Pain: Studies Link Mindfulness Meditation to Reduced Inflammation
Numerous studies have linked mindfulness meditation to reduction of emotional pain, but research has also shown that mindfulness meditation reduces inflammation, which, according to Dr. Sota Omoigui, of the Division of Inflammation and Pain Research at L.A Pain Clinic, “The origin of all Pain is Inflammation and the Inflammatory Response.”
In 2012, researchers at UCLA/Carnegie Mellon concluded that mindfulness meditation reduced C-reactive protein, which is considered a key marker for inflammation. This research showed that mindfulness meditation actually blunted pro-inflammatory gene expression in study participants.
Source: The National Center for Biotechnology Information
Melissa Rosenkranz, PhD, associate scientist, Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin–Madison also led a team whose research went further to show that in addition to reducing inflammation, mindfulness meditation may play a core role in preventing inflammation from occurring in the first place, and that reducing reactivity to stressful events through mindfulness meditation is at the core of the effect.
Joint Mobility and Posture: Mindfulness Meditation Linked to Optimizing Movement
In a study performed on both long-term meditators and novice meditators, researchers at University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany found that eight weeks of mindfulness practice made participants more aware of their movements under demanding events exceeding average daily life, and fewer movement errors, such as those that might affect joints and posture:
“Our investigation identifies, for the first time to our knowledge, behavioral signatures of mindfulness in the context of a perceptual-motor integration task. Our results demonstrate that the practice of mindfulness meditation either in a spiritual context, or operationalized by a secular intervention (MBSR), is associated with slower body movements under demanding events from the environment and to a larger extent with reduced movement errors. On the basis of our data, we suggest that in the context of a perceptual-motor task, where subjects were asked to reach a target, this behavioral shift towards an ‘expanded tempo’ may facilitate a broader access to sensorimotor and proprioceptive signals which are crucial for motor control in the face of perceptual-motor conflict. As a consequence of this ‘inner openness’ to the movement experience, a moment-by-moment monitoring of body states could be realized and online re-adjustment of the movement trajectory is optimized. The final result of this cognitive rearrangement leads to an improvement of motor performance and to optimized reaction to the perceptual-motor conflict. At the same time we could also demonstrate that novices in meditation improved strongly in their capability to detect subtle external influences as reflected by a pronounced albeit not significant reduction of the respective threshold of detection.”
Source: BMC
Mindfulness’ Regulation of Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System Activation
Life during and after the global pandemic has been defined by an elevated stress response. This means that our “Fight-or-Flight” system, the sympathetic nervous system, can become over-sensitized. Research across the globe has linked mindfulness meditation to calming the SNS, and activating the complementary Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), which is typically linked to “Rest-and-Digest.”
Herbert Benson, founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of mind/body medicine at Harvard Medical School and director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute at MGH found that, “Mindfulness meditation result in physiological changes indicative of a heightened activation of the parasympathetic nervous system and lowered sympathetic activity, such as decreased oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide elimination, lowering of heart and respiratory rates, and a marked decrease in arterial blood lactate concentration, as well as psychological outcome measures that indicate relaxation.”
Source: Hindawi
In a study performed by Chinese researchers, positive impact was identified in as short as five days of practice in a body-mind training program that included mindfulness meditation: “During and after training, the IBMT group showed significantly better physiological reactions in heart rate, respiratory amplitude and rate, and skin conductance response (SCR) than the relaxation control. Differences in heart rate variability (HRV) and EEG power suggested greater involvement of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in the IBMT group during and after training.”
