellular production of inflammatory markers, like IL-6 or CRP, and most did not report a significant response (with the other three disciplines reporting more significant responses than meditation).

However, a small subset of studies instead evaluated gene expression in inflammatory pathways, and all seven of those studies (including three using meditation) reported significant changes in gene expression; particularly a down-regulation of NF-κB activity, reflecting an overall less inflammatory gene expression profile. At least one of those studies also observed increased glucocorticoid receptor activity, which is highly relevant to chronic inflammatory disease states such as IBD; cortisol is one of the body’s most potent anti-inflammatory molecules, but it can only do its job if the cell receptors are sensitive to it.

As another review article put it, the overall observed change in gene expression in response to these mindfulness practices can be understood as “the reversal of the molecular signature of the effects of chronic stress”.

The authors speculate that gene expression may be a more sensitive marker for changes in inflammatory status, and that perhaps longer trials would more reliably show decreases in circulating inflammatory markers. They point out that in the exercise literature, year-long interventions have been required to reduce circulating levels of CRP, so it’s not totally unreasonable to expect that mindfulness practices may take a while to show results, too.

How Exactly Does Meditation “Work”?

It’s not hard to understand how mindfulness could lead to an improvement in overall mental state and quality of life. What may seem less obvious is how it could influence very objective physiological measures like inflammatory markers or gene expression.

What you have to remember is that the brain is a physical organ, and like our other organs, it adapts its structure and function over time to better accommodate the demands we place on it. In the case of meditation, the brain changes that researchers have observed include increased activity and connectivity in the prefrontal cortex (the top-down regulatory pathway) and decreased reactivity and connectivity in regions like the amygdala involved in the fight-or-flight stress response (the bottom-up reactivity pathway). (Source)

These neural changes in turn decrease physiological stress reactivity in the sympathetic nervous system and HPA-axis. They also impact how we respond to and cope with stress on a conscious behavioral level, which should not be discounted; better self-regulation leads to better choices, which usually have a positive feedback effect (a virtuous cycle, if you will, instead of the dreaded vicious cycle).

These pathways are depicted in the figure below.

Creswell et al, 2019. Mindfulness Training and Physical Health: Mechanisms and Outcomes.

While those pathways begin with top-down changes, other researchers have proposed that meditation may work via bottom-up mechanisms as well. As discussed in my post about vagus nerve stimulation, mindfulness practices have been shown to stimulate the vagus nerve and improve vagal tone over time, which has anti-inflammatory effects through numerous. One paper posits that these practices stimulate the vagus nerve primarily because they usually involve deep, slow, controlled breathing.

Resources to Get Started with Meditation

My personal favorite meditation app that I’ve tried is FitMind. They have a one-week free trial; after that it costs $70/year. I’ve tried several meditation apps and approaches over the past decade, and I like this one for a few reasons:

  1. It begins with a structured program where you don’t have to make any decisions. On Day 1, you complete the Day 1 meditation and listen to the Day 1 training. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the first month.
  2. The sessions are a manageable length. Each practice is only about ten minutes, and each training is usually less than five.
  3. The approach is very matter-of-fact and goal-oriented, without being either too rigid or too ethereal. He encourages you to be gentle with yourself, while also holding yourself to a certain standard and having the expectation of effort and improvement.
  4. Conceptualizing meditation as “brain training” has been helpful for me, since the idea of “training” comes with the understanding that it will be hard at first, but your body will adapt and it will become easier over time. (As he puts it, each time you notice your attention wandering and bring it back to the present moment is like doing a mental bicep curl. Cheesy, perhaps, but I like it!)

As far as other apps go, there are a number of options:

  • Sam Harris’ app Waking Up. This one also starts with a 30-day set program, which is very helpful, but overall it wasn’t for me. The techniques he focused on were a bit too advanced and bordering on the spiritual/ethereal for my taste, but I’d encourage you to try the free trial to see if it jives with you. I will say though, I’ve found the non-meditation content of the app (essentially a bunch of podcast interviews) valuable, and I really like the “moment” feature that gives you a little 2-minute “food for thought” type thing each day, but with all the excellent free podcasts available, I don’t think these features alone make the price of the app ($100/year) worth it.
  • The most popular apps seem to be Calm and Headspace, both of which I’ve tried in the past but haven’t stuck with. Take that for what you will.

As far as more structured support, you have a couple options:

  • MBSR training. I won’t lie, trying to google MBSR classes (online or in-person) did not turn up the “official-looking” website that I was hoping for. That said, it did turn up some in-person classes (for example, here’s one at Duke University in NC), as well as some online courses (like this one that purports to be “official” and “authentic” but seems a bit sketchy to me). In any case, if you’re interested, google classes in your area, and see what you come up with.
  • Meetup groups. Check Meetup.com for local meditation groups in your area. They probably exist, and it can be helpful to meditate in a group for accountability purposes and improved focus.

Review of the Literature

Wren et al. Mindfulness-Based Virtual Reality Intervention for Children and Young Adults with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Pilot Feasibility and Acceptability Study. 2021. Children.

  • Very brief study where participants underwent just one 6-minute mindfulness experience, but the concept is neat – essentially, the intervention was a short guided mindfulness meditation assisted by relaxing virtual reality scenes (of a meadow and the northern lights). The patients seemed to quite like it, so hopefully treatments like this will slowly make their way into clinical practice.

Kohut et al. Feasibility and Acceptability of a Mindfulness-Based Group Intervention for Adolescents with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. 2020. J Clin Psychol Med Settings.

  • Study was designed to assess feasibility rather than efficacy, but qualitative analysis indicated beneficial emotional effects

Ewais et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of mindfulness based interventions and yoga in inflammatory bowel disease. 2019. J Psychosom Res.

  • Eight studies included in the meta-analysis.
  • Conclusions: Mindfulness interventions are effective in reducing stress and depression and improving quality of life and anxiety, but do not lead to significant improvements in the physical symptoms of IBD.

Hood, Megan M and Jedel, Sharon. Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. 2017. Gastroenterol Clin North Am.

  • This article reviews eight studies, assessing seven psychosocial interventions, which include mindfulness and/or meditation components. Strongest effects of the interventions were found in quality of life and anxiety/depression, with inconsistent or minimal changes in other psychosocial areas, such as perceived stress and in disease-related outcomes and other physiologic functioning.

Neilson et al. A Controlled Study of a Group Mindfulness Intervention for Individuals Living With Inflammatory Bowel Disease. 2016. Inflamm Bowel Dis.

  • Trial was not randomized – researchers allowed patients to self-select either the intervention group (MBSR) or the control group (treatment-as-usual)
  • Of the 33 patients who elected to participate in the experimental group, 27 completed the treatment program and reported improved mental health and quality of life

Gerbarg et al. The Effect of Breathing, Movement, and Meditation on Psychological and Physical Symptoms and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial. 2015. Inflamm Bowel Dis.

  • 29 patients were randomized to a Breath-Body-Mind Workshop (BBMW) or an educational seminar
  • The BBMW group experienced significant improvements in both psychological and physical symptoms, quality of life, and c-reactive protein; the control group did not experience any significant changes (so placebo effect was minimal in this study)
  • BBMW consisted of a 2-day workshop where patients were taught 4 breathing techniques, various qigong movements, and open focus meditation. Weekly 90-min follow-up sessions were offered for 6 weeks, then monthly until week 26.
  • The control group had the same number and length of sessions, but the material took the format of educational seminars on various topics such as the importance of medication compliance, stress, and nutrition on IBD, and other educational topics.

Schoultz et al. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for inflammatory bowel disease patients: findings from an exploratory pilot randomised controlled trial. 2015. Trials.

  • The MBCT intervention consisted of 16 hours of structured group training over 8 weeks, plus guided home practice and follow-up sessions, and patients reported improvement in depression, anxiety, and overall quality of life
  • This study wasn’t particularly well controlled in my opinion – the “control” group apparently just received a leaflet entitled “Staying well with IBD.” That said, the main purpose of the trial wasn’t to test efficacy, but to determine the feasibility of conducting a large-scale RCT on MBCT in IBD
  • Related citation: Participants’ perspectives on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for inflammatory bowel disease: a qualitative study nested within a pilot randomised controlled trial

Jedel et al. A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction to prevent flare-up in patients with inactive ulcerative colitis. 2014. Digestion.

  • 55 patients with UC were randomized to either the experimental MBSR group or the time/attention control group; dropout rate was fairly low (only one in each group)
  • Control group intervention was a carefully-designed time/attention control comprising the same number of in-person group sessions and homework sessions. The course content was mind-body medicine related, but was primarily educational and did not teach practical skills for coping with stress.
  • There was no difference between the groups in rate or severity of flare-ups, time-to-flare, or inflammatory markers. However, among the subset of patients with the highest perceived stress and highest cortisol levels at baseline, the MBSR group had a statistically significantly lower flare rate.
  • The MBSR group had significantly higher levels of cortisol and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 during flare-ups, potentially indicating a more robust anti-inflammatory response by the body; however, this did not appear to confer any clinical benefit in flare severity.
  • The MBSR group also reported a more stable quality of life: whereas patients in the control group experienced a significant decrease in quality of life during a flare, the MBSR group did not.

Berrill et al. Mindfulness-based therapy for inflammatory bowel disease patients with functional abdominal symptoms or high perceived stress levels. 2014. J Crohn’s Colitis.

  • Enrolled 66 IBD patients who were in clinical remission but had continuing functional GI symptoms or high levels of perceived stress, and allocated them to either a 16-week MCT course or waiting list control group
  • MCT course consisted of 6 face-to-face sessions over the span of 16 weeks; a description of the sessions is given in Table 1 of the paper
  • Results did not reach pre-determined levels of statistical or clinical significance, but there were trends towards decreased severity of functional GI symptoms and improved quality of life in the experimental group

Elsenbruch et al. Effects of mind-body therapy on quality of life and neuroendocrine and cellular immune functions in patients with ulcerative colitis. 2005. Psychother Psychosom.

  • In 30 UC patients in remission or with low disease activity (15 underwent the MBSR program, 15 were controls)
  • Intervention group reported reduced symptoms and overall improvement in quality of life, but no differences in inflammatory biomarkers were observed between the groups.

Two “acceptance and commitment therapy” trials, which were lumped in with other mindfulness training in some review articles:

  • The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on stress coping strategies in women with ulcerative colitis
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Reduces Psychological Stress in Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
  • A randomised controlled trial of acceptance and commitment therapy for the treatment of stress in inflammatory bowel disease

Related

Mind-Body Therapies breathing, Crohn's disease, IBD, MBSR, meditation, mindfulness, ulcerative colitis, vagus nerve

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Hi! I’m Alyssa. I like thunderstorms and cats, hate wearing shoes, and enjoy devising extensive research projects for myself in my free time. This is me in Bali with a monkey on my shoulder. And this is my blog, where I muse about health-related topics and document my relentless self-guinea pigging. If you want to know more about me, click here!

alyssa.luck

alyssa.luck
If you've seen "vagus nerve exercises" that have y If you've seen "vagus nerve exercises" that have you moving your eyes or tilting your head, you've probably encountered the work of Stanley Rosenberg. The exercises he created and introduced in his 2017 book now appear in instructional videos all over the internet. 
 
The book itself has much to recommend it: it's accessible, it's practical, it's inspiring. But it has one major flaw: the solid practical and informational content regarding the cranial nerves is framed in terms of the scientifically dubious polyvagal theory. 
 
I particularly enjoyed the book as an introduction to the therapeutic arena of bodywork, of which Rosenberg is a skilled practitioner. His book is full of case reports that demonstrate how immensely powerful extremely subtle movements and physical manipulations can be. These do need to be kept in perspective: it's a small sample size of the most remarkable cases, and the results were achieved within the supportive clinical environment of a skilled practitioner. You can tell from his descriptions how refined his technique is. But nevertheless, it was a paradigm-shifting read for me, and the exercises give you something concrete to play around with. 
 
The book also brought the cranial nerves and the concept of “social engagement” to the fore as arbiters of health. Rosenberg has a solid background in cranial nerve anatomy and shares many interesting tidbits and considerations that you don’t typically hear; for instance, the potential impact of dental and orthodontic work on cranial nerve function.
 
So, is it worth reading? If any of the above piques your interest, go for it! Just read my post on polyvagal theory first – you can use the book to practice separating the wheat (solid informational content) from the chaff (pseudoscientific framing). If nothing else, the book is a nice reminder that genuine healers who get lasting results for their patients do exist.

But if you just want to try the exercises, you can easily find them all on YouTube. 

“You learn techniques to understand principles. When you understand the principles, you will create your own techniques.” -Stanley Rosenberg
I first stumbled upon polyvagal theory during the I first stumbled upon polyvagal theory during the course of my heart rate variability research. I was surprised to encounter it again "in the wild" shortly after, in the book "Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve." Before long, I saw it popping up everywhere, (Baader-Meinhof, anyone?) 
 
Digging deeper, I discovered scientific controversy bubbling just beneath the smooth surface of polyvagal theory's popular presentation. Three months later, I posted a 13k word analysis of the topic. 
 
The technical details are far below the level of practicality for the average person, but the way polyvagal theory has propagated outside of academia has some important ramifications for clinical and scientific progress. 
 
In the wake of a wave of health complaints that our current medical model is poorly equipped to treat, it's clearer than ever that a new paradigm is needed. The grassroots push to emphasize diet and lifestyle factors has been a huge step in the right direction, but it's becoming more and more common to see people who have done everything "right" and are still struggling with persistent health complaints that could range anywhere from mildly annoying to debilitating. 
 
What we need is a genuine integration of mind and body in medicine – not the weak lip service that our current paradigm pays to "stress reduction," like the vague suggestion to relax more and maybe try meditation. And if we're going to develop a sophisticated mind-body medicine, we need a sophisticated mind-body science. And if we want a sophisticated mind-body science, we must subject such topics to the same standards of inquiry as we expect from molecular biomedicine. And that means rejecting pseudoscience like polyvagal theory. 
 
Full analysis and references at alyssaluck.com/polyvagal-theory-a-critical-appraisal
To continue my recounting of the health things I'm To continue my recounting of the health things I'm experimenting with, let me tell you about DNRS: the slightly cheesy, arguably outdated “brain rewiring” program that has changed my life. 

I found it because I was looking for ways to “retrain” my nervous system. I watched some success stories. None of the “target” health conditions matched mine, but I went for it anyway. Probably the best decision I’ve ever made for my health. 

The core of DNRS is built on the principles of neuroplasticity. They call it "brain rewiring" because you intentionally take triggers that would normally stimulate a negative response in your body or mind, and associate them repeatedly with neural signals of safety. If that sounds pseudosciencey, I hear ya – one of my goals with future posts is to bring some concreteness and specificity to the topic. I imagine there are lots of people who could benefit from this type of thing who are turned off by the overly abstract or touchy-feely language. 

There are tons of "brain rewiring" programs like DNRS, but they're all built on similar ideas. Most bring in elements of other popular approaches, ranging from the scientifically validated (cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy) to the type of new-agey stuff I always scoffed at (shadow work, inner child work, parts work). 

For me, DNRS has provided the perfect framework to finally achieve what meditation experts and therapists and mystics alike are always advocating – the ability to step into the role of “curious observer.” It's given me everything therapy and meditation promised but could never deliver, helping me recognize my own patterns of thought and behavior and consciously redirect unhelpful ones. If this sounds vague, that's because there isn't a single area of my life that hasn't been improved by using this framework. 

I spend far more time in states of joy and peace and gratitude, and less time in states of anxiety or depression or frenzy. Many chronic worries that used to occupy my mind or keep me up at night – whether related to health, relationships, or my future – have disappeared, and the others are on their way out. (Cont. in comments)
Isn’t it crazy how something can be so easy and Isn’t it crazy how something can be so easy and natural for one person, but so hard for another? 

Me doing food: I can totally cook everything I eat from scratch, no prob

Me doing mental health: just doing my hour of daily mindful cognitive gratitudinal journalization

Me doing physical therapy: I can’t do it I don’t have that muscle

I’ve done many hard things in the name of health, but I think they’ve all been the types of hard things that come naturally to me. And frankly, that hasn’t gotten me where I want to be. 

So I’ve decided to finally tackle something that feels very unnatural: developing a real relationship with my muscles and bones, and learning - through experience, not from a book - how they coordinate with each other and how to use them. 

I never really considered my musculoskeletal system a key player in autoimmune or digestive woes, but now I realize it’s naïve to think dysfunction in one part of the body doesn’t affect another. And since this is so obviously my weakest link, it’s high time to make it a priority!

Even though I’ve done strength training in the past, I never dedicated the time and focus to figure out what my body actually needed to function better, and workouts often felt awkward or led to injury. 

I’ve always dreaded PT-type exercises because they felt simultaneously like “not enough” and also SO HARD, especially when there’s no way to confirm whether I’m doing them “right” (my nightmare). 

But I’m pretty sure the fact that targeted “mind-muscle” work is so hard for me means it’s what I need the most. (That’s how that works, right?)

Anyway, I’m happy to report that I’m finally through both the initial phase of being a giant baby because I have to do something I’m bad at, AND the second phase of neurotically worrying about doing it “wrong.” And hopefully I’m on my way to better posture, improved breathing, and greater strength! 

Super thankful to have people in my life who remind me to have fun and stay curious, when my natural disposition is to write a 27-step plan to “fixing” everything “wrong” with me. And to remind me that it is, in fact, a JOY to be a novice at something (as @_john_the_savage_ would say).
"If your nervous system is balanced, your heart is "If your nervous system is balanced, your heart is constantly being told to beat slower by your parasympathetic system, and beat faster by your sympathetic system. This causes a fluctuation in your heart rate: HRV." (whoop.com) 
 
This statement is a formidable example of one of the biggest misconceptions about heart rate variability (HRV). 
 
HRV is highest during rest or sleep, when sympathetic input is lowest. If HRV was the result of an autonomic “tug-of-war,” why would it be greatest when one of the contenders has entirely dropped the rope? 
 
Part of the misunderstanding may stem from failure to recognize that the heart has an intrinsic rate, well above the resting heart rate maintained by the vagus nerve. Varying vagal impulses create HRV without any sympathetic input at all. 
 
There are many other common misconceptions, such as the notion that HRV metrics measure autonomic tone, or that HRV itself is a metric with one interpretation. 
 
Such misconceptions aren’t only found in layscience – they also pervade academic and clinical literature. For instance, you’ll see LF used as a measurement of “sympathetic tone” and LF/HF as a measurement of “sympathovagal balance,” even though it’s been clear for decades that those interpretations are not physiologically accurate.
 
This post (and the associated article at alyssaluck.com/hrv101) can be thought of as “foundations for understanding HRV research.” And it provides a good example not only of the insufficiency of “sound-byte” science, but also of real science in action. 
 
The unfortunate reality is that we can’t always take researchers’ conclusions at face value. Few have the time to adequately assess a field before adopting one of their metrics, and once a misinterpretation has taken root it can easily become an accepted fact that propagates through repetition, becoming more entrenched with each published paper.
 
Thankfully the ramifications in this case are not very serious - misdirection of experimental design and analysis, and many false statements, but no dire consequences. Nevertheless, it’s a good reminder that science is a human institution, and it never hurts to question oft-repeated “facts.”
My latest diet experiment: the bean protocol! This My latest diet experiment: the bean protocol! This was one of the changes I made immediately prior to my drastic increase in HRV. 

Brief background: the bean protocol entails eating lots of soluble fiber (particularly beans) as a way to support detox. It rests on the assumption that most chronic health issues are the result of fat-soluble environmental toxins, excess hormones, and other fat-soluble things being recirculated in the body rather than eliminated. 

There is some scientific merit to this: the liver does eliminate many toxins and other compounds through the bile, these things can be subject to reabsorption via enterohepatic recirculation, and certain types of fibers do interrupt this process by binding bile, preventing reabsorption and allowing excretion in the feces.

That said, there are many unanswered questions that would need to be answered for me to be on board with that as the sole or even primary explanation for the anecdotal success of those on the protocol. I think there are almost certainly other mechanisms at play, and I doubt things work exactly as proponents of the protocol describe. 

But at the end of the day, what matters is not mechanisms, but practical outcome. And whatever the reason, it works for many! It seems especially popular and effective for hormonal issues and acne, but the preeminent bean spokesperson @uniquehammond cured her severe Crohn’s with it. 

For me, I experienced better digestion and clearer skin, among other benefits (like not having to wear deodorant). On the less-good side, I lost weight I didn't need to lose, had cold hands and feet, and developed some dry patches on my skin. 

(The dry patches [and perhaps weight loss] were probably because I kept fat too low – mostly because their favored fat source, nuts, is a no-go for me.)

I'm continuing to experiment, hoping to find a balance that lets me reclaim the benefits (which I lost after returning to my normal eating pattern) while avoiding the pitfalls. I’ll share any exciting developments, and will eventually dig into the science behind it too. 

For info about what the protocol entails, you can visit alyssaluck.com/the-bean-protocol-for-ibd!
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