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Meditation and reducing stress
Twenty out of twenty-two anxiety-prone people showed a 60% improvement in anxiety levels following an eight week course in meditation.
University of Massachusetts
A review of 144 studies found that meditation was significantly more effective in reducing anxiety than other techniques.
Journal of Clinical Psychology
Meditation decreases oxygen consumption, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, and increases the intensity of alpha, theta, and delta brain waves - the opposite of the physiological changes that occur during [stress].
Herbert Benson M.D., Harvard Medical School, author of ‘The Relaxation Response’
Meditation can help to lower stress and blood pressure and enhance our state of awareness. Meditation helps release stress and fatigue, rest the body, and thus allow it to heal naturally by reducing the toxic chemistry of stress.
Professor Hugh Bentall - Cardiac Surgeon
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Meditation and weight loss
Stress in general is a “primary predictor of relapse and overeating”, as a high level of the stress hormone cortisol makes the body store extra fat in the abdomen and makes you crave fattening foods with extra intensity. Meditation is an effective method for managing the kind of stress that causes weight gain.
The Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
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Meditation and insomnia
Research on the effects of meditation-based relaxation techniques has demonstrated the link between meditation and brain wave activity. The findings suggested that insomniacs will find it easier to get to sleep if they practice meditation at bedtime or after awakening during the night. In a study it was reported that "75% of long-term insomniacs who have been trained in relaxation and meditation can fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed.”
Research by Dr Gregg Jacobs at Harvard Medical School
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Meditation and PMS
Meditation can ease physical complaints such as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), tension headaches and other common health problems affecting women. . "It allows you to turn inward and be kind to yourself for a change. Practicing meditation is like taking a vacation once or twice a day. When you nurture yourself, you accrue a tremendous spin-off of benefits.
Patricia Carrington, Ph.D., New Jersey University of Medicine and Dentistry.
Women with severe PMS showed a 58% improvement in their symptoms after five months of daily meditation.
Health, September 1995
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Meditation and general wellbeing
A study of health insurance statistics on over 2,000 people practicing meditation over a five-year period found that meditators consistently needed less than half the amount of hospital treatment than did other groups with comparable age, gender, profession, and insurance terms. The difference between the meditation and non-meditation groups increased with age. The meditators had fewer incidents of illness in seventeen medical treatment categories, including 87% less hospitalisation for heart disease and 55% less for cancer. The meditators consistently had more than 50% fewer doctor visits than did other groups.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 1987
A statistical review of 42 independent research results concluded that meditation was found to be effective in increasing ‘self-actualisation’; an overall measure of positive mental health and personal development. Further analysis showed that meditation is highly effective in developing emotional maturity, a resilient sense of self, and a positive, integrated perspective on ourselves and the world.
Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality
Evidence suggests that psychiatric hospital admissions may be much less common among people practising meditation than in the general population.
Swedish National Health Board
In 2003, research found that a short program in meditation produced lasting positive changes in both the brain and the function of the immune system. People who underwent eight weeks of meditation training produced more antibodies to a flu vaccine and showed signs of increased activity in areas of the brain related to positive emotion than individuals who did not meditate.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Meditation and heart conditions, blood pressure and strokes
Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia have discovered why daily meditation can significantly reduce blood pressure, which offers help for stressed people and those prone to mood swings, who are at greater risk of heart disease. The practice keeps blood vessels open, thus lowering the pressure.
BBC online: Monday 2nd August 1999
Reducing stress can dramatically reduce the incidence of heart disease. In a 5 year study of heart disease patients, those who learned to manage stress reduced their risk of having another heart attack by 74%, compared with patients receiving medication only. Reducing mental stress also proved more beneficial than getting exercise.
Dr. James Blumenthal, Duke University, 1997
28 people with high levels of blocked arteries and a high risk of heart attack were put on a program with regular meditation, yoga, a low-fat vegetarian diet, and exercise. 20 people in the control group received conventional medical care. After 12 months, most of the experimental group reported that their chest pains had virtually disappeared, and for 82% of the patients, arterial clogging had reversed. Those who were sickest at the start showed the most improvement. The control group had an increase in chest pain and their arterial blockage actually got worse. Further studies suggested that the stress-reduction element may be the most significant factor in achieving the beneficial results.
Dr. Dean Ornish, San Francisco Medical School, University of California, reported in the Lancet Journal
A study has shown that people who practiced meditation had lower levels of lipid peroxide than those who didn't. Lipid peroxide can contribute to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and other chronic diseases associated with aging.
Psychosomatic Medicine 1998
In a study to research the benefits of teaching meditation to people suffering from atherosclerosis, over time it was found that the meditators showed a marked decrease in the thickness of their artery walls. The improvement could potentially bring about an 11 percent decrease in the risk of heart attack and an 8 percent to 15 percent decrease in the risk of stroke.
American Heart Association Journal Stroke, 2000
A study showed significant lowering of blood pressure in a group of meditators compared to a control group who didn't meditate, and also reported a 23% reduction in use of antihypertensive drugs between the group of meditators and the other group.
The American Journal of Hypertension, 2004
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Meditation and arthritis/ fibromyalgia
There are several studies which show meditation can be effective for fibromyalgia. In a 1993 study of 77 patients with fibromyalgia who participated in a 10 week meditation-based relaxation program, all showed some reduction in their pain, fatigue and sleep disturbances, and an improvement in their overall wellbeing; 51% had a moderate to marked improvement. There's also evidence that meditation moderates the immune response, according to Richard Kradin, MD, of Harvard University. Meditation may affect the nervous and vascular systems, as well as the immune system, which in turn would affect joint function and inflammation.
Arthritis Foundation
Research has shown that meditation can help relieve many symptoms of arthritis, such as pain, anxiety, stress & depression, as well as ease the tiredness and insomnia associated with fibromyalgia. Meditation affects many body processes connected with well being and relaxation, and recent studies suggest meditation may balance the immune system to help the body resist disease, and even heal.
Arthritis Foundation
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Meditation and chronic pain
Meditators are able to reduce chronic pain by more than 50%, while increasing daily function and markedly improving their moods, even 4 years after the completion of an 8-week training course.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, M.D. Stress Reduction Clinic, University of Massachusetts
Relaxation therapies such as meditation are effective in treating chronic pain, and can markedly ease the pain of low back problems, arthritis, and headaches
National Institutes of Health, 1996
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Meditation and aging
Meditation may slow aging according to a study which found that people who had been meditating for more than five years were biologically 12 to 15 years younger than non-meditators.
International Journal of Neuroscience, 1992
Research indicates that meditation may improve memory, especially in older people. A 2005 study at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that regular meditators had thicker prefrontal cortexes than non-meditators. This brain area is linked with short-term memory. The researchers suggested that “meditation may offset age-related cortical thinning”.
The Times on line February 23, 2008
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