Science Behind Negative Ions and Positive Thinking

Effects of negative ions on cognitive performance
Source:
Journal of Applied Psychology, Feb 1987 v72 n1 p131(7).

Abstract: Male and female subjects (undergraduate students) participated in two studies designed to investigate the impact of negative air ions on cognitive performance. In the first experiment, they worked on three different tasks (proofreading, memory span, word finding) in the presence of low, moderate, or high concentrations of such ions. Results indicated that among men, performance on two of these tasks (proofreading and memory span) was enhanced by moderate but not by high concentrations of ions. In the second experiment, undertaken to extend the generality of these initial results, male and female subjects performed two additional tasks (letter copying, decision making) in the presence of low, moderate, or high concentrations of ions. Output on the letter copying task increased significantly as ion level rose among both sexes. With respect to decision making, the tendency of male (but not female) participants to select initially preferred alternatives was significantly enhanced by moderate concentrations of negative ions. Together, the findings of these studies suggest that negative ions can indeed exert appreciable effects on cognitive performance.
Source:
Journal of Applied Psychology, Feb 1987 v72 n1 p131(7).Title: Effects of negative ions on cognitive performance.
Author: Robert A. Baron
Subjects:

Atmospheric electricity - environmental aspects
Ions - physiological aspects
Electrostatic apparatus and appliances - business use
Performance - physiological aspects
Cognitive styles - research

Full content for this article includes illustration and table.

Negative Ions for the Brain
Source:
The Owner's Manual for the Brain, Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research
The atmosphere we breathe normally is full of positive and negative ions. Air conditioning, lack of ventilation, and long dry spells remove negative ions, which usually serve to latch onto airborne dirt particles and wrestle them to the floor, rendering the air purer. Roughly one-third of the population seems to be particularly sensitive to negative-ion depletion. The proportion of negative ions is highest around moving water (storms, oceans, rivers, waterfalls) It's no wonder that we feel so energized at the beach. The best ratios of negative to positive ions are associated with waterfalls and the time before, during, and after storms. The worst are found in windowless rooms and closed, moving vehicles.

High concentrations of negative ions are essential for high energy and positive mood (Thayer, 1996)[1]. In fact, Marian Diamond, a professor of neuroanatomy at the University of California, Berkeley, has found that levels of negative ions are inversely related to levels of serotonin in the brain. Negative ions suppress serotonin levels in much the same way that natural sunlight suppresses melatonin. Hence the invigorating effect of fresh air and sunshine and the correspondingly depressed feelings associated with being closed in and dark. If you deplete the air of negative ions, you experience an increase in serotonin and its attendant drowsiness and relaxation not what you want when mental agility is demanded. Diamond's research (1988)[2], along with other information on ions, is summarized in Yepsen (1987).[3]

In an interesting twist, Josh Backon, a member of the Department of Cardiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, writes in an Internet posting (his E-mail address is backon@vms.huji.ac.il) that in order to increase left-hemisphere activity (linear, language, logical), one can block the left nostril and engage in "forced unilateral nostril breathing." Likewise, to increase right-hemisphere activity (creative, holistic, emotional), the right nostril should be blocked. This practice increases the supply of negative ions to a specific hemisphere.

REFERENCES
[1] Thayer, R.E. (1989). Biopsychology of Mood and Arousal. New York: Oxford University Press
[2] Diamond, M. (1988) Enriching Heredity: The Impact of the Environment on the Anatomy of the Brain. New York: Free Press.
[3] Yepsen, R.B., Jr. (1987) How to Boost Your Brain Power: Achieving Peak Intelligence, Memory and Creativity. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale.
Second Edition - Bard Press
Available from amazon.com
Copyright © 2000 by Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.

Negative Ions and Positive Vibes
Source:
Technology Review, Jan 1983 v86 p74(1).

First, it is true that the number of "small ions" in the air --electrically charged molecules and atoms that are highly mobile-- varies widely. Clean outdoor air may have 1,000 positive and 1,000 negative ions in each cubic centimeter, while polluted city air probably has fewer, and air- conditioned offices may have only 100.

L. H. Hawkins, from the Human Biology and Health Department of the University of Surrey in England, has performed two sets of experiments to find out how negative ions affect people. In the first set, Hawkins maintained high levels of negative ions in a room part of the time, but maintained predominately positive ions in the room the rest of the time. The people in the room, unaware that the ions were being manipulated, performed standard tasks.

When the ions were negative, the subjects did 25 percent better at complicated tasks such as drawing something while looking at its reverse image in a mirror. There was a smaller but statistically significant 6 percent improvement in simpler tests such as reaction time. Women seemed more sensitive to ions than men, and high humidity and temperature tended to wash out the benefit of negative ions.
In a second test, Hawkins installed two commercial ion generators in a congested computer office. The fans on these generators could be switched on separately from the ionizers, and with the fans always running, nobody in the office knew whether the ionizer was working. According to Hawkins' measurements, with the ionizer on, the office had about 3,500 negative and 100 positive ions per cubic centimeter of air; with it off there were about 550 negative and 500 positive ions.
At the end of their shifts, the 54 people in the office filled out questionnaires about how they felt and how they rated their environment. Negative ions did seem to produce positive effects. Workers complained of headaches in only 6 percent of the shifts when the ionizer was operating, but they complained in 26 percent of the shifts when it was off. The questionnaires revealed similar increases in how pleasant workers felt and decreases in complaints about nausea and dizziness.

Title:
Negative ions and positive vibes.
Subjects:
Work environment - Physiological aspects
Anions - Physiological aspects
Source:
Technology Review, Jan 1983 v86 p74(1).
Full Text COPYRIGHT 1983 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alumni Association
Studies Conducted in Japan

Many doctors and researchers in Japan have been studying the effects of negative ions. According to them, an insufficient number of negative ions in our environment results in suppressed immune, nervous, and digestive function, eventually leading to a variety of illnesses. Some doctors in Japan even treat their patients using a medical device that produces natural (not artificially produced) negative ions, with successful results.

In 1975, Nanzandoh Medical Clinic in Japan published some astonishing results from their research on negative ion therapy, finding it effective in the treatment of high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, tinnitus (ringing of the ears), as well as for various disorders of the nervous, respiratory, and digestive systems, thyroid gland, and skin. It was also found to speed recovery from illness and slow ageing processes. A clinic near Ueyamada Hot Spring in Shinshu, Japan, treated Alzheimer's patients with negative ion therapy, and more than half were cured of the disease, recovering on their own with no further treatment! Following this, a medical team at Shinshu University also found that negative ions work to heal damaged cells in mice.

Dr. Tomoh Tsubushi, a medical professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University and sports medicine specialist, has closely followed negative ion research. In 1997, he concluded from his own studies that when negative ion therapy was applied after exercise, it quickly normalized blood pressure, reduced serum serotonin levels, and accelerated recovery time from exhaustion. In 2000, his paper on the beneficial effects of negative ions on the human body was published in Shuki no Kenkyu, a Japanese scientific journal.
According to research conducted by Shiseido, the world renowned Japanese cosmetics company, inhaling air containing 3,200 positive ions per cubic centimetre for 20 minutes resulted in thirst, loss of voice, and nasal congestion due to elevated serum serotonin levels. In contrast, inhaling negative ions for 10 minutes stabilized brain waves, resulting in a sense of calmness. In the group that inhaled negative ions, hardly any serotonin was detected in blood or urine samples. (Negative ions cause the body to convert excess serotonin - the antagonist for most of the problems - into a harmless chemical compound)

Positive thinking: Reduce stress by eliminating negative self-talk
Positive thinking helps with stress management and can even improve your health.

By Mayo Clinic staff
Is your glass half-empty or half-full? How you answer this age-old question about positive thinking may reflect your outlook on life, your attitude toward yourself, and whether you're optimistic or pessimistic — and it may even affect your health.
Indeed, some studies show that personality traits like optimism and pessimism can affect many areas of your health and well-being. The positive thinking that typically comes with optimism is a key part of effective stress management. And effective stress management is associated with many health benefits. If you tend to be pessimistic, don't despair — you can learn positive thinking skills. Here's how.
Understanding positive thinking and self-talk

Positive thinking doesn't mean that you keep your head in the sand and ignore life's less pleasant situations. Positive thinking just means that you approach the unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. You think the best is going to happen, not the worst.
Positive thinking often starts with self-talk. Self-talk is the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through your head every day. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of your self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may arise from misconceptions that you create because of lack of information.
If the thoughts that run through your head are mostly negative, your outlook on life is more likely pessimistic. If your thoughts are mostly positive, you're likely an optimist — someone who practices positive thinking.
The health benefits of positive thinking
Researchers continue to explore the effects of positive thinking and optimism on health. Health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:

Increased life span
Lower rates of depression
Lower levels of distress
Greater resistance to the common cold
Better psychological and physical well-being
Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

It's unclear why people who engage in positive thinking experience these health benefits. One theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body. It's also thought that positive and optimistic people tend to live healthier lifestyles — they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and don't smoke or drink alcohol in excess.
When your state of mind is generally optimistic, you're able to handle everyday stress in a more constructive way. That ability may contribute to the widely observed health benefits of positive thinking.
References
SR00009 May 28, 2011

Research Affirms the Power of Positive Thinking
By DANIEL GOLEMAN
Published: February 03, 1987

POLLYANA was right, new research shows.
Optimism - at least reasonable optimism - can pay dividends as wide-ranging as health, longevity, job success and higher scores on achievement tests.
Pessimism not only has the opposite effect but also seems to be at play in such psychological disorders as extreme shyness and depression.

The new research is an outgrowth of earlier work on the power of self-fulfilling prophecies. That early work concentrated largely on how individuals tend to conform to others' expectations of them, a phenomenon known as the ''Pygmalion effect.'' If anything, researchers have found, the Pygmalion effect is more pervasive than had been thought. The new work looks at people's expectations about their own lives and finds that the power of expectations goes beyond mere achievement to visceral, emotional qualities.
''Our expectancies not only affect how we see reality but also affect the reality itself,'' according to Edward E. Jones, a psychologist at Princeton University, who reviewed the research on expectancy in a recent issue of Science.

Michael F. Scheier, a psychologist at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has found that optimists handle stress better than do pessimists. In a report in the current issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, he wrote that optimists tend to respond to disappointments like being turned down for a job by formulating a plan of action and asking other people for help and advice; pessimists more often react to such difficulties by trying to forget the whole thing or assuming there is nothing they can do to change things - an attitude optimists adopted only when there was objectively nothing that could be done.

In one of the more hotly pursued lines of investigation, psychologists are tracking the importance of how people explain their failures to themselves. People tend to have a habitual explanatory style, a typical way of explaining the events that befall them, according to work by Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pessimists, Dr. Seligman has found, tend to construe bad events such as flunking an exam or giving a party that flops as resulting from a personal deficit that will plague them forever in everything they do. Others see the same setbacks more optimistically, as being due to mistakes that can be remedied. They feel they can make the necessary changes.

Most people mix a pessimistic and an optimistic outlook to some degree. The new research findings apply most strongly to those people at the extremes, who most clearly exemplify one style or the other.
Work by several researchers has shown that people who tend to blame themselves for their misfortunes are more susceptible to disease. For example, George Valliant, a psychiatrist at Dartmouth Medical School, and Christopher Peterson, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, worked with Dr. Seligman to study 99 members of the Harvard graduating classes of 1939 to 1944. The Harvard men had been interviewed on their return from World War II about their war experiences, and have had physical examinations every five years since their graduation.

Those men whose postwar interviews indicated they had been optimistic in college were healthier in later life than the pessimists were. ''The men's explanatory style at age 25 predicted their health at 65,'' said Dr. Seligman. ''Around age 45 the health of the pessimists started to deteriorate more quickly.''

Researchers are not sure just why explanatory style should affect health. One possible answer is suggested by studies at the University of Colorado and Yale University, which found that the attitude of helplessness typical of pessimists is associated with weakening of the immune system's resistance to tumors and infection. Or pessimists may neglect themselves. Dr. Peterson at the University of Michigan has found for example, that people whose explanatory style is pessimistic smoke and drink more and exercise less than do optimists. On a checklist of health habits, they were much more careless of their health than were the optimists. And the pessimists reported twice as many colds and doctors' visits during the year as the optimists did.

Several researchers, including Dr. Seligman, have tied explanatory style to depression in the face of failure. ''If you see a failure as due to something you can change, then it is not so devastating,'' said Craig Anderson, a psychologist at Rice University, who has studied people's explanatory style in depression, loneliness, and shyness. People are most vulnerable to these problems, he said, if they feel they can do little or nothing to change the causes of failure.

In a study of insurance agents reported in a recent issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, for example, Dr. Seligman found that how the agents explained their failures to make a sale made the difference between their becoming outstanding salesmen on the one hand, or quitting the company on the other. Those salesmen who had a more optimistic outlook, the study found, sold 37 percent more insurance in their first two years on the job than did those with the pessimistic view. The pessimists were twice as likely to quit in their first year as were the optimists.

Dr. Seligman, who has developed a test to measure explanatory style, has found that this aspect of personality is a better predictor of how people will fare at jobs like sales, where failure is part of one's daily routine, than do many tests now used in hiring people for those jobs.
''About three-quarters of the life insurance agents hired quit within their first three years,'' said Dr. Seligman. ''Those agents with an optimistic explanatory style weather the challenges better.''

The test describes in detail a dozen hypothetical good and bad events, such as having someone compliment you on your appearance, or having a date go badly. People taking the test imagine themselves in the situations and then give a reason why it might have happened. The reasons given are scored in terms of optimism and pessimism.

Using a modified version of the test, researchers have found differences in explanatory style among children as young as third grade. While there is not yet a firm theory of how people's explanatory styles are shaped, major influences seem to come from the attitudes of significant adults in a child's life, especially parents and teachers. Two studies comparing the explanatory styles of parents and their children have found that a mother's style, but not the father's, correlates highly with the styles of their children. That pattern suggests that social influence, not heredity, is at play.

''The young child listens attentively to how his primary caretaker - usually his mother - explains bad things,'' said Dr. Seligman.
Working with Susan Nolen-Hoeksema of Stanford and Joan Girgus of Princeton, Dr. Seligman has found that even among third- and fourth-graders, those with a pessimistic outlook are more susceptible to depression than do those with an optimistic style.
The pessimistic children also do less well on achievement tests. ''It is not that they are less bright,'' said Dr. Seligman. ''My hunch is that for a given level of intelligence, your actual achievement is a function not just of talent, but also of the capacity to stand defeat. If an otherwise bright child is doing poorly in school, he may be the victim of a pessimistic style.''

Working with the dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Seligman and Leslie Kamen tested 500 members of the incoming freshman class in 1984. Using a composite of the students' high school grades and college entrance exam scores, the dean's office is able to predict what each student's freshman year grades should be. The test of explanatory style, however, was able to predict which freshmen would do better than expected and which would do worse.

''College entrance exams measure talent, while explanatory style tells you who gives up,'' Dr. Seligman said. ''It is the combination of reasonable talent and the ability to keep going in the face of defeat that leads to success. What's missing in tests of ability is a measure of motivation. What you need to know about someone is whether they will keep going when things get frustrating.''
People's explanatory styles seem to be relatively stable over the course of life, according to research by Dr. Seligman and Melanie Burns, a graduate student. Through ads in almuni bulletins they found people now in their seventies and eighties who had diaries from adolescence, and they studied the diaries.

''If you were an optimistic teen, then you'll be an optimist at 80,'' said Dr. Seligman. ''People's reactions to bad events are highly stable over a half century or more. If as a teen-ager you think boys shun you because you are unlovable, then as a grandparent you will talk about your grandchildren's health problems as being because the family is sickly.'' But Dr. Seligman believes that explanatory style can be changed. In a recent study of depressed patients he found that cognitive therapy - a technique that identifies and corrects erroneous habits of thought -changed the style of the patients from pessimistic to optimistic, and that the change persisted one year after therapy ended.

One method used in cognitive therapy, for example, is to have people monitor their automatic thoughts in reaction to things they regret doing, and then to replace those thoughts with ones that are more realistic. Dr. Seligman gives the example of a depressed young student who came to his office ready to drop out of graduate school after getting a C on her first paper. Her automatic thoughts were: ''I can't write; I'm a bad student; I don't deserve to be in school.''

Dr. Seligman, after exploring with the student what some alternative possibilities might be, came up with several, among them that the class average was a C and that she needed to work harder. He then had her call the professor and ask why she got a C. The answer: the class average was a C and she needed to work harder. ''She went, in her own mind, from a hopeless student, to one who could do all right if she tried harder,'' said Dr. Seligman.

''Drugs can make you better from depression, but they don't change your explanatory style, leaving you vulnerable to depression again at the next upset in your life,'' said Dr. Seligman. ''I think the active ingredient in therapies that are effective for depression is a change in explanatory style.

One unresolved point as yet in the research is whether pessimists have more troubles because of their explanatory style, or have become pessimists because of their bad luck.

''I think it is probably a two-way street,'' said Dr. Peterson. ''My research shows that pessimists make a mess of their lives; more bad things befall them like break-ups, family troubles, and failure in school. They are also more lonely and estranged from people; talking gloom and doom is a turn off. But having a life so troubled may give them good cause to be pessimistic, which makes them act in a way that invites more trouble. The question is why do some people bounce back from trouble, while others are defeated by it.''