Wellness

CU Research on Moon Rock Samples, Running Prostheses and Criminal Cases

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0000

CU Research on Moon Rock Samples, Running Prostheses and Criminal Cases Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/11/2022 - 00:00

No Advantage For Blade Runners

Eagerly anticipated CU research was published in Royal Society Open Science containing the most comprehensive dataset ever collected from runners with bilateral leg amputations. Senior study author and CU �鶹ӰԺ integrative physiology associate professor Alena Grabowski told CU �鶹ӰԺ Today: “The use of running prosthesis provides no competi-tive advantage over 400 meters compared to biological legs.”

The study's findings can have major implications for “blade runners” — sprinters who use running prostheses — like Blake Leeper, the world’s fastest 400-meter sprinter, who was ruled ineligible for the Tokyo Olympics because of an assumed advantage.

CU to Review Criminal Case For Wrongful Convictions

Last fall, CU Law School’s Korey Wise Innocence Project (KWIP) partnered with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to review 51 criminal cases that occurred in Colorado between 1976 and 1995 and used microscopic hair analysis (used before more accurate forensic DNA testing) as evidence. KWIP will review court transcripts for potentially inaccurate testimony and determine whether the hair microscopy evidence played a part in the conviction. Some convictions may be challenged based on any new findings.

New Moon Rocks

CU planetary scientist Carolyn Crow was one of several scientists from around the globe to examine two tiny moon rock samples brought to Earth by a Chinese ascent vehicle in December 2020. The moon rocks are the first to be collected in 45 years and may be able to help scientists fill in a gap in the moon’s geologic record and contribute to the geologic history of other planets.

Heard Around Campus

“Life shouldn’t be seen as better because you partner up; it should just be seen as different.”

— Peter McGraw, CU �鶹ӰԺ professor of marketing and psychology, on research that people are now less dependent on relationships. He’s among the first to research single people specifically.

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Photos by iStock/Cylonphoto (moon); Beijing SHRIMP Center, Institute of Geology, CAGS (moon rock)

Some of the latest research out of CU �鶹ӰԺ, plus information on the Renée Crown Wellness Institute.

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You Should Leave Now

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 17:49:11 +0000

You Should Leave Now Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/20/2021 - 11:49

By Brie Doyle (Edu'03)

(Broadleaf Books, 195 pages; 2021)

Buy the Book

If you want to live an extraordinary life, one in which your heart, mind, and spirit are in sync, you have to make space for your soul. You have to leave, in order to come back to yourself.

It is time to go on retreat.

Written as if by a wise and cherished friend, You Should Leave Now is a gentle, practical guide to drawing rich benefits--mental, emotional, and spiritual--from a personal retreat. Life coach, meditation teacher, and founder of She Glows Retreats, Brie Doyle helps us discover the ideal focus, setting, and approach to transformative retreating.

In plain-spoken prose that is rich with ideas, solid research, gentle suggestions, and compelling stories, Doyle covers the benefits of retreating, reminding us that our well-being is about more than a daily dose of kombucha or a fitness class. She then details the logistics of going on retreat, what to expect while there, and how to make the most of what you've gained upon returning home.

Doyle's extraordinary work opens the doors to rediscovering rest and rekindling your inner spark. Inner transformation awaits.

You should leave now.

If you want to live an extraordinary life, one in which your heart, mind, and spirit are in sync, you have to make space for your soul. You have to leave, in order to come back to yourself. It is time to go on retreat.

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The Fine-Tuned Musician

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 16:00:00 +0000

The Fine-Tuned Musician Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/01/2019 - 10:00

Christie Sounart

Brittany Bonner (MMus’20) exhales. She glances in a mirror to observe signs of tension in her body. She inhales deeply, picks up her oboe and plays again.

The oboist from Mansfield, Texas, is practicing her vibrato — a gentle-but-regular variation in pitch — to add natural-sounding depth to her tone. A convincing vibrato requires controlled breathing, and muscular tension can interfere or cause it to disappear.

Fortunately, Bonner’s got James Brody to help sort things out.

“Musicians move athletically,” said Brody, the CU �鶹ӰԺ music professor who founded CU’s Musician’s Wellness Program, which helps students avoid or recover from injuries caused by repetitive motions and quirks of technique, setting themselves up for longer periods of peak performance.

Brody, also an oboist and the program’s primary faculty instructor, sees more than 100 CU students annually. Some have injuries such as tendonitis or vocal cord dysfunction, which, if unaddressed, can compromise a musician’s future and sense of identity.

“Music students lead complicated lives,” said Brody, who also refers them to a network of on-campus physicians, physical therapists and counselors, as necessary. “What they do is tied very closely with their vision of themselves.”

Established in 2003, the wellness program offers students individualconsultations and academic credit courses, all of which involve the Alexander Technique. It’s a method of releasing tension through adjustments to posture and movement based on body awareness.

Students use yoga balls, mats and mirrors in Brody’s office, where he keeps, as an instructional aid, a full-size model human skeleton. The program will move to bigger quarters in 2020, once the music school’s $57 million, 64,000 squarefoot addition opens.

CU was among the first universities to offer a music wellness program, according to Brody, who convinced administrators the Alexander Technique and other wellness approaches could equip music students for success. He adopted it himself in his early twenties, as he recovered from a devastating car accident.

The program helped draw Bonner, 25, to CU.

“I’ve had to take a few steps back to try to go a few steps forward in my playing,” said Bonner, who’s played oboe since sixth grade, performs in CU’s graduate woodwind quintet and plays about six hours daily in ensembles and alone.

Brody helped Bonner realize she was bringing her hands too far forward while playing. She’s since adjusted her arm stance, leading to a more efficient posture and sound.

James Brody of the CU Music Wellness Program

“When [injury] occurs,” Brody said, “often the musician will try harder instead of observing habitual behavior and altering maladaptive patterns. Brittany may have averted a damaging situation.”

Sometimes, a performer’s challenges are psychological. Bonner said she experiences performance anxiety daily, and is working to diffuse it when it arises.

“I understand the life of a music student,” said Matthew Tomatz of CU’s Counseling and Psychiatric Services, a psychotherapist and former trumpet player who works with music students. “You’re competing fiercely with your friends. … Underneath all of that is a huge uncertainty about career and what it will yield.”

Bonner, whose favorite composers include Dvorak and Beethoven, aspires to join a professional orchestra.

In the wellness program, she’s in good company: Edward Dusinberre, first violinist in the world-renowned, CU-based Takács Quartet, has worked with Brody for 15 years.

“His guidance has enabled me to be much more mindful of the way I play,” said Dusinberre, who’s seen students become more efficient and healthier performers.

“When someone learns to play with less effort and strain,” he said, “suddenly a greater range of volume and types of sound are possible.”

Illustration by David Plunkert

Making music is a physical pursuit. The CU Music Wellness Program helps performers stay fit.

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What Keeps the Chancellor Up at Night?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 06:00:00 +0000

What Keeps the Chancellor Up at Night? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/01/2019 - 00:00

Philip P. DiStefano

Q&A with Chancellor DiStefano

May I ask you a personal question? What keeps you up at night?

The mental health and wellness of our students.

I would have guessed budget, student retention, graduation rates. Why mental health and wellness?

Students are our top priority. Students today experience rapid changes in technology, social climate and global disruption — all creating stresses. The effect of these stresses is increasingly a national and global health issue.

What brought this to the forefront for you?

Demand for mental health services on college campuses is on the rise, including at CU �鶹ӰԺ. Since 2013, we have seen a 40 percent increase in demand for counseling services, which is in line with campuses nationwide.

What can you do about it?

We have begun to engage students about campus mental health and services from the moment they confirm their enrollment. And we have expanded our suite of services, including walk-in appointments, tele-health appointment options, unlimited workshops and group sessions, crisis intervention and one-on-one counseling and therapy depending on individual needs.

What are you doing regarding research in this area?

As a top research university, we are also approaching one of the most challenging social issues of our day from a research perspective. The new Renée Crown Wellness Institute opened last spring. Faculty in the institute are leaders and innovators in their fields and are internationally recognized for their work. This institute will help create a world where our children and young people are supported by the relationships and resources needed for a lifetime of wellness.

It seems the entire campus is involved.

On campus, each of us plays a critical role in supporting the health of our students. Supporting our students is the responsibility of us all. Education and training are being offered to faculty and staff to better understand the needs of students.

I can tell this is a heartfelt priority for you.

Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our students. We want them to succeed academically, and in every other way.

Illustration by Melinda Josie

The mental health and wellness of our students.

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Wellness

CU Research on Moon Rock Samples, Running Prostheses and Criminal Cases

No Advantage For Blade Runners

CU to Review Criminal Case For Wrongful Convictions

New Moon Rocks

Heard Around Campus

Related Articles

You Should Leave Now

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The Fine-Tuned Musician

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What Keeps the Chancellor Up at Night?

Q&A with Chancellor DiStefano

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