You have no items to compare.
MEDITATION
Other benefits of meditation are: |
|
|
|
| Health Conditions that are benefited by Meditation | |
| Drug Addiction | |
| The Transcendental Meditation technique has proven to be a successful coping strategy in helping to deal with drug addiction," a useful tool in psycho-neuro-immunology (PNI) by helping to control the immune system, and an effective manager of stress and pain. | |
| Prolonging Life Expectancy | |
| A strong link has also been established between the practice of TM and longevity. Only two factors have been scientifically determined to actually extend life: caloric restriction and lowering of the body's core temperature. Meditation has been shown to lower core body temperature. | |
| Stress Control | |
| Most of the people who get on meditation do so
because of its beneficial effects on stress. Stress refers to any
or all the various pressures experienced in life. These can stem
from work, family, illness, or environment and can contribute to
such conditions as anxiety, hypertension, and heart disease. How
an individual sees things and how he or she handles them makes a
big difference in terms of how much stress he or she experiences. Research has shown that hormones and other biochemical compounds in the blood indicative of stress tend to decrease during TM practice. These changes also stabilize over time, so that a person is actually less stressed biochemically during daily activity. This reduction of stress translates directly into a reduction of anxiety and tension. Literally dozens of studies have shown this. |
|
| Pain Management | |
| Chronic pain can systematically erode the quality of life. Although great strides are being made in traditional medicine to treat recurring pain, treatment is rarely as simple as prescribing medication or surgery. Anxiety decreases the threshold for pain and pain causes anxiety. The result is a vicious cycle. Compared with people who feel relaxed, those under stress experience pain more intensely and become even more stressed, which aggravates their pain. Meditation breaks this cycle. Childbirth preparation classes routinely teach pregnant women deep breathing exercises to minimize the pain and anxiety of labor. Few call it breath meditation, but that's what it is. Meditative techniques are also a key element in the Arthritis self-help Course at Stanford University. More than 100,000 people with arthritis have taken the 12-hour course and learned meditation-style relaxation exercises as part of a comprehensive self-care program. Graduates report a 15 to 20 percent reduction in pain. A study reveals that 72 percent of the patients with chronic pain conditions achieved at least a 33 percent reduction after participating in an eight-week period of mindful meditation, while 61 -percent of the pain patients achieved at least a 50 percent reduction. Additionally, these people perceived their bodies as being 30 percent less problematic, suggesting an overall improvement in self-esteem and positive views regarding their bodies. Meditation may not eliminate pain, but it helps people cope more effectively. | |
| Cancer and Other Chronic Illness | |
| Meditation and other approaches to deep relaxation help center people so they can figure out how they'd like to handle the illness and proceed with life. Dr. Ainslie Meares, an Australian psychiatrist who uses meditation with cancer patients, studied seventy-three patients who had attended at least twenty -sessions of intensive meditation, and wrote: "Nearly all such patients can expect significant reduction of anxiety and depression, together with much less discomfort and pain. There is reason to expect a 10 percent chance of quite remarkable slowing of the rate of growth of the tumor, and a 50 percent chance of greatly improved quality of life." | |
| Heart disease | |
| Meditation is a key component of Ornish therapy, the only treatment scientifically proven to reverse heart disease. | |
| High blood pressure | |
| As soon as Dr. Benson learned that TM reliably reduced blood pressure in meditators, he taught the relaxation response to 36 people with moderately elevated blood pressure. After several weeks of practice, their average blood pressure declined significantly, reducing their risk of stroke and heart attack. | |
| Psoriasis | |
| This disease causes scaly red patches on the skin. A study suggests that compared with the skin patches of people with psoriasis who receive only standard medical therapy, the skin patches of those who also meditate clear up more quickly. | |
| Respiratory crises | |
| Asthma, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) all restrict breathing and raise fears of suffocation, which in turn makes breathing even more difficult. Studies show that when people with these respiratory conditions learn breath meditation, they have fewer respiratory crises. | |
| Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) Tension Headaches | |
| Meditation can ease physical complaints such
as premenstrual syndrome (PMS) tension headaches and other common
health problems. |
|
| Previous Page Next Page | |
