The Science of Meditation for Mind & Body Health
Research Findings show that mindfulness and meditation:
- Improves Physical Health
- Improves Emotional & Mental Health
- Research Findings for Children & Teenagers
- Additional Research Findings
Improves Physical Health:
MEDITATION LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE
80% of hypertensive patients have lowered blood pressure and decreased medications – 16% are able to discontinue all of their medications. These results lasted at least three years. (Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Volume 9, pages 316-324, 1989)
In a clinical experiment with elderly African American (mean age 66) dwelling in an inner-city community, meditation was compared with the most widely used method of producing physiological relaxation. Those who practiced a silent mantra meditation over a three month period and who had moderately elevated blood pressure levels dropped their blood pressure significantly. A second study conducted at Harvard found similar blood pressure reduction changes. (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57: 950-964, 1989)
A study showed meditation can lower blood pressure and mortality rates in older people with hypertension. (American Journal of Cardiology, 2004)
A 16-week trail of the practice of silent mantra meditation in patients with coronary heart disease was instituted by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. Patients who meditated had significantly lower blood pressure; improved fasting blood glucose and insulin levels and more stable functioning of the autonomic nervous system. (Maura Paul-Labrador, M.P.H., Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles)
Meditation training has been shown to reduce hypertension and blood pressure in amounts comparable to the changes produced by medication and other lifestyle modifications such as weight loss, sodium restriction, and increased aerobic activity. (Schneider 1995, Linden 1996)MEDITATION LOWERS HEART RATE
According to Kofi Kondwani, professor of meditation at Morehouse School of Medicine, the oxygen usage/breathing rate decreases 16% – 30% during meditation whereas this rate only decreases by about 8% during sleep.
During meditation, oxygen consumption drops by 10-20% and it produces a deeper state of rest than sleep. In fact, 75% of insomniacs were able to sleep normally when they meditated (William Bodri’s Learn How to Meditate)
In people who are meditating, MRI brain scans have shown an increase in activity in areas that control metabolism and heart rate. (Herbert Benson, MD, Mind/Body Institute at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.)
MEDITATION LOWERS BUILDUP OF PLAQUE IN CORONARY ARTERIES
Recent studies show that meditation, along with diet and exercise, can reduce the buildup of plaque in coronary arteries. Long term meditators experience 80% less heart disease and 55% less cancer than nonmeditators. (Psychosomatic Medicine 49 (1987): 493-507)
The addition of meditation training to standard cardiac rehabilitation regimes has been shown to reduce mortality by 41% during the first two years, and a 46% reduction in recurrence rates of coronary artery disease. (Linden 1996, Zammara 1996, Ornish 1983.)
Psychosocial interventions for heart disease have been shown to reduce the risk of further cardiac events by as much as 75% compared with a usual medical care condition. Over the past 20 years, mind/body medicine has provided ample evidence of improving the health of patients with heart disease and chronic illness, and preparing patients for a successful recovery after a surgical procedure. (Sobel, D. S. “MSJAMA: Mind Matters, Money Matters: The Cost-effectiveness of Mind/Body Medicine.” Journal of the American Medical Association: 284, 1705)
A randomized study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine showed that a widely practiced, stress-reducing meditation technique can significantly reduce the severity of congestive heart failure. (Ethnicity & Disease Journal 2007)
Practicing meditation may play an important role in controlling certain risk factors for heart disease…practice for 20 minutes a day has a positive, measurable effect reducing the build-up of fatty deposits in arteries or atherosclerosis – just a small reduction could reduce the risk of heart attack by 11% and reduce the risk of stroke by 15%. (CNN, July 2000 referencing the March edition of the journal Stroke)
MEDITATION LOWERS CHOLESTEROL
A longitudinal study showed that cholesterol levels significantly decreased through meditation in hypercholsteolemic patients, compared to matched controls, over an eleven-month period. (Journal of Human Stress, 5: 24-27, 1979)
MEDITATION NORMALIZES BLOOD SUGAR
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles showed that patients were able to lower their blood pressure, blood sugar, and insulin by practicing a silent mantra meditation.(Maura Paul-Labrador, M.P.H., Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles)
MEDITATION STRENGTHENS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin reported that people newly trained in meditation have shown an increase in electrical activity in the left frontal part of the brain, an area associated with positive emotion and happiness. Meditators also showed a significant boost of immunity to the flu. (Article: Meditation “fools the brain’ in a threatening world, by R.J. Ignelzi, San Diego Union Tribune March 6, 2007)
Dr. Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin, using the latest techniques in brain imaging technology (fMRI , EEG and MEG), has shown that meditation produces demonstrable positive effects in both brain and immune functions. (Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., et al. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564-570.)
Extensive research on the benefits of meditation has shown significant improvements in patients with cancer, diabetes, asthma, psoriasis, headache, multiple sclerosis, and other ailments. (University of Massachusetts Medical School Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society; used by permission.)
Meditation helps ward off illness and infections. In one study testing immune function, flu shots were given to volunteers who had meditated for eight weeks and to people who didn’t meditate. Blood tests taken later showed the meditation group had higher levels of antibodies produced against the flu virus, according to the study in Psychosomatic Medicine. (Meditation Balances the Body’s Systems, WEB MD, January 2008)
MEDITATION REDUCES DOCTOR VISITS, ILLNESS, POST-OPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS & HOSPITALIZATIONS
There is approximately a 50% reduction in visits to a HMO after a relaxation-response based intervention which resulted in estimated significant cost savings. (Behavioral Medicine, Volume 16, pages 165-173, 1990)
Chronic pain patients reduced their physician visits by 36%. (The Clinical Journal of Pain, Volume 2, pages 305-310, 1991)
Open heart surgery patients have fewer post-operative complications. (Behavioral Medicine, Volume 5, pages 111-117, 1989)
The University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness Stress Reduction Program’s medical outcomes from 15,000 patients’ participation since 1979 have shown a 35% reduction in the number of medical symptoms and a 40% reduction in psychological symptoms.(University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness Stress Reduction Program, under the direction of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn (Kabat-Zinn 1982, 1985, 1986, 1992, 1998, Miller 1995, etc.)
Health insurance statistics on over 2,000 people practicing meditation over five-year period show meditators consistently had less than half the hospitalization than did other groups with comparable age, gender, profession, and insurance terms. (Psychosomatic Medicine, 49: 493-507, 1987)
Meditators had fewer incidents of illness in seventeen medical treatment categories, including 87% less hospitalization for heart disease and 55% less for cancer. The meditators consistently had more than 50% fewer doctor visits than did other groups. (Psychosomatic Medicine, 49: 493-507, 1987)
Meditation can help produce antibodies against illness and also lift your spirits. Researchers say biological effects seen in the study are long lasting – up to four months after the end of meditation training. (Psychosomatic Medicine, 2003)
MEDITATION REDUCES REACTION TO PAIN
Meditation has been shown to reduce both the experience of chronic pain and its inhibition of everyday activities. Pain-related drug utilization was decreased and activity levels and self-esteem increased. (Kabat-Zinn 1982, 1985, 1987)
65 percent of the patients who spent 10 weeks in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Stress Reduction Clinic reported that their pain was reduced by one-third or more. (General Hospital Psychiatry, April 1982)
A recent study in PAIN found that people with chronic back pain who meditated for eight weeks had a decreased amount of pain and an improvement in physical function.
A study by Dr. Natalia Morone of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine showed that seniors with chronic lower back pain felt better and were able to function better after 8 weeks of meditation training. (Article: Seniors Transcend Back Pain with Meditation, ABC News 2008)
Meditation can help relieve many arthritis symptoms, such as pain, anxiety, stress and depression, as well as relieve the fatigue and insomnia associated with fibromyalgia. (Arthritis Foundation)
Adults with rheumatoid arthritis who participated regularly in a 6-month meditation program experienced less emotional distress and a higher quality of well-being than their counterparts who did not meditate. (Arthritis & Rheumatism, October 2007)
MEDITATION DECREASES CIGARETTE, ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE
Meditation produced a significantly larger reduction in tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use than either standard substance abuse treatments or prevention programs. (Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 11: 13-87, and International Journal of the Addictions, 26: 293-325, 1991)
MEDITATION INCREASES FERTILITY RATE
Infertile women have a 42% conception rate, a 38% take-home baby rate, and decreased levels of depression, anxiety, and anger. (Journal of American Medical Women’s Association. Volume 54, pages 196-8, 1999)
Women struggling with infertility had much less anxiety, depression, and fatigue following a 10-week meditation program (along with exercise and nutrition changes); 34% became pregnant within six months. (Meditation Balances the Body’s Systems, WEB MD, January 2008)
MEDITATION IMPROVES PMS SYMPTOMS
Women with severe PMS have a 57% reduction in physical and psychological symptoms. (Obstetrics and Gynecology, Volume 75, pages 649-655, April, 1990)
Premenstrual syndrome, infertility problems, and even breastfeeding can be improved when women meditate regularly. In one study, PMS symptoms subsided by 58% when women meditated. Another study found that hot flashes were less intense among meditating women. (Meditation Balances the Body’s Systems, WEB MD, January 2008)
MEDITATION IMPROVES ENERGY
In a study where college students either meditated, slept or watched TV, those who had been taught to meditate performed 10% better at tasks that require attention and concentration. Those who snoozed did significantly worse. (Bruce O’Hara, associate professor of biology at the University of Kentucky)
MEDITATION IMPROVES SLEEPING PATTERNS
100% of insomnia patients reported improved sleep and 91% either eliminated or reduced sleeping medication use. (The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 100, pages 212-216, 1996)
MEDITATION SLOWS DOWN AGING PROCESS
Long-term meditators who had been practicing meditation for more than five years were physiologically 12 years younger than their chronological age, as measured by reduction of blood pressure, and better near-point version and auditory discrimination. Short-term meditators were physiologically five years younger than their chronological age. (International Journal of Neuroscience, 16: 53-58, 1982)
In a study of residents in homes for the elderly who practiced meditation, the survival rate for those using a silent mantra meditation technique was 100% after 3 years compared to 65%, 77% or 88% survival rates for other treatment groups using different forms of relaxation-based therapies. The untreated group’s survival rate was 63%. (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75 (6): 950-964, 1989.)
Meditation has a profound effect upon three key indicators of aging: hearing ability, blood pressure, and vision of close objects. Meditators secrete more of the youth-related hormone DHEA as they age than non-meditators. (Meditation as Medicine – D.S. Khalsa, MD and C. Stauth – Pocket Books, 2001)
A part of the brain known as the cerebral cortex (critical in decision making and working memory) was thicker in people who meditated for as little as 40 minutes a day, compared with people who did not. It is possible that meditation may protect against age-related thinning of this part of the brain. (Sarah Lazar PhD, Meditation research at Harvard Medical School)
Meditating 45-year-old women and men had on average, respectively, 47% and 23% more DHEA (the youth-related hormone) than non-meditators – this helps decrease stress, heighten memory, preserve sexual function and control weight. (Meditation as Medicine – D.S. Khalsa, MD and C. Stauth – Pocket Books, 2001)
MEDITATION HELPS PEOPLE BREATHE EASIER
Respected asthma researchers in Australia compared the effect of meditation against a simple relaxation technique on 30 people with severe asthma who were divided into two groups. One group received regular instruction in meditation while the other was taught a popular relaxation technique. Before, and then after, about 16 meditation sessions, the patients were assessed. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners funded the 18-month project and results clearly showed that while both groups did appear to bring about improvements in the way the patients felt, the meditation group also showed improvements in the severity of the asthma disease process itself. This effect was not seen in the relaxation group suggesting meditation can actually influence the disease process. (R Manocha, G B Marks, P Kenchington, D Peters, C M Salome, Thorax Journal 2002;57:110–115)
Improves Emotional & Mental Health:
MEDITATION REDUCES STRESS
“Meditation promotes neurochemical shifting. The stress hormones are acutely lowered,” reports Dr. Robert Bonakdar, director of pain management at the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine. “When we feel more relaxed, the brain generates natural anti-anxiety and happiness-enhancing chemicals like endorphins and high levels of serotonin.” (Article: Meditation “fools the brain’ in a threatening world, by R.J. Ignelzi, San Diego Union Tribune March 6, 2007
Studies show that meditation is boosting their immune system and brain scans suggest that it may be rewiring their brains to reduce stress. Ten million American adults now say they practice some form of meditation regularly. (Stein, J. (2003) The Science of Meditation, TIME magazine (cover story), August 4: 48-56.)
“Any condition that’s caused or worsened by stress can be alleviated through meditation,” says, cardiologist Herbert Benson, MD. He is well known for three decades of research into the health effects of meditation. He is the founder of the Mind/Body Institute at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. (Meditation Balances the Body’s Systems, WEB MD, January 2008)
At work, 95.6 percent of employees surveyed reported that mental and behavioral health is very (75.3%) or somewhat (20.3%) important in determining overall health. Researchers have discovered that meditating 10-20 minutes a day can reverse the ill effects of stress.Meditation has also been found to alleviate insomnia, depression, anxiety, anger, headaches, hot flashes, and physical pain. Large corporations such as Google, Hughes Aircraft and Deutsch Bank are now routinely providing meditation instruction to their employees. Employers note that it not only increases employee productivity but also significantly decreases absenteeism, workers compensation and disability claims from stress-related illnesses (Meritian Health and the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health – article: Dateline UC Davis, December 14, 2007)
After a six month study by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, stress levels were 35% lower in the group who meditated than in those who did not meditate. (Article: IDEA fit tips, Shirley Archer, JD, MA, 2008)
Patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia who participated in a group mindfulness meditation training program showed reductions in symptoms of anxiety and panic and maintained these reductions. (Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD)
Meditation is the only activity that reduced blood lactate, a marker of stress and anxiety. The calming hormones melatonin and serotonin are increased by meditation and the stress hormone cortisol is decreased. Meditation creates a unique state, in which the metabolism is in an even deeper state of rest than during sleep. Meditating 45 year old women and men had on average, respectively, 47% and 23% more DHEA (the youth-related hormone) than non-meditators – this helps decrease stress, heighten memory, preserve sexual function and control weight.(Meditation as Medicine – D.S. Khalsa, MD and C. Stauth – Pocket Books, 2001)
Stutkin of Boston University’s Center for Anxiety Related Disorder, found slow diaphragmatic breathing proved just as effective in reducing anxiety as the antidepressant drug imipramine.
Research suggests that by meditating regularly, the brain is reoriented from a stressful fight-or-flight mode to one of acceptance, a shift that increases contentment. (Lutz, A., Greischar, L., Rawlings, N.B., Ricard, M., Davidson, R.J. (2004) Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitute synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101, 16369-16373)
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction is an effective treatment for reducing stress and anxiety that accompanies daily life and chronic illness. It is also therapeutic for healthcare providers, enhancing their interactions with patients. No negative side effects from MBSR have been documented. (Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center: PubMed: 18387018 indexed for MEDLINE)
A study at the University of New Mexico compared the effects of two mind-body interventions on stress: meditation and cognitive behavioral stress reduction. After two groups students participated in the separate 8-week courses, results indicated that the meditation students improved on eight measured outcomes while the cognitive students improved on only six. (Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque: PMID: 18370583 (PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE)
MEDITATION CREATES DEEPER LEVELS OF RELAXATION
A comprehensive statistical study shows that meditation provides a far deeper state of relaxation than does simple eyes-closed rest and that reduced physiological stress through meditation is cumulative. (American Psychologist, 42: 879-881, 1987)
According to Stan Chapman, PhD, a psychologist in the Center for Pain Medicine at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, the soothing power of repetition is at the heart of meditation and focusing on the breath, ignoring thoughts and repeating a word or phrase – a mantra – creates the biological response of relaxation. (Meditation Balances the Body’s Systems, WEB MD, January 2008)
People who meditate have a decreased breath rate indicating meditation produces a state of rest and relaxation. The change in breath rate is natural, effortless and comfortable. (American Journal of Physiology, 22: 795-799, 1971)
MEDITATION ALLEVIATES DEPRESSION
Meditation may help alleviate mild to moderate anxiety and depression. Researchers at the University of Louisville found that mindfulness meditation alleviates depression in women with fibromyalgia. Dr. Robert Bonakdar, from the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine states “If you look at depression as an inflammatory state, we see that meditation causes those inflammatory neurochemicals not to pour out.” (Article: Meditation “fools the brain’ in a threatening world, by R.J. Ignelzi, San Diego Union Tribune March 6, 2007)
The skills derived from meditation training have been shown effective in significantly reducing the recurrence of major depressive episodes by half in patients treated for depression.(Teasdale, J., Cambridge University, 2000)
Since 1967, Dr. Herbert Benson and the Mind-Body Medical Institute of Boston (affiliated with Beth Israel-Deaconess Hospital and Harvard Medical School) have produced a large and varied volume of work on the beneficial effects of meditation on physical and mental health, including the 1975 best-seller “The Relaxation Response.” “A federal study published last year found that 62% of adults had used some form of nonconventional therapy in the previous 12 months, with top choices including prayer, deep-breathing exercises, and meditation.” (Wall Street Journal article, March 15, 2005. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advanced Data Report, 2004)
MEDITATION INCREASES CONTENTMENT
Research suggests that by meditating regularly, the brain is reoriented from a stressful fight-or-flight mode to one of acceptance, a shift that increases contentment. (Lutz, A., Greischar, L., Rawlings, N.B., Richard, M., Davidson, R.J. (2004) Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101, 16369-16373)
People who meditate can cultivate compassion, specifically concentrating on the loving-kindness one feels toward one’s family and expanding that to include strangers. There are measurable physical changes in the brain regions that play a role in empathy. (Antoine Lutz, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Scientific American, March 2008)
Tibetan meditation for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Miami and Ohio State University researchers are investigating the impact of Tibetan meditation on victims of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Urbanowski, at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center Stress Reduction Program, found that by combining meditation with psychotherapy one can simultaneously develop ego strength as well as meaningful experiences of egolessness, even for trauma survivors.
A statistical meta-analysis of 146 previously conducted studies indicated that compared with every other meditation and relaxation technique tested to date, a silent mantra meditation technique is much more effective at reducing anxiety, the most common sign of psychological stress, and more effective in increasing self-actualization. (Journal of Clinical Psychology 45: 957-974, 1989)
MEDITATION INCREASES ALERTNESS
University of Kentucky researchers found that sleepy people who meditated for 40 minutes did better on a test of mental quickness than people who had taken a 40-minute nap. (Article: Meditation “fools the brain’ in a threatening world, by R.J. Ignelzi, San Diego Union Tribune March 6, 2007)
MEDITATION MAY HELP CONTROL BINGE EATING
A study at Indiana State University found that obese women who practiced mindfulness meditation had an average of four fewer binge-eating episodes a week than before they took up the practice. (Article: Meditation “fools the brain’ in a threatening world, by R.J. Ignelzi, San Diego Union Tribune March 6, 2007)
MEDITATION ENHANCES MEMORY AND ATTENTION & FOCUS
A study at Massachusetts General Hospital found that parts of the brain’s cerebral cortex were thicker in people who had practiced meditation daily for just 40 minutes for several years. The cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that deals with attention and processing sensory input and tends to thin with age. (Article: Meditation “fools the brain’ in a threatening world, by R.J. Ignelzi, San Diego Union Tribune March 6, 2007)
Research has shown that if you stress an animal, there is degeneration of the brain. Physiologically, when the brain is functioning in a more relaxed state, it’s able to absorb and retain memory better. (Article: Meditation “fools the brain’ in a threatening world, by R.J. Ignelzi, San Diego Union Tribune March 6, 2007)
Brief meditation boosts attention and curbs stress. After just five days, subjects who meditated showed significantly greater improvement on tests of attention and mood than did the control group.(Reuters: PNAS Early Edition 2007)
Three months of rigorous training in meditation leads to a profound shift in how the brain allocates attention. (Article: “Study Suggests Meditation Can Help Train Attention” The New York Times May 8, 2007. Study published in the online edition of the journal PloS Biology, May 2007)
Significant performance improvements in memory and cognition were shown by students instructed in meditation, as compared with students randomly allocated a routine of “eyes closed’ rest twice a day and those who did not have any change to their routine. (Memory and Cognition, 1982)
Practices of meditation techniques develop greater basic perceptual abilities including improved memory, greater creative expression and greater organization of mind and cognitive clarity.(Perceptual Motor Skills 39: 1031-1034, 1974 and 62: 731-738, 1986)
Other studies on Buddhist monks have shown that meditation produces long-lasting changes in the brain activity in areas involved in attention, working memory, learning and conscious perception. (Meditation Balances the Body’s Systems, WEB MD, January 2008)
MEDITATION CREATES GREATER ORDERLINESS OF BRAIN FUNCTIONING
EEG coherence increases between and within the cerebral hemispheres during meditation. EEG coherence is a quantitative index of the degree of long-range spatial ordering of the brain waves. In a new meditator, the EEG coherence increased during the period of meditation. In a person who had been meditating for 2 years, spreading of coherence occurred even before meditation began, spreading of coherence to high and lower frequencies about half way through the meditation period, and continuing high coherence even into the eyes-opened period after meditation.
(Psychosomatic Medicine 40: 267-276, 1984)
MEDITATION INCREASES INTELLIGENCE & CREATIVITY
University students who regularly practiced meditation increased significantly in intelligenceover a two-year period, compared to control subjects. The finding corroborates the results of two other studies showing increased IQ in meditation students. (Personality and Individual Differences, 12: 1105-1116, 1991 and Perceptual and Motor Skills, 62: 731-738, 1986)
A study measuring creative thinking showed those who meditate scored significantly higher on figural originality and flexibility as well as on verbal fluency. (Journal of Creative Behavior, 13: 169-190, 1979 and Dissertations Abstracts International, 38: 3372-3373, 1978)
MEDITATION INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY
Job performance and job satisfaction in those who meditate increased while desire to change jobs decreased. (Academy of Management Journal, 17: 362-368, 1974)
MEDITATION REDUCES ADHD SYMPTOMS
78% of adults who completed an 8 week meditation study reported a reduction in total ADHD symptoms. On neurocognitive test performance, significant improvements were found on the measure of attentional conflict. (Mindfulness meditation training in adults and adolescents with ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 11, 737-746)
MEDITATION IMPROVES HEALTH AND CREATES MORE POSITIVE HEALTH HABITS
In two companies that introduced meditation, managers and employees who regularly practiced meditation improved significantly in overall physical health, mental well-being, and vitality when compared to control subjects with similar jobs in the same companies. Meditation practitioners also reported significant reductions in health problems such as headaches and backaches, improved quality of sleep, and a significant reduction in the use of hard liquor and cigarettes, compared to personnel in the control groups. (Anxiety, Stress and Coping International Journal, 6: 245-262, 1993)
Extensive research on the benefits of meditation has shown significant improvements in patients with cancer, diabetes, asthma, psoriasis, headache, multiple sclerosis, and other ailments. (University of Massachusetts Medical School Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society; used by permission.)
Research Findings regarding Children & Teenagers:
MEDITATION REDUCES BLOOD PRESSURE
A study published in the American Journal of Hypertension reveals that daily meditation results in ameasurable drop in blood pressure in at-risk teenagers. (Article: Meditation lowers blood pressure with no drugs, no side effects, and zero cost by Mike Adams, NewsTarget.com – originally published May 21, 2004)
MEDITATION INCREASES SELF-ESTEEM
High school students exposed to a relaxation response-based curriculum had significantly increased their self-esteem. (The Journal of Research and Development in Education, Volume 27, pages 226-231, 1994)
MEDITATION IMPROVES GRADES AND WORK HABITS
Inner city middle school students improved grade score, work habits and cooperation and decreased absences. (Journal of Research and Development in Education, Volume 33, pages 156-165, Spring 2000)
MEDITATION REDUCES ADHD SYMPTOMS
78% of adolescents who completed an 8 week meditation study reported a reduction in total ADHD symptoms. On neurocognitive test performance, significant improvements were found on the measure of attentional conflict. (Mindfulness meditation training in adults and adolescents with ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 11, 737-746)
