Meditation Improves health

Whether it’s a hard day at work, a long line of traffic, or a disagreement with a significant other, humans suffer from stress virtually everyday. And when stress becomes a factor, the body reacts instinctively, producing hormones that create the “fight or flight” response.

These hormones — epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol — increase heart rate, trigger glucose release, and reduce immune response, according to the National Institutes of Health and many other sources.

The physical reactions to stress include headache, dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, rapid heartbeat, nausea, cold hands, lack of concentration, difficulty sleeping, certain food cravings, and angry outbursts. It also can affect memory, cognition, and attentiveness. It’s no wonder too much stress can be at the bottom of long-term health issues.

To combat health problems, people want effective solutions to dealing with stress. Mediation appears to be at least one answer. New studies reveal that meditation not only reduces stress and anxiety, it improves brain function.

Meditation Regulates Stress
Researchers from China and the University of Oregon conducted a five-day experiment about a meditation training technique called integrative body-mind training (IBMT), according to an October 9, 2007 Science Daily report. The study, done in China, provided IBMT to an experimental group and relaxation training to a control group.

Both groups were subjected to tests that involved attention and reaction to mental stress. While the control group did show some improvement in its ability to react to stressing stimuli, the experimental group showed significant improvement in stress regulation, including lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger, and fatigue.

Meditation Improves Brain Function
In a study that Harvard Medical School conducted, researchers found that long-term meditation practice may alter resting electroencephalogram patterns, suggesting that meditation might affect the brain's physical structure. Researchers in this study used magnetic resonance imaging — an MRI — to measure the cortical thickness of 20 participants with extensive Insight Meditation experience, which involves focused attention to internal experiences.

Study participants showed an increase in cortical thickness. The cerebral cortex is the sheet of neural tissue that makes up the outermost part of the brain and is associated with memory, awareness, attention, thought, language, and consciousness. It is the part of the brain commonly referred to as grey matter, according to the Harvard Medical School study.

One of the most encouraging details from this study is that older study participants showed the most difference in cortical thickness, suggesting that meditation might offset the cortical thinning associated with aging. This data suggests that regular meditation practice may ward off Alzheimer's and age-related dementia.

Further, the data demonstrated a correlation between meditation experience and cortical thickness, providing evidence that long-term meditation practice improved brain structure.

Meditation Improves Health
Meditation can improve health and brain function. Making it a regular habit is a good investment in reducing stress,increasing memory, and warding off depression. Numerous resources are available on the Internet that demonstrate how to meditate and include step-by-step instructions.


Originally published on Suite101.com.