Saad Shaikh, MD

       I want you to look at this photo ( Etlingera elatior, which I took at the botanical gardens in Rio de Janeiro), take a deep breath, maybe a cold shower, meditate a bit, do some yoga, sing a song, laugh, whatever it takes to pump up that vagal tone! Last week I was invited to give a lecture on Mindfulness, Meditation, & Medicine to the Lifestyle Medicine group at UCF. The lecture was attended by first and, mostly, second year medical students. We went over, the what, why, and how of meditation and mindfulness. Sadly, the practice of medicine in the modern era is rarely about wellness, but rather interventional disease management. Most healthcare providers aren't "well" themselves, much less their patients, and are caught in vicious, stress inducing circles both from personal choice and from circumstances out of their control. go to sleep). One of the topics that I like to bring up is the importance of vagal (nerve) tone...