Proven Health Benefits of Meditation

All yogis give this piece of advice: Relax and take a deep breath. Watch as tension melts from your muscles and as all your worries vanish. It is such statements that make us know that meditation is good for us. Now a comprehensive scientific study has been published to show how deep relaxation changes our bodies on a genetic level. According to this scientific research, meditation is a simple and safe way of balancing both your physical and mental state. In fact many doctors are now prescribing meditation as a cure to various stress-related illnesses including insomnia, anxiety and trauma. Researchers at the Harvard Medical School found that long-term meditation practice more about “disease fighting genes”. They particularly found genes that protect from infertility, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure and pain to be released. Read on to find out the proven benefits of meditation that will make you want to start practicing it or keep doing it.

Increased Fertility

University of Australia carried out a study that proved that women are in a better position to get pregnant during the periods when they are more relaxed than when stressed. A study carried out at the Trakya University in Turkey found that stress reduces motility and sperm count, suggesting that relaxation also boosts male fertility.

Relieves the Irritable Bowel Syndrome

A study was carried out where patients suffering from the irritable bowel syndrome started to practice a relaxation twice a day. During this time, their symptoms of constipation, bloating and diarrhea improved significantly. Researchers at State University in New York therefore recommends meditation as an effective treatment.

Lowers Blood Pressure

A study done at the Harvard Medical School revealed that meditation works in the same way as the blood pressure lowering medication by enabling the body to be less responsive to the stress hormones thus lowering blood pressure. According to one British medical journal report, patients trained to relax had their blood pressure significantly lowered.

Immunity

Relaxation seems to boost immunity in patients recovering from cancer. According to a study done at Ohio State University, progressive and regular muscular relaxation lowered the occurrence rate of breast cancer. In another study at the Ohio State, one month of relaxation exercises leads to increased natural killer cells in those who are elderly, which makes them highly resistant to tumors and viruses.

Improves Sleep

Many people today struggle with falling asleep. The lack of sleep is usually due to too much stress in our lives. According to Dr. Herbert Benson, director at the Benson-Henry Institute for the Mind Body Medicine, mindfulness meditation is one of the techniques that induce the relaxation response which can help ease various stress-related ailments, including high blood pressure, pain and depression. Triggering the relaxation response through meditation will greatly improve our sleep.

The above mentioned are just but some of the proven health benefits of meditation. So the next time you think of releasing tension from your body and letting your mind to completely switch off, it is important that you bear in mind all the good things that meditation does to your body. Remember these benefits increase with regular practice. Therefore the more you practice meditation, the greater your chances of remaining free of high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome and have a strong immunity with increased fertility.

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