Meditation

By Tom Wilson

Meditation

What it's best for : Stress

May also help : Conditions that cause or may be worsened by stress, including chronic pain, heart disease, anxiety and depression, GI problems, cancer, and fibromyalgia.

How it works : Meditation enthusiasts say the practice connects you with your essence and enlivens your body's innate intelligence. OK, but new age talk aside, how will sitting quietly and making your mind go blank keep you from tearing out your hair or having a heart attack ?

Some answers are beginning to emerge. In a 2003 study, researches using electroencephalograms (EEGs) found increased activity on the left sides of the brains of meditators, a pattern that behaviour experts say is associated with optimism and the ability to handle adversity. (People in the group who didn't learn to meditate showed little or no increase in such brain activity.) What's more, meditation seemed to boost the immune system. "The more left-brain activity they had, the stronger their immune responses, "Says study co-author Saki Santorelli, director of the Centre for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and author of Heat. The Self : Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine.

Studies of Transcendental Meditation (TM) devotees show lower circulating levels of stress hormones, which are known to increase the risk for a long list of diseases, says Robert H.Schneider, MD, of the College of Maharishi Vedic Medicine in airfield, Iowa. He and his colleauges have taught that particular meditation technique to people with hypertension and have found that it causes systolic blood pressure (the top number) to drop an average of 11 points, while diastolic pressure dips about 6 points. "That's enough for many people to avoid drugs or reduce the amount they take," Schneider says. In fact, a study suggested TM might actually reduce the risk of death for people with high blood pressure, though further studies are needed to confirm that.

There are literally countless ways to meditate, but not all types have been shown to produce medical benefits. The Centre for Mindfulness at UMass teaches mindfulness meditation, in which the meditator learns to "pay attention on purpose" by simply noticing his or her breathing and observing thoughts and feelings, Santorelli says, In TM, which Schneider studies, the meditator mellows out by thinking about some kind of mantra - a word, short phrase, or even a smoothing sound.

There are no rules about how often you should meditate, but once or twice a day for 10 or 20 minutes is a fair estimate