Men Are Not Always Thinking About Sex. Study Says: There Are At Least 4 "Good" Reasons They Don't - Stress Is #1! Plus: A Proven De-Stress Protocol to Restore Your Libido

If either of these individuals remind you of yourself, you should reduce his stress levels.

Recent research suggest: The good old saying that "Men always think about sex!" is essentially untrue (The "!" indicates that I used the feminist version of this common "wisdom").

If we put faith in the results of a recent European study from the Department of Clinical Psychology at the Instituto Universitário in Lisbon, Portugal, the Department of Psychology at the University of Tromsø in Tromsø, Norway, and the Sexology Unit at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia, stress is the common denominator that distracts men from their original duty to do what has to be done for the survival of the human race ;-)

Homo coitum quaerens aut evitarens?

It may sound surprising, but unlike sexual function, the sexual desire of the male members of the human race has not been examined as extensively as the one of their female counterparts. When you think about the initially quoted "wisdom", it is actually not that surprising.  Men are are after all believed to be always looking for the next "catch".

The problem cannot be that prevalent, can it? Yes it can! According to recent data from the The National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), the average American's prevalence of “lacking desire for sex” ranged from 14% (for those 18–29 years old) to 17% (for those 50–59 years old). In spite of the fact that the exact figures are debatable, the currently available literature supports the notion that 15-20% of the US men 'don't think about sex at all'. If we take a look at international data the figures don't look better: Depending on the geographic region 13% to 28% of the ~14,000 men aged 40–80 years from 29 countries in the Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviours said that their sexual desire had been low for at least 2 months Laumann. 2005).

After focusing more or less exclusively on functional aspects of male sexuality for decades, research does now start to draw and embrace a more versatile image of male and general human sexuality. According to studies by Hyde and Janssen, the black-and-white gender differences which is also at the heard of the saying "men think about sex all day" is in fact non-existent. On the contrary, gender theorists have recently suggested that greater diversity exists within gender than between gender (Hyde. 2005+2007; Janssen. 2008).

Sexual disinterest is stressful!

Faced with the surprisingly high rates of sexual disinterest in men, scientists like Mccarthy et al. have already identified several major relationship problems as potential culprits. In view of what you've learned already, it should be obvious that these problems are not necessarily related to the 'classic' mismatch in sexual interests between a hyperactive male and an (under-)active female partner. On the contrary, the data in Figure 1 makes it plain obvious that for men in their thirties, it would not be unlikely that they are disinterested and their wives or girlfriends dissatisfied.

It goes without saying that problems like these and the mismatch between the perceived and the expected level of sexual desire are stressing - very stressing, according to the data Ana Carvalheira's, Bente Træen's and Aleksandar Štulhofer gathered in inteviews with heterosexual men from Portugal, Croatia, and Norway (Carcalheira. 2013):

Figure 1:Lack of desire and professional stress, two sides of the same coin? Data based on Carcalheira (2013)

In the worst case scenario a man will get caught in a vicious circle of professional stress ⇆ lack of sexual desire ⇆ private stress that is hard to break. Against that background it's only logical that the essence of the recommendations in the bottom line of this article is to get rid of the stress that's keeping you from thinking about sex.

"Stress ⇆ Sexual Disinterest" - it's that easy!

A 2013 study by Talbott et al. suggests that Tongkat Ali, a traditional testosterone and libido booster works mainly be reducing stress levels (learn more)

If you don't believe in the deeper truth of this 'equation', I suggest you go back to an article I wrote earlier this year (see Beyond Testosterone: 200mg/day of Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma Longifolia) for Stress Management & Improved Mood!?" | read more). It deals with a traditional "testosterone booster" and its effects on stressed individuals... you will see: Stress is not only a libido-, it's also a testosterone -killer (no surprise, right?).

It is thus not really surprising that the data from the Carcalheira study tells us that men who feel distressed about their own lack of libido were 2.5x more likely to suffer from anxiety right before sex  and/or have trouble maintaining an erection.

To be stressed or not to be stressed - that's the question!

Just as the cliche would have it, the highly reserved Norwegians were 3x more likely than the red-blooded self-proclaimed Latin lovers from Portugal to suffer from a lack of sexual desire. With a 50% higher risk of losing interest in the other sex, the participants from Croatia end up somewhere in between the 'Latin lovers' and the 'prudish Vikings'.

Table 1: Sociodemographic characteristics, individual variables, and relationship-related characteristics as correlates of a distressing lack of sexual interest among healthy heterosexual men who are not using antidepressants (Carcalheira. 2013)

Aside from their origin there were other sociodemographic characteristics, individual variables, and relationship-related characteristics which were found to be associated with the an increased risk of suffering from a lack of sexual desire. As the data in Table 1 goes to show you, having children, even young ones, was, contrary to what you may have expected, not among these characteristics. In contrast to the self-confidence on erectile function, of course.

What's I personally find quite telling is the high rate of a distressing lack of sexual desire in long-term (5years +) relationships and as a consequence of an indifferent attitude towards the attractiveness of the sexual partner. Interestingly, finding your wife or girlfriend "neither attractive, nor unattractive" is an even greater turn down than thinking of her as a "very unattractive" (see Table 1).

"And that's all stress?"

No, that's not all stress... In the previous paragraph we have already learned about a libido killer that cannot be traced back to stress: The lack of 'adventure', 'novelty' or whatever you may call it - a phenomenon which is probably also the reason that people start looking at their partner as "neither attractive nor unattractive" is another important contributor to sexual disinterested in men. One out of 22 if you will - 22 items on the scientists list of potential causes of a reduced sexual interest:

Table 2: Self-assessed causes of a reduced sexual interest during the past 6 months among heterosexual Portuguese, Croatian, and Norwegian men in percent (Carvalheira. 2013)

I know, not all of them appear logical. Why would masturbating too often be associated with a reduced interest in sex? ⇦ That does not sound right - right? Something similar can be said for the Croatian porn fans (22.5%). In the end, though, it does not change the overall picture: It is stress that's gnawing at our sexual desire, guys.

The Dimou protocol: Diaphragmatic breathing is performed by taking deep diaphragmatic inspirations followed by slow prolonged expirations.  In the second phase of PMR relaxation, patients were guided through successive contractions and relaxations of different large muscle groups in a down-top orientation. The process was complemented by guided imagery involving mental exercises, designed to allow the mind to influence the health and well-being of the body (GI is used with standard medical treatment in people with cancer and other diseases, such as fibromyalgia, as it can help to reduce stress, depression and manage pain). In each step, the patients were encouraged to focus on the difference between tension and relaxation, thus gradually sharpening the perception of the relaxation response.

What So what can be done? By now the question "what can be done" should - at least on the surface level - already have a rhetorical character. It's obvious that you have to de-stress. The only question is: How do you do that? Luckily (for us), P.A. Dimou et al. have just successfully tested an anti-stress program that consisted of progressive muscular relaxation (PMR), diaphragmatic breathing and guided imagery and was topped off with a handful of tips to achieve better time management. The program was designed to optimize sexual health in young men and it worked! It worked like a charm: Over the course of the 8-week stress management program practicing the PMR + diaphragmatic breathing + guided imagery regime twice a day effectively reduced the number of men who were totally or somehow dissatisfied with their sex life decreased from 9 to 4 (-55%; cf. Dimou. 2013). Aside from the intended benefits in sexual satisfaction, the young 60 young men in the active arm of the Dimou study also lost weight (-3% BMI), felt less overall less stressed (-23%; social stress subscale -11%) and achieved +6% higher scores in the general health evaluation.

PMR and guided imagery does not sound like you? Well, I guess simply limiting your mobile phone, email, Facebook and SMS use, making room for the occasional time out with a cup of tea during the working hours, a rigorous 7h+ sleeping regimen and letting go of the 'more is more principle' will work wonders even in the absence of 'meditative' interventions....ah, and don't forget: Don't stress about de-stressing that would ruin all your efforts to find inner peace ;-)

Reference:

• Carvalheira A, Træen B, Štulhofer A. Correlates of Men’s Sexual Interest: A Cross-Cultural Study. J Sex Med. 2013 [accepted manuscript]
• Dimou PA, Bacopoulou F, Darviri C, Chrousos GP. Stress management and sexual health of young adults: a pilot randomised controlled trial. Andrologia2013,xx, 1–10 [accepted manuscript]
• Hyde JS. The gender similarities hypothesis. Am Psychol 2005;60:581–92.
• Hyde JS. New directions in the study of gender similarities and differences. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 2007;16:259–63.
• Janssen E, McBride K, Yarber W, Hill B, Butler S. Factors that influence sexual arousal in men: A focus group study. Arch Sex Behav 2008;37:252–65.
• Laumann EO, Nicolosi A, Glasser DB, Paik A, Gingell C, Moreira E, Wang T; GSSAB Investigators’ Group. Sexual problems among women and men aged 40–80 y: Prevalence and correlates identified in the Global Study of Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors. Int J Impot Res 2005;17:39–57
• Mccarthy B, McDonald D. Sex therapy failures: A crucial, yet ignored, issue. J Sex Marital Ther 2009;35:320–9.

Intramuscular Fat & High Energy Expenditure + Fatty Acid Oxidation. Vigorous Exercise & Feto-Protection. Genetics, Binding Proteins, Phosphorus & Low Vitamin D

Jogging or Tai Chi!? You have the choice - longevity-wise it may not make much of a difference.

20% that's the average risk reduction for all-cause mortality among those of the 61,477 Chinese men in the Shanghai Men's Health Study who practice Thai-Chi regularly.

And what's more, in view of the fact that this is hardly less than the 23% risk reduction the researchers from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, calculated for  men who walked regularly and only 7% less than the reduction in all-cause mortality Na Wang et al. observed in regular joggers, it is also the SuppVersity Figure of the week (Wang. 2013) - a figure that's not much different for cancer and cardiovascular mortality, by the way. 

Before you go exploring your Qi and prolong your life, I'd still suggest you meditate over the other On Short Notice items for a couple of minutes ;-)

Feto-Protective Effects of Vigorous Exercise in Pregnant Women

Another interesting observation of the study at hand was that the pregnant women did perform the same amount of work during their 40 min workouts, despite the fact that they had to carry significantly more weight and were clearly disadvantaged from a kinetic point of view, theoretically that is to say.

Being pregnant should be a reason to get going, not to "slacken off". After all, the chances a women is already pre-diabetic, when she becomes pregnant is unpleasantly high already. Against that background it is certainly not a good idea to reduce your daily "exercise" from "almost zero" to "minus 1".

Recent evidence for the notion that pregnancy is a reason to exercise, not to "slacken off" comes from a soon to be published study by Michelle F. Mottola et al. who found that 40 minutes of vigorous exercise at 95% ventilatory threshold (for most active individuals that would be a fast jog) yielded significant improvements blood glucose levels and better outcomes in a subsequent glucose challenge (75 g) that was conducted after the workout -- changes of which the researchers say that they are "fetoprotective" and did not lead to adverse effects on birth outcome (Mottola. 2013).

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Listen up fathers-to-be: That you should not  have your pregnant wives or girlfriends do heavy deadlifts in the gym or with the water canisters at home, does not mean that you have to featherbed them - that would be detrimental to both, your loved one and your unborn child.

Gentics, Vitamin D2, D3 and Vitamin D Binding Proteins, Phosphorus & Low Vitamin D

Figure 1: If you don't have the "standard" genes you may in fact be better off supplementing with vitamin D2 to bring your total 25OHD levels up into the >20nmol/ml zone (Nimitphong. 2013)

You still think it's all just about how much vitamin D you have? Well, at least in multiple sclerosis it is probably more important how much of it is bound to vitamin D binding protein... you did not even know that existed? Well, that's the result of too much hype and too little science, which are the main characteristics of the mainstream coverage of vitamin D.

And to get back to the important stuff: If you have MS and want to benefit from vitamin D supplementation, you should try find out what your vitamin D binding proteins are like. After all high levels of VDB did totally blunt the beneficial effects of vitamin D supplementation in a recent study from China (Yang. 2013).

Ah, talking about vitamin D, you may also be intrigued to hear that at least in the 99 women and 41 men (age, 66-96 years) who participated in a recent study from the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen, Germany (Jungert. 2013), the nutritional intake of vitamin D showed no relation to the amount of circulating vitamin D levels (25OHD3), at all.

It is possible that the high dietary intake of phosphor plays a role in the etiology of the low vitamin D epidemic (learn more)?

And while the same was true for the average calcium intakes, the statistically significant association between the dietary intake of phosphorus and the subjects' parathyroid hormone (PTH; its logarithmic value, to be precise) in the lean study participants. In view of the fact that the levels of PTH correlate negatively with the levels of vitamin D, this should remind you of a previous SuppVersity article about the potential involvement of the overtly high amounts of phosphorus in the standard western diet (cf. "Hypothesis: Does Vitamin D 'Deficiency' Protect Us From Phosphorus Overload? 1,25OHD Production Drops By 19pg/dL With Each 1mg/dL Increase in Phosphorus" | read more...).

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I am convinced... we are far from understanding how vitamin D actually works. Aside from our incomplete understanding of the role the vitamin D binding protein (e.g. is VDB like SHBG for testosterone necessary for the interaction with certain tissues, while blunting the interaction with others), our concept of its interactions with vitamin A is incomplete and the mainstream paradigm of a general antagonism simply flawed. Therefore I am confident that this was not the last mini-update on vitamin D that goes beyond the hoopla of what vitamin D is supposed to be involved in, here at the SuppVersity.

The schizophrenic effects of intramuscular fat (IMTG)

Depending on the way you aquire it, the fat "within" the muscle (intra-muscular triglycerides; IMTG) appears to have very different effects. While it is generally associated with insulin resistance in the morbidly obese (a causal effect has never been proven), it has likewise been shown to increase in response to exercise (Shaw. 2010), where it serves as a readily available endurance substrate.

Things to remember about IMTG:

(1) In lean active individuals, the IMTG pool is regularly depleted during exercise and is replenished during subsequent feeding. Supercompensation is possible.

(2) Reduced IMTG oxidation appears to contribute to the reduction in fat oxidation during exercise in sedentary individuals, where it is accompanied by the accumulation of lipid metabolites and insulin resistance in skeletal muscle.

(3) The IMTG stores are a readily available substrate during workouts.

(4) A high IMTG synthesis rate is a major determinant of IMTG content and keeps lipid metabolite concentrations low and insulin sensitivity high.

(5) IMTG synthesis rates can be increased by exercise, dietary interventions, and combined dietary and exercise interventions. (based on Shaw. 2010)

Van Loon et al. (2003) for example observed a 60% reduction in IMTG content in type 1 muscle fibers following two hours of cycling exercise performed at 60% maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) and Shaw, Clark and Wagenmakers point out that

"the specific depletion of IMTG in type 1 muscle fibers is a consistent finding and is in line with the greater capacity for IMTG storage and fatty acid oxidation in these fibers. The use of IMTG as a fuel source does not appear to be limited to endurance exercise either, as several studies have also demonstrated a significant reduction in IMTG content after a single bout of resistance exercise." (Shaw. 2010)

Against that background, it is maybe no longer that surprising to hear that a group of Harvard researchers found that those of the overweight children in their study who did not just receive "standardized healthful lifestyle advice" for 8 weeks, but were also randomized to an in-home supervised exercise intervention exhibited increases in both fitness and intramuscular triglycerides ( McCormack. 2013).

Figure 2: Overview of some of the main results of the Harvard study (McCormack. 2013)

What I am pretty sure, though, is going to surprise you is the fact that these increases in the amount of fat in the musculature of the kids (average age 13y) showed a highly significant correlation with greater resting energy expenditure (r = 0.78, P = 0.005) and a decrease in fasting respiratory quotient (r = -0.70, P = 0.02). Or to put is simply: The more intramuscular fat, the more energy your burn sitting around and the more of this energy is going to be from fat.

Against that background, studies investigating the role of ITMG in both obesity and exercise performance begin to appear in a very different light. Let's take insulin's inhibitory effect on adipose tissue lipid oxidation, as an example. Logically you should assume that this effect was a major bummer for any endurance athlete and guzzling glucose containing drinks before or even during a workout would be stupid.

Different rules for glycogen loading and re-pletion (more on the latter)

As Shaw et al. point out in their review, this insulin-induced inhibition of adipose tissue lipolysis could yet lead to an increase in IMTG utilization that would mirror the increase in IMTG utilization seen after pharmacological suppression of adipose tissue lipolysis by Acipimox (= a special form of niacin; van Loon. 2005a, 2005b). In fact, the use of IMTG has been shown to increase ∼twofold when high-GI-index meals are eaten the day preceding exercise.

Moreover, Shinora et al. were able to show that the increase in intra-muscular lipids after a 7-day glycogen loading protocol as it is commonly used by endurance athletes increased the amount of IMTGs and bumped up the fatty acid oxidation rate by 5-6% (Shinohara. 2010)

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Still much to be learned: It remains to be seen how this relates to the increases in energy expenditure the Harvard researchers just observed. What appears to be certain, though is that the common vilification of IMTG is another instance of hilarious over-generalization that does not stand the test of science.

Facebook News Round-Up

As far as the official Short News are concerned, that's it for today. If you want more, I suggest you head over to the SuppVersity Facebook Wall and check out one of the following news items that appeared in the course of the week:

• 

  Some supplements are for drag queens and wanna-be eunuchs, only: "Study Finds 17x Elevated Estrogen, High Progesterone + Reduced DHEA Levels in 65% of Ecdysteroid, Tribulus, Phytoestrogen, Phytosterol and/or Soy Protein Users!" (read more)

  Caffeine stops cirrhosis of the liver -- That's at least what a recent paper from the Department of Gastroenterology, Hanyang University Medical Center in Korea would suggest | read more...
• GH is an abdominal fat annihilator -- While most of you will have seen this news already, you may want to take a peek at the additional information on the "optimal" dosing regimen, I posted, yesterday | lean more...
• Dairy & vitamin B6 decrease, green tea & co increase homocysteine -- Good to know, yet what's even more important to know is that homocysteine is not even associated with an increased risk of CVD | read more...
• Improved body composition w/ DHEA supplementation -- Review of RCTs w/ 1353 elderly male participants says the effects are mediated by the conversion to testosterone and estrogen | learn more...

You've digested them all? Well, in that case you've two options left: (A) You begin practicing Thai-Chi or (B) you start right into an exciting weekend... whatever your choice may be, I hope you enjoy the rest of the day and come back tomorrow for more news from the realms of nutrition, exercise and supplementation sciences.

References:

• McCormack SE, McCarthy MA, Harrington SG, Farilla L, Hrovat MI, Systrom DM, Thomas BJ, Torriani M, McInnis K, Grinspoon SK, Fleischman A. Effects of exercise and lifestyle modification on fitness, insulin resistance, skeletal muscle oxidative phosphorylation and intramyocellular lipid content in obese children and adolescents. Pediatr Obes. 2013 Jun 25
• Mottola MF, Inglis S, Brun CR, Hammond JA. Physiological and metabolic responses of late pregnant women to 40 minutes of steady-state exercise followed by an oral glucose tolerance perturbation. J Appl Physiol jap.00487.2013; published ahead of print June 27, 2013.
• Nimitphong H, Saetung S, Chanprasertyotin S, Chailurkit LO, Ongphiphadhanakul B. Changes in circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D according to vitamin D binding protein genotypes after vitamin D₃ or D₂ supplementation. Nutr J. 2013 Apr 4;12:39.
• Shaw CS, Clark J, Wagenmakers AJ. The effect of exercise and nutrition on intramuscular fat metabolism and insulin sensitivity. Annu Rev Nutr. 2010 Aug 21;30:13-34. 
• Shinohara A, Takakura J, Yamane A, Suzuki M. Effect of the classic 1-week glycogen-loading regimen on fat-loading in rats and humans. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2010;56(5):299-304.
  
• van Loon LJ, Koopman R, Stegen JH, Wagenmakers AJ, Keizer HA, Saris WH. Intramyocellular lipids form an important substrate source during moderate intensity exercise in endurance-trained males in a fasted state..J. Physiol. 2003. 553:611–25.
• van Loon LJ, Manders RJ, Koopman R, Kaastra B, Stegen JH, et al. Inhibition of adipose tissue lipolysis increases intramuscular lipid use in type 2 diabetic patients. Diabetologia. 2005a, 48:2097–107.
• van Loon LJ, Thomason-Hughes M, Constantin-Teodosiu D, Koopman R, Greenhaff PL, et al. Inhibition of adipose tissue lipolysis increases intramuscular lipid and glycogen use in vivo in humans. Am. J. Physiol. Endocrinol. Metab. 2005b. 289:E482–93.
• Wang N, Zhang X, Xiang YB, Li H, Yang G, Gao J, Zheng W, Shu XO. Associations of Tai Chi, Walking, and Jogging With Mortality in Chinese Men. Am J Epidemiol. 2013 Jun 27. [Epub ahead of print]
• Yang M, Qin Z, Zhu Y, Li Y, Qin Y, Jing Y, Liu S. Vitamin D-binding protein in cerebrospinal fluid is associated with multiple sclerosis progression. Mol Neurobiol. 2013 Jun;47(3):946-56.

Chronically Fatigued? Taking a Meditative Time-Out With Qigong Twice Weekly Will Improve Mental + Physical Symptoms by ~50% & Increase Telomere-Length by 75%!

Image 1 (myrtlebeachalternatives): This picture captures the essence of Qigong artistically.

Adelfo took the word "holiday" to the heart and totally forgot about his blogpost, today. I guess this means I will have to pull something of interest out of my hat (or head?) and what would be better suited than a post about taking timeouts, well sort off... In a recently published paper in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, R.T. Ho and his (or her?) colleagues from the University of Hong Kong report on the truly amazing progress a group of chronic fatigue patients made in the course of a 4-months Qigong intervention program (Ho. 2012).

Qigong means "life energy cultivation" and that's exactly what it does - it helps you cultivate the life energy that's so easily lost in our hectic and allegedly productive lives.

The participants in the intervention study took part in supervised Qigong exercise training (Wu Xing Ping Heng Gong, 五行平衡功) twice a week for five consecutive weeks. After this introduction period the 51 women and 13 men were advised to follow up on what they had learned in the supervised sessions and continue to practice their meditation techniques at home. Physical functioning and mental functioning were assessed by the Chinese version of the Medical Outcomes Study 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (Ware. 1996; Lam. 2005) and telomerase activity was tested by a commercially available kit TeloTAGGG telomerase PCR ELISA (Roche) in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells before and after the 4-month intervention.

Video 1 (click to play): Qigong introduction video - whenever you meet this guy in your park, don't jog along laughing, join him!

What's Qigong?  Literally Qigong means nothing less than the "life energy cultivation". The idea behind this special form of meditation is to develop a special kind of awareness for yourself and your body and to breath, move and exercise in a way that is conducive to healing and meditation. Simplistically speaking it is a mixture of Chinese medicine, martial arts and philosophy that was developed to cultivate and balance you qi (chi), which is the afore mentioned "life energy" and to awaken your true nature. You may have seen and probably laughed about practitioners who have been moving (and most of all breathing) rhythmically on one of the greens in your local park while you were jogging along frantically listening to the latest hiphop or techno beats. I guess after reading the whole post you will look differently at those "freaks", whenever your paths cross next time...

If you take a look at the data in figure 1 (see below) you will have to agree that no matter how ridiculous a stupid Westerner like you or me may feel an "exercise" like this may be, the effects of this unconventional "workout + meditation" routine are beyond any doubt amazing!

Figure 1: Changes in physical and mental features of chronic fatigue (left) and telomerase length (right) in response to 5 weeks of supervised and 4 months (total) of a twice weekly Qigong program (based on Ho. 2012)

Just imagine what a fuss the pharma industry would make, if they had come up with some sort of serotonergic-dopaminergic double-whammy that would not simply spike you up or numb you, but return your physical and psychological functioning to normal, while at the same time saving your cells from aging prematurely by lengthening your telomerase (the enzyme that is responsible for the repair of cellular DNA)?

We would not have to turn to the Chinese to know better ... "Mens sana in corpore sano!"

Now you could certainly say that this is Chinese witchcraft and nothing a Western medical practitioner or scientists would let alone should rely on, but let's be honest:  Where has the $84-billion dollar psychiatric drug industry taken us, so far? Yeah, they have increased their own market and shareholder value, the patients overall well being let alone their life-expectancy still suck and that despite the fact that the Greek philosopher Thales from Miletus already knew that a "healthy soul" (mens sana) and a "healthy body" (corpore sano) are complementary sides of one and the same coin.

Image 2: Meditation is for hippies and losers who don't make it in our hard economy, right?

According to the medical paradigm of the 20ths and 21st century, which is keeping the aforementioned multi-billion dollar industry in (big) business, however, the intricate connection between psychology and physiology the forefathers of Western civilization were still well aware of, is a simple mechanistic one: One psychological well-being is a simple function of your neurotransmitter balance and if the latter is off, all you need to do is to take the right drug and you will bounce back into your highly productive self whose sole purpose it is to drive the economy to new heights. Rest, recuperation, relaxation, ... let alone meditation, that's for freaks and loser for those weaklings who cannot cope with the demands of the life of the 21st century, the economic selection pressure is going to to take care of those losers, right?

As sarcastic as it may sound, there is - as so often - more than just a grain of truth in the "economic selection pressure" hypothesis - yeah, I mean, look around: Those who fully subscribe to the idea are already falling victim to it. When the Ritalin-rush will finally wear off and their telomerase will have reached a length that allows for no more than another couple of weeks on this earth some of them will probably look differently at the "ridiculous clowns" in Central Park...

References:

1. Citizens Commission Human Rights International. Psychiatric Labels: The Facts Behind the Billion Dollar Marketing Campaign. < http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-disorders/ > retrieved July, 5 2012
2. Ho RT, Chan JS, Wang CW, Lau BW, So KF, Yuen LP, Sham JS, Chan CL. A Randomized Controlled Trial of Qigong Exercise on Fatigue Symptoms, Functioning, and Telomerase Activity in Persons with Chronic Fatigue or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Ann Behav Med. 2012 Jun 27.
3. Lam CLK, Tse EYY, Gandek B. Is the standard SF-12 Health Survey valid and equivalent for a Chinese population? Qual Life Res. 2005;14:539-547.
4. Ware J Jr, Kosinski M, Keller SD. A 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey: Construction of scales and preliminary tests of reliability and validity.Med Care. 1996;34:220-233.