Demystifying meditation -- brain imaging illustrates how meditation reduces pain

[The Straight Story]

"This is the first study to show that only a little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation," said Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., lead author of the study and post-doctoral research fellow at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

"We found a big effect – about a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness. Meditation produced a greater reduction in pain than even morphine or other pain-relieving drugs, which typically reduce pain ratings by about 25 percent."

For the study, 15 healthy volunteers who had never meditated attended four, 20-minute classes to learn a meditation technique known as focused attention. Focused attention is a form of mindfulness meditation where people are taught to attend to the breath and let go of distracting thoughts and emotions.

Both before and after meditation training, study participants' brain activity was examined using a special type of imaging -- arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL MRI) -- that captures longer duration brain processes, such as meditation, better than a standard MRI scan of brain function. During these scans, a pain-inducing heat device was placed on the participants' right legs. This device heated a small area of their skin to 120° Fahrenheit, a temperature that most people find painful, over a 5-minute period.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-demystifying-meditation-brain-imaging.html

[NCarolinawoman]

1. I meditate when I'm in the dentist chair.

I cannot remember the last time when I had to use novocaine.

Now I have only done this for drilling and getting fillings. I have no idea what I'd choose to do if I had to have a root canal. I hope I would be up to it. :D

[NJCher]

2. Fascinating site

Did you see the other links? There must have been 10-12 stories I want to read there!

Also, I am not surprised at the study's results. I have done this type of meditation and have achieved results I'd never have thought possible. It does take time and discipline, but it pays off. It is well worth the effort.


Cher

[ThomCat]

3. As a chonic pain patient I tell people all the time

that meditation is a necessary part of pain management and treatment.

How you think about your pain really does control how severe your reaction and response to the pain will be. So you have to control how you think about the pain, and how you think WITH the pain.