This page provides further details about the study.
In recent years, the absenteeism rate has been increasing across various sectors in the Netherlands, with absenteeism levels of 8 to 10% no longer being uncommon among companies and organizations. This not only leads to rising costs but also often results in additional stress for other employees who have to compensate. It is increasingly recognized that stress and high workloads are at the root of absenteeism and reduced job satisfaction:
In total 40 people can participate in the study, of whom 15 in the control group. Read below what the criteria are to be able to participate in the study.
If you are interested in the measurements that are taken for the study, but you do not want to participate in the Body & Mind Vitaal program during the study period, you can also participate in the control group. In that case, register for the study at the Amsterdam UMC and discuss this with the project leader of the study.
This study has been approved by the Medical Ethics Review Committee and privacy is guaranteed by the Amsterdam UMC. Each participant receives a unique number, so that only the project leader of the study knows the names behind the numbers. This way, your data is safe.
In total 40 people will participate in the study, of whom 15 will be part of the control group. The Amsterdam UMC is looking for people who have minor health complaints and have been sick 4 or more times in the past 12 months, during 3 or more days. If you have a burn-out or if you are unable to perform your daily work due to a chronic illness, you cannot participate in the study. Of course you are very welcome to participate in the Body & Mind Vitality program.
An additional condition for participating in the study is that you are motivated to invest half an hour every day in improving your own health & vitality. This by participating in the Body & Mind Vital program of the study. If you participate daily, you will notice that you need less sleep over time, so you will earn that time back. Moreover it is really nice and relaxing to participate in the program and do the workshops at your home. Also it will help you to improve your own health step by step.
Furthermore, you must be prepared to travel to the Amsterdam UMC for the first measurement in November or December and then again in April or early May. Your travel expenses will be reimbursed.
The Amsterdam UMC will investigate whether the people who participate daily in the intervention program called Body & Mind Vitality, have actually improved their health and vitality after 4 months.
There is a control group of approximately 15 people who do both measurements, but do not participate in the Body & Mind Vitality program. This way you will get a unique opportunity to have these scientific measurements performed and you will gain more self-insight. In addition, all participants in this control group can then participate in the Body & Mind Vitality program free of charge from May 1, 2025 to May 1, 2026.
In this way you will contribute to this important study. Because the control group allows the Amsterdam UMC to conclude whether the results of the group of people participating in the Body & Mind Vitality program are actually better than those of the control group.
You can register directly with the Amsterdam UMC, by using the orange button below “Yes, I want to participate”. The project leader will then contact you by telephone. She will go through some questions with you to assess whether you are eligible for this study. The project leader wil also let you know if you become part of the control group of the study. If you are egible to participate in the study, the project leader will send you a detailed information letter about the study. You will then have time to make a final decision about whether you want to participate15
The online Body & Mind Vitaal program of The Elements will be used for this research. This integral program includes the following elements for this research:
1 x yoga weekly
3 x meditation weekly
1 x breathing workshop monthly
1 x nutrition workshop monthly
1 x webinar monthly for research participants to answer questions
1 x theme workshop for inspiration + specific exercises on video monthly
1 x monthly newsletter with information and inspiration
All livestream sessions can be followed via the app and all sessions are available on video afterwards, so that participants can easily participate and also watch the workshops again afterwards.
The study will run from January 6 to June 30, 2025. The study will be set up as a practice-oriented study, in which approximately 60 participants from various companies and organizations can participate. Of these 40, 15 will be asked to participate in the control group.
The initial measurements will be taken in November and December 2024. This means that the participants will be asked to come to the Amsterdam UMC for this. Travel expenses for this will be reimbursed. During this first measurement, you will be asked to complete a few questionnaires and MRI and UPE measurements will be performed. See further on in the text for more information about this. We assume that approximately 50% of the participants will have an MRI scan and all participants will do the UPE measurement.
After the end of the research period, so from the end of June, the measurements will be repeated so that these second measurements can be compared with the first measurements. The study will also look at relationships between the experiences of the participants and these physiological measurements. We hope to discover which elements contribute to self-healing. The questionnaires will be supplemented with a number of in-depth interviews with participants to gain more insight into the experiences, difficulties surrounding behavioural changes, effective elements and areas for improvement for the programme.
Validated questionnaires will be used to measure stress, resilience, self-healing capacity, motivation, mindfulness, and burnout complaints before and during participation in the program. The data will be analyzed for differences between the start and after completion.
What makes this study so special is that in addition to the usual basic methodology, technically advanced measuring instruments such as MRI and UPE measurements will also be performed. This allows the more subjective experience with questionnaires to be measured and compared with objective physiological measurement results.
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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a method that can measure both structural and functional parameters in organs based on the magnetic properties of tissue. The Amsterdam UMC has a lot of experience with using this method to investigate physiological changes in the body due to a medical or exercise intervention. In this project, we will make MRI scans of the brain. It is known that all kinds of functional parameters in the brain ‘respond’ to changes in lifestyle and diet. By doing MRI measurements before and after the program, it can be objectified that there are effects.
UPE stands for Ultra-weak Photon Emission. Photons are light particles and with this advanced and internationally recognized method, it can be measured in a simple way how strong the vital energy (life force) is in the body. As a proof of concept, Meluna Research presented groundbreaking research in recent publications into the measurement and analysis of ultra-weak photon emission as a diagnostic tool for human stress-related effects.
By taking measurements with the participants at the start and during the study, it can be measured whether the energy improves. The measurements take little time and can therefore be used quickly and relatively cheaply on a large scale.
UPE stands for Ultra-weak Photon Emission. Photons are light particles and with this method, it can be measured in a simple way how strong the energy flow in the body is. By taking measurements with the participants at the start and during the study, it can be measured whether the energy improves. The measurements take little time and can therefore be used quickly and relatively cheaply on a large scale. UPE is now internationally recognized in the medical world. The technology is medically CE (class I) certified.
When, as a result of stress, the metabolic process deep within the cells is disrupted, free radicals are formed that are ultimately harmful to health and responsible for the development of many chronic diseases. When these free radicals are formed, ultra-weak photons are released.
Using a special technology, these ultra-weak photons can be measured. Based on the measurement results, statements can be made about the efficiency and organization of energetic processes in the body.
Research has shown that there is a relationship between the intensity of the photon emission and biological age. In addition, there is a connection with stress built up and accumulated in life.
In practical terms, it works as follows. The photon emission from both sides of both the left and right hands are measured separately for five minutes. This gives 6.000 measurement results per side, which are then immediately analyzed and calculated.
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