Methods of consciously releasing muscular tension to achieve mental calm.
They can assist people with anxiety symptoms, help to reduce hypertension, and relieve stress, and may help pregnant women to cope with labour pains (see childbirth, natural).
Active relaxation consists of tensing and relaxing each of the muscles in turn.
Passive relaxation involves clearing the mind and concentrating on a phrase or sound.
Breathing exercises help to prevent hyperventilation, which often brings on or worsens anxiety.
Traditional concentration methods, such as yoga and meditation, employ similar techniques.
Ways of producing images of body organs that record, process and analyse sound waves, radio waves or X-RAYS passing through or generated by the body’s tissues. ULTRASOUND scanning using high-frequency, inaudible sound waves directed at the area of the body being studied is the most generally used scanning procedure. Sound waves are re?ected more powerfully by some structures than others, and a pattern of those re?ections is detected and shown on a screen. Other screening methods include COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET SCANNING) and RADIONUCLIDE scanning, which measures the di?erential uptake of radioactive materials in the body’s tissues.... scanning techniques
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