October 29, 2007 19:09 IST

A new study has revealed that Indian way of meditation, 'Vipassana' may reduce the brain's reaction to pain and increase tolerance, helping in leading a life without stress.

The study by assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Natalia Morone tracked the effect of 'Vipassana' or mindfulness meditation on chronic lower back pain in people above 65 years.

The trial found that the 37 people who participated in an eight-week mindfulness meditation programme had significantly greater pain acceptance and physical function than another group which took the same classes later and showed similar results.

Increasingly, doctors in the US are recommending meditation for pain treatment, and some of the nation's top hospitals, including Stanford, Duke and NYU Medical Center, now offer meditation programmes to patients suffering from pain, Los Angeles Times reported.

Scientists have studied the effects of meditation on pain ever since 1979, when MIT-trained microbiologist Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus and founder of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, used mindfulness meditation in a 10-week programme to help people cope with chronic pain.

Kabat-Zinn's 1990 bestseller, ''Full Catastrophe Living,'' described the technique he used -- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR.

''MBSR's contribution has been to bring the heart of Buddhist meditation without the Buddhism into the mainstream of Western medicine,'' professor Kabat-Zinn said.

got an instructional?!

Its really simple bro, just watch ur breath. There are basically three points of observation - 1. As it enters the nostrils, 2. As it fills the lungs. 3. Rising adn falling of the belly with the breath

start with watching 1, 2 or 3 seperately, and then gradually move o to watching all the three at the same time.

when i have significantly greater pain acceptance and physical function i will rep you!

Its really simple bro, just watch ur breath. There are basically three points of observation - 1. As it enters the nostrils, 2. As it fills the lungs. 3. Rising adn falling of the belly with the breath

start with watching 1, 2 or 3 seperately, and then gradually move o to watching all the three at the same time.



Meditation is just focusing on a single thought and freeing the mind of all other thoughts and emotion while doing it.
I could understand a certain feeling of relaxation and/or peace after meditating because the brainwaves do in fact change when in an altered more relaxed state such as deep meditation.

After reading the accompanying meditation literature, and having actually meditated 4 the 1st time, the adherent appears to me, to be vulnerable to
varying degrees of the placebo effect .
The actual physiological refreshment or 'high' attained from the altered state therapy can easily be interpreted as whatever the adherent has been suggested or indoctrinated to believe.

"vulnerable to the placebo effect"? You're just trying to sound smarter than you are. Meditation is solely to do with your own thoughts. There is nothing external so there can't be any placebo.

"vulnerable to the placebo effect"? You're just trying to sound smarter than you are. Meditation is solely to do with your own thoughts. There is nothing external so there can't be any placebo.

Isnt a placebo effect the result of ur own thoughts?How this effect is triggered is a non sequitur.
I said it appears to me that this is the case..These r my opinions thats all.
Im aware that temporary ailment relief from from meditation techniques are real.
The real question is whether or not the claimed benefits of meditation are a result of the techniques themselves... or is a belief in the techniques integral to it working effectiveness?

I think meditation is all about technique. Interestingly the literal meaning of Tantra means technique and Tantric means technician. Belief is not necessary, but the right technique is very important. Also knowing the desired state also helps - The state of no mind.
Indian yogis, buddhist monks have been doing it for the same purpose - to achieve the state of no mind and not for relaxation purposes, it was just recently that medical science stumbled upon meditation as a tool for relaxation