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Why Learn To Meditate

1st January, 2010 - Posted by health news - No Comments

If you’ve ever wondered “why learn to meditate” before, well wonder no more. The National Institute of Health has spent more than $21 million conducting research on meditation and its effects on the mind and body. Transcendental meditation in particular is one of the most-studied alternative therapies in existence. Over the years, there have been studies on metabolic/biochemical/cardiovascular changes (67), personality development (55), overall health (49), learning/academic performance (49), rehabilitation (44), electro-physiological changes (41), the Maharishi Effect/transcendence (41), motor/perceptual ability (26), psychology (25), physiological changes (24), sociology (17), physiology stability (16), and productivity/quality of life (12).

If you’re an insomniac, then you needn’t ask “why learn to meditate” at all — for the secret lies in deep relaxation meditation. At the June 2009 Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting, researchers from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Evanston, Illinois reported their findings that daytime meditation improved the quality of sleep in patients with insomnia. Patients noted marked improvement in their sleep latency, total sleep time, total wake time, sleep efficiency, sleep quality and depression symptoms after two months of practicing Kriya Yoga meditation methods. “Results of the study show that teaching deep relaxation techniques during the daytime can help improve sleep at night,” said study leader Ramadevi Gourineni MD.

High blood pressure sufferers who wondered “why learn to meditate” had their questions answered following a University of Kentucky College of Medicine study. Dr. James W. Anderson found that transcendental meditation is an effective treatment for controlling high blood pressure, without the side effects of anti-hypertension drugs. Meditation reduced 4.7 mm systolic blood pressure down to 3.2 mm, he said. “Adding Transcendental Medication is about equivalent to adding a second anti-hypertension agent to one’s current regimen only safer and less troublesome,” Anderson concluded after 9 randomized, controlled trials.

Personal trainers will be the first people to tell you why you should do push ups, lift weights and exercise, which of course strengthens and build muscles! Yet, they hesitate to inform you on “why learn to meditate.” The obvious answer should be to increase your brain mass! Just as physical exercise strengthens our physical bodies, so does concentrative meditation strengthen our minds! Using brain scans, UCLA researchers discovered that 10 to 90 minutes of daily meditation actually increases the amount of gray matter in the brain. Those who meditate showed significantly larger volumes in the hippocampus, orbito-frontal cortex, the thelamus and inferior temporal gyrus. These regions are responsible for regulating emotions, the study authors said. “We know that people who consistently meditate have a singular ability to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability and engage in mindful behavior,” said Eileen Luders, lead author. “The observed differences in brain anatomy might give us a clue why those who meditate have these exceptional abilities.”

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