It’s an ancient practice that’s been around for centuries but has gained resurgence in recent years, as researchers study it to determine its effects on health. A number of studies have established the many benefits of meditation, including using it as a tool in managing chronic illnesses.
Meditation and Mental Health
Considering meditation is focused on calming the mind, it may be natural to assume that the practice can help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. While it is not a universal cure, many people suffering from these mental illnesses find some relief in practicing meditation. And there’s scientific evidence to back up the benefits. A meta-analysis found that mindful meditation programs over an eight-week period may help ease symptoms of depression and anxiety. (1) Researchers from Johns Hopkins reviewed more than 18,000 studies and found 47 trials met their criteria for well-designed research. Overall, data on 3,515 participants were collected. Another study found that mindfulness-based therapy may be as effective in preventing depression relapse as antidepressants for those with recurrent depression. (2) But the authors note that the findings were based on a small number of trials and need to be replicated. Furthermore, there is no way to tell yet which patients may benefit from mindful meditation and which may respond better to medication. If you’re on antidepressants, it’s important to speak to your doctor before making any changes to your treatment plan. Your doctor can also help you determine if meditation is a proper tool to help you manage a mental health condition. A study found that people who practiced yoga, which incorporates aspects of meditation, for eight weeks saw a slight drop in blood pressure compared with those who did not. (3) Still, while it’s suspected that the benefits were due to both physical activity and stress reduction, there was no way to separate the two to measure the impact of each. Mladen Golubic, MD, PhD, medical director at the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati, points to more research that found transcendental meditation may have the potential to reduce blood pressure. (4) “Even in patients with difficult-to-control blood pressure who might be on two or three medications, randomized clinical control trials have shown that once they learn and practice transcendental meditation they can improve their blood pressure and in fact some of them can even get off medications sometimes.” In 2017, the American Heart Association (AHA) issued its first-ever statement on meditation, saying the practice may reduce the risk of heart disease. (5) Prior to making the statement, a committee of experts analyzed 57 studies on different forms of “sitting meditations,” such as mindful meditation and transcendental meditation. The group did not look at meditation that incorporated physical activity, such as yoga, since exercise itself has been proven to benefit the heart. While the research suggested there appears to be a link between meditation and decreased risk of heart disease, the AHA emphasizes that more research needs to be done, and people should focus on proven lifestyle modifications to reduce heart disease risk, including a healthy diet, physical activity, smoking cessation, blood pressure control, and managing cholesterol levels. At this point, meditation should be viewed as an additional boost toward cardiovascular health, the AHA says. One study found mindful-based stress reduction therapy helped improve symptoms in adults with chronic lower back pain. (6) Another found that mindful meditation can help ease chronic pain by using a different mechanism in the body than that which is used by potentially addictive opioid painkillers. (7) Dr. Golubic notes that meditation practice along with yoga has been shown to decrease inflammation in white blood cells. “The higher inflammation you have, the more pain you have,” he says. “The way that aspirin, ibuprofen, [and] all of the other NSAIDs work is they inhibit those pain mediators that are inflammatory.” If meditation reduces inflammation, it is likely this might be the mechanism that reduces pain, he explains. More studies are needed on the effects of meditation on chronic pain, but researchers say it is encouraging that it could be an alternate or supplementary therapy. While scientists are still working to understand the health impact of telomere length, they believe longer ones have protective benefits against disease. Meditation can also help cancer survivors deal with the emotional distress that often accompanies the disease. A study found that mindfulness meditation significantly reduced stress and slightly reduced symptoms of depression in breast cancer patients. (9) “Just being diagnosed with cancer is stressful enough, but then going through all the treatments and going through all the tests and worrying if the cancer will come back, that’s all additional stress,” Golubic says. A study found that participants who practiced mindfulness meditation had less insomnia, fatigue, and symptoms of depression at the end of a six-week program than those who did not practice mindfulness meditation. (10) According to the National Sleep Foundation, meditation has even been shown to reduce the use of sleeping pills. Furthermore, combining meditation with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) has been found to improve sleep better than CBT-I alone. (11) Stress appears to exacerbate symptoms of both irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and irritable bowel diseases (IBDs) like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fatigue that can come with both conditions can also lead to stress, so scientists are working to find ways to help break this vicious cycle. One such method is meditation. A study from 2015 found that the relaxation response that comes from participating in such activities as meditation, yoga, and repetitive prayer significantly improved symptoms of both IBS and IBD, reduced anxiety, and improved overall quality of life. (12) And then a 2020 study reported similarly strong results for IBS patients who participated in a mindfulness-based stress reduction class. (14) Another study found that people with ulcerative colitis who practiced yoga meditation reported an increase in quality of life and decrease in disease activity. (15)
