The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) advocates meditation as an effective health supplement. Past and emerging research has found that the body and mind practice helps reduce symptoms of physical and mental conditions, from irritable bowel syndrome to depression.
Such conditions backed by research are the following.
High Blood Pressure
- Results of a 2009NCCAM-funded trial involving 298 university students suggest that practicing Transcendental Meditation may lower the blood pressure of people at increased risk of developing high bloodpressure.
- The findings also suggested that practicing meditation can help with psychological distress, anxiety, depression, anger/hostility, and copingability.
- A literature review and scientific statement from the American Heart Association suggest that evidence supports the use of Transcendental Meditation (TM) to lower blood pressure. However, the review indicates that it's uncertain whetherTMis truly superior to other meditation techniques in terms of blood-pressure lowering because there are few head-to-headstudies.
Ulcerative Colitis
- In a 2014 pilot study, 55 adults with ulcerative colitis in remission were divided into two groups. For 8 weeks, one group learned and practiced mindfulness-based stress reduction(MBSR) while the other group practiced a placebo procedure. Six and 12 months later, there were no significant differences between the 2 groups in the course of the disease, markers of inflammation, or any psychological measure except perceived stress during flare-ups. The researchers concluded that MBSRmight help people in remission from moderate to moderately severe disease-and maybe reduce rates of flare-up fromstress.
Smoking Cessation
- Findings from a 2013 systematic review suggest that meditation-based therapies may help people quit smoking; however, the small number of available studies is insufficient to determine rigorously if meditation is effective forthis.
- A 2011 randomized controlled trial comparing mindfulness training with a standard behavioral smoking cessation treatment found that individuals who received mindfulness training showed a greater rate of reduction in cigarette use immediately after treatment and at 17-weekfollow up.
- Results of a 2013 brain imaging study suggest that mindful attention reduced the craving to smoke, and also that it reduced activity in a craving-related region of thebrain.
- However, in a second 2013 brain imaging study, researchers observed that a 2-week course of meditation (5 hours total) significantly reduced smoking, compared with relaxation training, and that it increased activity in brain areas associated withcraving.
Data from NCCAM