FRIDAY, 14 NOVEMBER 2014

Does meditation have benefits for mind and body?

Does meditation have benefits for mind and body?

It is hard to believe some still question whether meditation can have a positive effect on mind and body. A very selective research review recently raised the question, leading to headlines such as the one in The Wall Street Journal that said the benefits are limited.

I have been researching effects of meditation on health for 30 years and have found it has compelling benefits.

Over the past year, I have been invited by doctors in medical schools and major health centers on four continents to instruct them on the scientific basis of mind-body medicine and meditation in prevention and treatment of disease, especially cardiovascular disease.

Research on Transcendental Meditation (TM), for example, has found reduced blood pressure and insulin resistance (useful for preventing diabetes), slowing of biological aging, and even a 48% reduction in the rates ofheart attack, stroke and death.

I would consider those to be benefits. And so does the American Heart Association, which last year released a statement saying that decades of research indicates TM lowers blood pressure and may be considered by clinicians as a treatment for high BP.

Research on meditation has also shown a wide range of psychological benefits.

For example, a 2012 review of 163 studies that was published by the American Psychological Association concluded that the Transcendental Meditation technique had relatively strong effects in reducing anxiety, negative emotions, trait anxiety and neuroticism, while aiding learning, memory and self-realization.

Mindfulness meditation had relatively strong effects in reducing negative personality traits and stress, and in improving attention and mindfulness.

The review concluded:

"The effects found in the current analyses show that meditation affects people in important ways."

 Finally, people meditate because it can fundamentally change their self-perceptions and sense of suffering. And, yes, research also supports this.

In studies on long-term and even short-term practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, subjects report the experience of a fundamental level of unity and wholeness in their awareness. This gives them a deep feeling of peace, connectedness and relief from stress.

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