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.

Why am I still fat? Will mental makeover help?

Reflecting on my life, I realized that I am still fat for a reason. Being fat has become my default setting. And I have a tendency to sabotage myself so I can maintain the default. I can justify my position because I am self deluded. I tell myself I want to change. But in reality, it takes too damn much energy to lose weight. So I'm still fat.

Photo by Dedda71

But, despite myself, I continue to search for ways to overcome myself. One such way is meditation. Simple meditation exercises can get me off of autopilot and thinking about my self deceptive habits in new ways. For example, if I inhale and notice my breath before I reach for the chocolate, I can break the cycle of associating chocolate with stress. At least that's what Martine Batchelor, author of Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits, says.

"The two main elements of meditation—concentration and inquiry—are key to getting control of your actions," she says. "Concentration helps because every time you come back to your breath, your body, a mantra or whatever your meditation is, you dissolve the habit's power." Next, she explains, you need to begin inquiry.

"It's like a beam of light," Batchelor says. "Normally, you find yourself [eating chocolate or whatever you want to insert here] before you think about it. With inquiry, you notice the details of the experience, you take the time to observe when and how the habit arises, and you become a little more aware that you don't want to do it."

Have I tried this yet? Meditation, like many other things in my life, I'm still working on. I do, however, know that when I take the time to think through whether buying some chocolate is good idea, I recognize that it's a less than beneficial choice. Does it always stop me? No. But it helps about 75 percent of the time. Will I continue to use it? Absolutely. I think it's a very good tool for weight loss—as well as other health-related habits such as quitting smoking.

Let me know if you use meditation, and what works for you. I'd love to hear from you.