> > Meditation stronger than drugs for pain relief > > Meditation can have pain relieving effects greater than morphine, claims new > study. > > Focused attention is a form of mindfulness meditation Photo: GETTY > > > By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent 10:00PM BST 05 Apr 2011 > Researchers have found that just one hour of meditation training can reduce > immediate pain by nearly half and have a long lasting effect. > > The technique appears to work as it calms down pain experiencing areas of the > brain while at the same time boosting coping areas. > > "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 Dr Fadel Zeidan, lead author at Wake > Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina. > > For the study, 15 healthy volunteers who had never meditated before 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 concentrate on breathing 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 called arterial spin labelling > magnetic resonance imaging (ASL MRI). > > This 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° F, a temperature that > most people find painful, over a five-minute period. > > The scans taken after meditation training showed that every participant's > pain ratings were reduced, with decreases ranging from 11 to 93 per cent, Dr > Zeidan said. > > At the same time, meditation significantly reduced brain activity in the > primary somatosensory cortex, an area that is crucially involved in creating > the feeling of where and how intense a painful stimulus is. > > The scans taken before meditation training showed activity in this area was > very high. > > However, when participants were meditating during the scans, activity in this > important pain-processing region could not be detected. > > The research also showed that meditation increased brain activity in areas > including the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and the > orbito-frontal cortex. > > This is where the brain stores its experience of pain and comes up with > coping mechanisms. > > "We found a big effect – about a 40 per cent reduction in pain intensity and > a 57 per cent reduction in pain unpleasantness," said Dr Zeiden. > > "Meditation produced a greater reduction in pain than even morphine or other > pain-relieving drugs, which typically reduce pain ratings by about 25 per > cent." > > Dr Zeidan and colleagues believe that meditation has great potential for > clinical use because so little training was required to produce such dramatic > pain-relieving effects. > > "This study shows that meditation produces real effects in the brain and can > provide an effective way for people to substantially reduce their pain > without medications," Dr Zeidan said. > > Source: Telegraph > http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8430609/Meditation-stronger-than-drugs-for-pain-relief.html >
