Managing stress with meditation in cyclic vomiting syndrome

Steve Wartenberg: Welcome back. This is our ongoing series on cyclic vomiting syndrome with Dr. V. I'm Steve Wartenberg, and this is Thangam Venkatesan. In this episode, Dr. V will fill us in on how to help manage CVS. So Dr. V, we've talked before about the role of stress in triggering a CVS episode, so how can you help people with that?

Thangam Venkatesan, MD: So CVS is what we call a disorder of gut-brain interaction. And like we said before, CVS is often triggered by stress. We have partnered with the Heartfulness Institute, which is actually a global organization, a non-profit organization for meditation. I'm also an instructor. In fact, we partnered with them, and I said, "Hey, this meditation has helped me personally and so I think it would help my patients." And so we've actually published one study where we have shown that it improves outcomes, it improves health-related quality of life. It improves sleep.

Steve Wartenberg: So you're an instructor, and I guess, why don't we do a little meditation session, and that way people watching can get a sense of what it is and maybe join in. And you'll let you guide them through it, and I guess I can have you guide me through one.

Thangam Venkatesan, MD: You can sit any which way you want. You don't have to be twisted like a pretzel. The important thing is actually to be completely comfortable. If you feel like moving during the meditation session, go ahead and do so. You can have a lot of thoughts, and that's okay. So if you have a lot of thoughts, just try to ignore them, and then slowly bring yourself back to the heart. This is a heart-based meditation. And typically we do it for longer periods of time, but I'm going to take maybe about 10 or 12 minutes to do this. First, I will do a short guided relaxation, and then you just have to follow my instructions. After that, you just sort of imagine that there is a divine or there's a light in your heart. It's just a gentle suggestion. And then you close your eyes, and then we will meditate in silence. All right, so we'll go ahead and get started. 

Gently close your eyes and be seated comfortably. Now slowly wiggle your toes and feel the healing energy from Mother Earth move through your toes into your feet and relax them. Now relax your ankles, your legs, and your knees. Deeply relax all the muscles in your thighs and your hips.

Feel completely relaxed and sink yourself into the chair or earth beneath you. Now slowly let this energy move into your abdomen, and then into your chest. Feel your abdomen slowly rise and fall as you breathe in and out. Now take a slow deep breath in and slowly breathe out. Now bring your attention to the muscles around your neck and shoulders and feel them completely relax. Feel all the stresses and tension that you might be holding simply melt away. Now slowly let this energy move down your upper arm into your elbows, your forearm, your wrists, your palms, and your fingers. Now gently bring your attention to the base of your spine and feel this energy move up through your back, all the way up to the very top of your head.

Now relax your neck muscles, your chin, your cheeks, your mouth, your nose, your ears, your eyes, and your forehead. Now feel your body be completely relaxed. Now slowly bring your attention to your heart and make a gentle suggestion that there is a light in your heart that is calling you from within. There is no need to focus hard or concentrate just a gentle suggestion will do. If you have any thoughts that arise during meditation, simply brush them away and bring yourself back to the heart. I will now start meditation and indicate when it is over.

Please start meditation. That's all. Remain seated with your eyes closed and take a moment to reflect on what you felt today. Know that you can retrieve this peace and calm at any time. Gently open your eyes when you are ready and bring yourself back to the present moment. Thank you for participating.

Steve Wartenberg: Thank you.

Thangam Venkatesan, MD: Thank you.

Steve Wartenberg: We're sitting here in a studio with lights and cameras and it worked. There were times my mind wandered a bit, but there were times and I forgot about all that and was relaxed.

Thangam Venkatesan, MD: Yeah, thank you. It was the most shocking version of what I normally do. We normally do it for at least 20 minutes to half an hour, but hopefully this is just a little sneak peek.

Steve Wartenberg: Well, this is a great tool for everyone, people who do have CVS and anyone because stress is not good. So thank you, and thanks for watching. And stay tuned for more episodes on what you need to know about CVS.

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For more information, visit wexnermedical.osu.edu/CVS