Meditation Reduces the Impact of Pain
Researchers from the University of Manchester have reported that people who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less.
The researchers studied people who were into meditation. Some of them had only been doing it for some months, whilst others had been doing it for years. They found that in the more experienced meditators certain areas of their brains were less active as they exhibited a greater anticipation of pain and that their experience of the pain differed from non-meditators.
Chief researcher Dr Christopher Brown said, “Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as a way to treat chronic illness such as the pain caused by arthritis. Recently, a mental health charity called for meditation to be routinely available on the NHS to treat depression, which occurs in up to 50% of people with chronic pain. However, scientists have only just started to look into how meditation might reduce the emotional impact of pain.”
Meditation Reduces the Impact of Pain
Researchers from the University of Manchester have reported that people who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less.
The researchers studied people who were into meditation. Some of them had only been doing it for some months, whilst others had been doing it for years. They found that in the more experienced meditators certain areas of their brains were less active as they exhibited a greater anticipation of pain and that their experience of the pain differed from non-meditators.
Chief researcher Dr Christopher Brown said, “Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as a way to treat chronic illness such as the pain caused by arthritis. Recently, a mental health charity called for meditation to be routinely available on the NHS to treat depression, which occurs in up to 50% of people with chronic pain. However, scientists have only just started to look into how meditation might reduce the emotional impact of pain.”