Research on the Many Health Benefits of Meditation

Research on Meditation and Health

Healing Meditations

The scientific support for the health benefits of meditation is growing on a daily basis, as more and more research is starting to validate what has already been known by the spiritual community for centuries now.  Today we will explore this topic further.  As we know there are many different meditation techniques and although, all these are helpful in some degree from a health perspective, in this series, I will compile for you those techniques that are the best for health and healing.  

This series will be in 2 parts.  In part 1, I will highlight the health benefits of meditation as demonstrated by recent scientific research, while in part 2 I will provide you with the healing meditations themselves.  Below are these benefits, knowing which I feel will be very inspiring to you for beginning a personal meditation practice.

Health Benefits

Scientific Research Indicating Health Benefits of Meditation:

1. Reduce Anxiety & Stress:

Research has shown that meditation activates the left pre-frontal cortex, while diminishing activity in the right pre-frontal cortex of the brain.  This shift is in line with reduced stress and anxiety, as the left frontal cortex is associated with calmness, peace, happiness and other positive feelings.  This shift in brain activity also indicates meditation as a solution for depression.

For more details on using meditation and yoga to reduce stress, anxiety and depression, read Best Treatments for Stress and Anxiety Disorder.

2. Reduce Blood Pressure:

Meditation has been shown to significantly reduce blood pressure, while at the same time improving circulation and heart health.  Blood flow was shown to increase almost 200%, specially in the frontal cortex.  Meditation has also been shown to reduce cholesterol, but most significant to heart health is the stress reducing power of meditation, as undoubtedly stress is the number enemy of good heart health.

3. Immune Health:

Research has shown, meditators to be significantly more healthy than those who don’t.  50% fewer doctor’s visits, 55% fewer tumors and significantly reduced cases of infectious diseases as well.

4. Chronic Pain:

Meditation has been shown to be very effective in helping with pain management.  Research has shown a 50% reduction in perceived pain when tackled using meditation.

5. Insomnia:

One of the areas where meditation has been extremely effective is helping those suffering from insomnia.  When trained in meditation, there was a 75% improvement in those suffering from this condition.

6. Intelligence, Awareness, Concentration and Performance:

Thickening of the brain as well as improved performance, concentration and intelligence has been attributed to meditation practice.  These improvements were found to be valid with young adults as well (Amazing Benefits of Meditation for Young People).  Another article previously published detailing how good meditation is for the brain is Brain Benefits of Meditation.

7. Aging and Addictions:

Meditation has been shown time and again to slow down the aging process, with those who meditate registering much younger effective ages than their chronological age.

8. Treating Habits and Addictions:

Meditation has been shown as an effective treatment for addictions and detrimental habits.  There are also yoga and breathing techniques which are valuable for this, and you can find those in the article Yoga to Stop Smoking and Breaking Addictions.

Summary of Health Benefits of Meditation:

Of course, the benefits of meditations are much more far reaching than just good health, and you can read about all these benefits in the article, Top 10 Profound Benefits of Meditation. The above list though should certainly be more than enough to motivate you to start practicing meditation as a tool to maintain good health and heal yourself of diseases.  In part 2 of this series I will detail those meditation techniques which are highly reputed for their healing capabilities.

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13 replies
  1. Candy
    Candy says:

    I love meditation and would love to have classes where I can teach it to others. I believe that it would benefit everyone of all ages.

    Reply
  2. Debra
    Debra says:

    Between this article as well as the excellent one that links from here : ” Top10 Profound Benefits…”, it would seem very difficult to successfully argue against meditating. So… why do we not ALL meditate? It seems to me that the old saying: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” sort of answers this.

    Those who are sufficiently ready will be drawn to this practice for some or many of the reasons you have enumerated without a need to “sell” its value. It will be sought out just as I was led to your teaching exactly when I most needed what is offered.

    Thanks for being here to remove stumbling blocks from this part of the journey – to illuminate the path.

    Best to you Anmol,
    Debra

    Reply

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] In past articles I have underscored how good yoga is for you.  The articles Top 10 Health Benefits of Yoga, gives details around these vast benefits of yoga.  In addition, to the benefits one gets from doing yoga there are also a wide range of benefits that come from doing meditation.  The scientific community has been busy researching and confirming these benefits as well and you will find those summarized in the following article, Health Benefits of Meditation. […]

  2. […] In the article the Health Benefits of Meditation, we learned that recent scientific research had shown that meditation was 75% effective in naturally helping cure those suffering from insomnia.  The meditation techniques used in these studies were Mantra Meditation, such as So Hum Mantra Meditation or Breath Awareness Meditation, such as Zen Meditation Technique.  Without a doubt, these 2 types of meditation are excellent to help you with your insomnia, and are also known to bestow many other incredible health benefits as well.  In this article though, I am going to teach you a very different type of meditation technique to combat your insomnia, which is equally easy to learn and practice, and like the other meditations, it too will benefit you in many other profound ways. […]

  3. […] Health Benefits of Meditation […]

  4. […] Heath Benefits of Meditation. […]

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