Meditation Research Reveals Its Healing Power

Meditation has entered the mainstream of health care as a method of stress and pain reduction. The Mayo Clinic website reports that meditation is considered a type of mind-body complementary medicine, producing a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind. WebMD cites studies showing that meditation not only lowers blood pressure but also can amp up your immune system.

Meditation is now  used in hospitals as a therapy for chronic and terminal illness, to reduce complications, including depressed immune systems. There is a new consensus in the medical community that stress has negative health outcomes. As a result, there is a new willingness to fund research. There are more and more health care programs which teaching patients to promote inner well-being, especially mindfulness-based programs such as Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction.

A 2003 meta-analysis of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which involves continuous awareness of consciousness, without seeking to censor thoughts, concluded that the meditation is supportive for individuals coping with clinical and nonclinical problems. Patients with chronic pain, fibromyalgia, cancer and heart disease found they were healthier and their symptoms reduced. Improvements were noted for both physical and mental health measures.

Charles L. Raison, MD, clinical director of the Mind-Body Program at Emory University School of Medicine conducted a study indicating that meditation improved both physical and emotional responses to stress. In the study, people who meditated regularly for six weeks showed less activation of their immune systems and less emotional distress when they were put in a stressful situation.

“We know stress is a contributor to all the major modern killers,” Raison points out. “It’s hard to think of an illness in which stress and mood don’t figure.”

Relevant Audio: Healing Meditation

• Accelerate and support healing
• Generate nourishing states of well-being
• Enhance immune function