Why Learn To Meditate

Over a third of Americans use complementary and alternative medicine to treat their ailments. Collectively, patients will spend $33.9 billion in out-of-pocket expenses on fish oil, glucosamine, Echinacea, acupuncture, chiropractic medicine, massage therapy and meditation classes. The most common uses were for back pain, neck pain, joint pain and other musculoskeletal conditions. At one time, people wondered, “Why learn to meditate if I’m not a Buddhist?” The statistics confirm that was once viewed as a “weird New Age thing” has now gone mainstream in the U.S., perhaps due to all the positive press meditation exercises has received in the news.

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.

People who once wondered “why learn to meditate” are now finding they are the biggest advocates of meditation. Physicians are using meditation to cut down on fatigue, stress and burn-out. Employers are incorporating yoga and meditation into their employees’ work days to increase productivity and boost office morale. Patients are using different types of meditation to help when traditional medicine has failed them, for everything from chronic joint pain to depression. We’re likely to see many exciting findings in the coming years, given the amount of research being conducted and the advancement of MRI brain scan technology.

As a leading expert in the field of stop panic attack, Beth Kaminski is always on the lookout for ways to treat panic attacks. Visit her site for more information on her anxiety treatment center and much more.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Leave a comment