In pain? Try meditation

You don't have to be a Buddhist monk to experience the health benefits of meditation. According to a new study, even a brief crash course in meditative techniques can sharply reduce a person's sensitivity to pain.

In the study, researchers mildly burned 15 men and women in a lab on two separate occasions, before and after the volunteers attended four 20-minute meditation training sessions over the course of four days. During the second go-round, when the participants were instructed to meditate, they rated the exact same pain stimulus -- a 120-degree heat on their calves -- as being 57 percent less unpleasant and 40 percent less intense, on average.

"That's pretty dramatic," says Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The reduction in pain ratings was substantially greater than those seen in similar studies involving placebo pills, hypnosis, and even morphine and other painkilling drugs, he adds.

The findings, which appear in the April 6 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, aren't entirely surprising. Past research has found that Buddhist-style meditation -- also known as mindfulness meditation -- can help people cope with pain, anxiety, and a number of other physical and mental health problems. But in most cases the training takes weeks, not days.

The fact that Zeidan and his colleagues achieved these results after just 80 minutes of training is "spectacular," says Robert Bonakdar, M.D., the director of pain management at the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, in San Diego.

"Although the full benefits of meditation can be realized after long-term training, our study suggests that some of the effects can be realized just for your average Joe," Zeidan says.

The type of meditation used in the study is known as Shamatha, or "focused attention." Like other forms of mindfulness meditation, it entails learning how to observe what's going on in one's mind and body without judging, and while maintaining focus on one's breathing or a chanted mantra.
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How To Achieve Physical And Mental Fitness - The Second In A Powerful Series!

How to achieve physical and mental fitness is the quest and goals of millions of us. In the first article I began talking about how cutting edge technology has changed the dynamics of how we live our lives in many positive ways. We are all so busy with our daily lives working on advancing in our respective careers that we have forgotten about achieving physical and mental fitness. As a result we have become a society of flabby and out of shape people, which has caused our dynamics to deteriorate!

In this author's view all of this cutting edge information age has also given us serious challenges in our lives. This the second in a powerful series of articles researching the effects on us. Let's talk about the mental effects brought upon us by the information age. Because we have all embraced this new technology we have been able to increase our production and efficiency in our respective careers. There is a cost we are paying for this amazing technological advancement, our health is being effected in negative ways.

We have become too busy to think about working out and have become a society that is out of shape! The effects on us is pervasive, we have more patients that are being treated by physicians for anxiety then ever before in our history. Let's examine the reasons for this phenomenon that is causing not only anxiety which impairs our efficiency and effectiveness at work but is now linked to other problems.

Anxiety was now been linked to other diseases caused by this negative feeling of apprehension. More patients are now being treated for sleep disorders than ever before in the history of our nation! This dangerous disorder also known as insomnia robs us of our good health and causes us to lose focus, energy and ability to think with clarity. Now we have a path leading to disaster, our jobs start to suffer and our personalities change for the worse. We begin to have problems with our fellow workers even management and this can lead to loss of employment!

Getting on the path to physical and mental fitness is the solution to this pervasive problem, it is paramount that we get on and stay on a regular schedule of workouts to achieve physical and mental fitness. I believe that many patients being treated for anxiety and insomnia will most likely benefit form my plan. During a workout our bodies build endorphin levels up which reduces anxiety! Make the time to workout four days a week. Start your workouts at beginner levels in all facets from treadmill to weight training. Keep a log of your progress, write down the dates and amount of weights you are using and speed on the treadmill. I will go into more details about my recommended workouts in future articles. My point is- start out slow and easy and build up slowly, now you are on the path of achieving physical and mental fitness!
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