Meditation is Good Medicine

We are living in a world of deadlines, schedules, email messages, and to-do list. This fast paced techno world has created a chaos that needs to slow down, but how? Mental health and anxiety are increasing and we feel no rest. We feel our world is moving at warp speed, how do we slow it down?

Regular meditation is the answer!

In our rapid, high technology world we often forget that some of the best things we can do for our health are simple. The scientific and medical community is finally recognizing the benefits of meditation. The data on meditation’s benefits are impressive in scope and magnitude and cannot be ignored by modern medicine. The process of inner peace has come of age.

The remarkable effects of a regular meditation program are real and undeniable. In fact, over 600 scientific studies at more than 200 multi-center, independent research institutions in 35 countries have verified them. This research gives us confidence that the benefits are based on measurable changes in the brain, body, and behavior.

The benefits are substantiated because they’ve been experienced by millions of people around the world for the past 50 years. The best-researched and evidenced based meditation type is from Aryuvedic medicine, ancient medicine from the Indian subcontinent; this is called Transcendental Meditation technique. Meditation roots are from the historical knowledge of the Vedic tradition of India and is nearly 6000 years old.

I can still recall growing up in an Ayruvedic household where my mother has a temple and prayed and meditated for almost 4 hours a day, you read it right four hours a day! My mother, a pious women, would explain to me that the act of meditation is to be awakened, hypervigilant, and heightened your senses of the awareness of your body and your surroundings, yet at the same time relax the inner conversion of your mind. Data shows the inner conversion we all have in our heads races at 300-1000 words a minutes and meditation allows the train of thoughts to slow and relax its never-ending internal chatter. The incorporation of religions belief is optional and any spirituality you have can be applied to the general principles of meditation.

Of course, like any educated, highly trained professional I did not heed my mother’s advice because it was not taught in medical school so it must not be true. How wrong I was not to appreciate a mother’s wisdom and the knowledge of the ages. “You need to open your mind and see before there is clarity in your quiet thoughts” my mother would instruct me. Even William Osler, the father of modern day western medicine, stated “the body heal thy self” was actually referring to the body’s’ ability to repair itself. This is as true then as it is today.

However, I am an allopathic (Western trained) physician and pharmacologist, and I needed to see data and evidence before I would believe that meditation would work and even consider incorporating it into my life. I remembered my mom’s words and kept an open mind, the data has now come of age and modern medicine has discovered the scientific validity of meditation.

What many people do not realize is, that the act of meditation is relaxing but it is mentally hard work, an oxymoron of words, but wait, let me explain.

The first concept to recognize and understand is the process of meditation will take a lifetime to learn and never be mastered fully. You will be a student of the art of inner peace for your entire life. Meditation is free, can be performed by anyone, but is mastered by few. It is embedded in the writings of greatest religions of our time Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Muslim and others. Yet the practice of meditation has no religious order or sect, it is a process of slowing the “inner chatter” of the mind and at the same time having enormous awareness of the present.

The principle is based on distraction, focus and then relaxation. In transcendental meditation you concentrate on your bodies breathing pattern then you open your eyes and take in the enormous senses of your immediate surrounding (the sounds, visual items or images, tastes etc) in doing so your trick or distract the mind to do such a massive task of awareness of body and surroundings that the inner conversion of the mind must slow down. This is the fundamental process of meditation. Try it and see how fast your go back to the internal chatter. But do not think you will achieve control overnight it takes practice, but each time you meditate the mind relaxes. You will never realize how “hard” it is to master meditation until you first understand the concept of meditation. Your mind will return to the internal chatter, but every time you drift, just re-focus on your breathing and then the surroundings. In essence when you actually meditate you do it with your eyes wide open.

Now lets look at the compelling data of evidence of the benefits of meditation. Research in meditation program has been published in more than 100 leading scientific journals, including Scientific American, Business and Health, Science, and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Research conducted around the world documents that a regular meditation programs is universally effective for all cultural and ethnic groups, all ages, and crosses all socioeconomic levels and intellectual abilities.

Transcendental Meditation technique is the most thoroughly researched program in the field of human development. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent more than $21 million conducting research on the beneficial effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on heart disease alone.

Learning to meditate could actually help your body clean out cholesterol from arteries, according to a study published in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association.

The researchers assigned 60 African American men and women with high blood pressure to either a transcendental meditation (TM) program or a control group. The TM group practiced meditation 20 minutes twice a day. After seven months researchers found that the people in this group lowered their plaque levels (measured by carotid intima-media thickness, or IMT, which reflects the level of fatty substances deposited on the artery walls), reducing their overall heart attack risk up to 11 percent and their stroke risk up to 15 percent. The other group had no reduction; in fact, their plaque levels increased.

Cardiovascular disease is associated with psychological stress. Previous research concurs similar results and has found that the regular meditation decreases coronary heart disease risk factors, including hypertension, oxidized lipids, stress hormones, and psychological stress.” Moreover, according to the researchers, the state of “restful alertness” brought on by meditation may trigger the body’s self-repair mechanisms.

A later study found that when it comes to reducing atherosclerosis, the overall effectiveness of a program that involved meditation and yoga along with a high-fiber, low-fat diet, aerobic exercise, and antioxidant supplements was even greater than in studies involving cholesterol-lowering drugs.

This body of research in meditation is unique in the extent of its cross validation-the findings are validated by many different types of physiological, psychological, and sociological measures. Transcendental meditation (TM) decrease stress is validated by physiological changes such as decreased cortisol (the major stress hormone), decreased muscle tension, normalization of blood pressure, improved nervous system stability, and increased EEG coherence. The data from Tibetan monks (the Tiger Wood’s of meditation) display synchronization of the alpha waves in their brain activity. This means the “brain chatter” has effectively harmonized. At the same time, a variety of psychological changes also indicate decreased stress, including decreased anxiety and depression, decreased post-traumatic stress syndrome, and increased self-actualization.

Stress reduction is also demonstrated by the sociological changes, such as decreased hostility, increased family harmony, and reduced criminal behavior in incarcerated felons. And research even extends the concept of stress reduction to the ecological level. Studies have found that the reduction of stress in meditating individuals creates an influence of harmony in the environment.

The original landmark research on the physiological correlates of the Transcendental Meditation technique was published in Science, American Journal of Physiology, and Scientific American in 1970-1972. This research found that the Transcendental Meditation technique produces a physiological state of restful alertness. During the technique the physiology becomes deeply rested, as indicated by significant reductions in respiration, minute ventilation, tidal volume, and blood lactate, and significant increases in basal skin resistance (an index of relaxation).

At the same time that the physiology (body functions) is deeply rested, it is also alert rather than asleep, as indicated by an increased abundance of alpha waves in the EEG (Brain wave machine). These findings led researcher Dr. Keith Wallace to conclude that restful alertness is a fourth major state of consciousness, termed “Transcendental Consciousness”, that is physiologically distinct from ordinary waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Many other researchers have confirmed the reality of Transcendental Consciousness.

The regular experience of alternating 15 to 20 minutes of the Transcendental Meditation technique twice a day with regular daily activity trains the physiology and mind to become more relaxed outside of meditation, as well as more flexible and dynamic. Baseline levels of respiration rate, heart rate, plasma lactate, and skin resistance are all lower. The autonomic nervous system, which regulates vital internal processes, becomes more stable, integrated, and adaptable, as indicated by its increased ability to recover rapidly from the effects of stress.

The most surprising researches has found that meditating individuals in their mid-50s have a biological age twelve years younger than their chronological age, and that people beginning the practice even at 80 years of age live longer and are healthier and happier than controls of the same age.

Meditation is a means of finding an inner peace, it allows us to rest our constant brain chatter and return to a place of calm. In this fast paced world our empowerment for health will first start by making peace with our soul. As my mom said, “Open your mind and let your mind see the tranquility and clarity of pure quiet thought”. As medicine learns more about the wonder of the human body it is also humbled by the simplicity and complexity of meditation. Remember empowerment of your health first starts by knowledge and then the freedom to be empowered to better health. Until next time stay healthy and start meditating.