Meditation offers a multitude of benefits, both for the body and mind. A recent study has found that meditation can help relieve migraines.
The study, published in the journal Headache, confirmed that meditation has the ability to shorten the duration of a migraine and tone down its intensity.
The researchers, who are connected to the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, gathered 19 individuals with migraines and assigned them either to an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program (or MBSR for short), or to conventional medical care. Participants in the MBSR group were tasked to meditate for around 30 minutes everyday.
Research results revealed that the MBSR group reported less severe headaches and about 1.4 fewer migraines in a month. Although the researchers noted that these results cannot be considered as statistically significant due to the small sample size, the headaches of those from the MBSR group were reported as significantly shorter to around 3 hours less, compared to those from the group who received standard medical care.
According to lead researcher Rebecca Erwin Wells, MD, this can be explained by the mindfulness capabilities brought about by regular meditation. She concluded that those who practiced meditation had a sense of personal control over their migraines, which helped in relieving it. Erwin Wells is an assistant professor of neurology a Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. She added that meditation as an intervention can possibly alter the way people interpret pain, which may help in dealing with various physical conditions.
Headaches are triggered by a variety of factors, one of which is stress. Mindfulness and meditation have been proven to combat stress, as affirmed by a number of studies. A review published in the JAMA Internal Medicine discovered that meditation and mindfulness can effectively heal anxiety and depression, so effective that its capacities are at par with prescribed antidepressants, minus the side effects.