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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Senior Citizens May Want to Consider Transcendental
Meditation for Pain Relief
TM reduced brain's reaction to pain in just
five months, says study
August 9, 2006 – The millions of senior citizens
seeking relief from constant pain may want to consider Transcendental
Meditation. A new scientific study supported by the National Institutes
of Health says it works. In only five months, study participants
experienced a significant decrease in their pain.
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Twelve healthy long-term meditators who had been
practicing TM for 30 years showed a 40-50% lower brain response to pain
compared to 12 healthy controls. Further, when the 12 non-TM controls
then learned and practiced Transcendental Meditation for 5 months, their
brain responses to pain also decreased by a comparable 40-50%.
Transcendental Meditation could reduce the brain's
response to pain because neuroimaging and autonomic studies indicate
that it produces a physiological state capable of modifying various
kinds of pain. In time it reduces trait anxiety, improves stress
reactivity and decreases distress from acute pain.
According to Orme-Johnson, lead author of this
research, "Prior research indicates that Transcendental Meditation
creates a more balanced outlook on life and greater equanimity in
reacting to stress. This study suggests that this is not just an
attitudinal change, but a fundamental change in how the brain
functions".
Pain is part of everyone's experience and 50
million people worldwide suffer from chronic pain. Transcendental
Meditation would have a long term effect in reducing responses in the
affective component of the pain matrix. Future research could focus on
other areas of the pain matrix and the possible effects of other
meditation techniques to relieve pain.
The study is reported in a NeuroReport journal
article, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (Vol.17 No.12; 21
August 2006:1359-1363) - www.neuroreport.com Current issue (Aug 9).
Facts on Pain
According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, chronic pain
afflicts 50 million people worldwide, and acute pain is the most common
reason people seek medical attention. Stress responses to untreated pain
adversely impact virtually all systems of the body, especially the
cardiovascular, endocrine, respiratory, and immune systems. The cost of
treating pain is estimated at $100 billion each year in the U.S. alone.
About Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation, derived from the ancient Vedic tradition in
India, is taught through a standard protocol involving lectures,
personal instruction and group meetings, according to background
information in the article.
About the Authors
● David Orme-Johnson, PhD, has been a pioneering researcher on
meditation since 1970. He has over 100 publications on meditation in a
wide variety of fields, including electroencephalography,
psychophysiology, health, intelligence, creativity, drug and prison
rehabilitation, higher states of consciousness, collective
consciousness, quality of life, and conflict resolution. Dr. Orme-Johnson,
now retired and lives in Seagrove Florida, was formerly Chairman of the
Psychology Department and Dean of Research at Maharishi University of
Management in Fairfield, Iowa. David's vita
http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/Home/AboutDavidOrme-Johnson/index.cfm
● Zhang-Hee Cho, PhD is the Director of the
neuroimaging laboratory at the University of California at Irvine, where
the study was conducted. Dr. Cho, a physicist by background, is widely
recognized as a leading expert in neuroimaging. He was one of the
inventors of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and is a member of the
US National Academy of Science. Dr. Cho is currently in Korea setting up
an MRI there.
● Robert Schneider, MD, is Director of the
Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention, which sponsored the study
through an NIH grant. The Institute is one of nine NIH-supported centers
in the country for studying natural medicine, and the only one with
specialization in minority health. Dr. Schneider has many publications
on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on improving
cardiovascular health in minority elderly.
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