Meditation – Research Shows Health and Mental Benefits

Meditation is often thought of as a new age practice. Perhaps you have thoughts of sitting in an uncomfortable pretzel position while saying “OMMMM” in a circle with a bunch of hippies. This stereotype is quickly fading.

There are various forms of meditation that can be performed by anyone, and this is good news because recent scientific research suggests that meditation is more powerful than once thought.

Researchers have found that meditation not only helps reduce stress and increase empathy, but may also make information processing in the brain more efficient. With these effects, other physiological body processes and emotions are in turn affected such as blood pressure, anxiety, depression, etc.

In a study published this year in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Bender Institute of Neuroimaging in Germany, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, took magnetic resonance images of the brains of 16 participants 2 weeks before and after they joined an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program.(Mindfulness meditation focuses attention on breathing to develop increased awareness of the present.)

The results suggested practicing mindfulness meditation appears to be associated with measurable changes in the brain regions involved in memory, learning, and emotion.

Other studies published in American Journal of Hypertension, International Journal of Behavioral Medicine and PLOS Biology give more evidence of beneficial health effects. To read more about these studies, visit the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine

I often tell people who are stressed or who have trouble shutting off after a long day, to try meditation. Stress and sleep deprivation can alter the release of certain hormones in your body. These alterations affect the way we experience hunger and the feeling of fullness. With little sleep and/or high stress, we tend to be hungrier and feel fuller less quickly.

If you’re a beginner, just go to Youtube.com and type in “guided meditation” (or any form of meditation you’d like to try) – you will find no shortage of meditation videos that last anywhere from 3 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on your availability.

The “guided” meditations have someone telling you what to do, how to breathe and what to think about – all you have to do is listen. You’ll want to check out a few different ones to find what works best for you, but once you find something you like, you’ll likely notice the benefits immediately. Tonight, try a guided relaxation meditation just before you go to bed.

Mandy Seay is a registered and licensed dietitian. She works as a nutrition consultant in Austin, Texas specializing in diabetes, weight loss, lipid control and preventative nutrition. For more health articles and nutrition information, check out Mandy’s website Nutritionistics.

***Mandy is not affiliated with any food products listed in her blog, nor is she being compensated, in any way, by any food company.