Zen meditation can help ease pain
By Better Health Research News Desk • Feb 6th, 2009 • Category: Health News, Health Resources News, Muscle Pain
A form of mediation that has been practiced for centuries has shown promise for helping people reduce chronic pain.
Canadian researchers at the University of Montreal explored the differences in how meditators and non-meditators experienced pain.
As part of the study, they administered heat to the calves of all subjects and increased the temperature until the participant told them to stop.
They found that trained Zen meditators lowered their pain sensitivity by approximately 18 percent – and this applied even when they were not in a meditative state.
The researchers suggest those who have been trained in mediation may be able to control their pain through slower breathing.
"Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state," explained study co-author Joshua A. Grant.
The findings, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, suggest that chronic pain sufferers may benefit from being instructed in Zen meditation.
Previous research conducted at Emory University showed that experienced meditators were able to eliminate distractions from their minds more quickly than those without such training.
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