What is the truth about mindfulness and our health?

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It’s been a craze among celebrities and CEOs for years.

Oprah Winfrey says meditation has helped her build a $2.5 billion fortune while a singer Katy Perry suggests that without mindfulness practices, she would have given up on the music industry years ago.

For decades it was written off as a fad, but now a growing body of research shows that achieving calm states in the mind has measurable mental and physical benefits.

In Silicon Valley, a few quiet minutes with your thoughts have long since replaced the “I’ll sleep when I die” mantra, and “meditation rooms” are becoming more common at tech companies like Salesforce.

And it seems he has good reason. Just this week, a study found that mindfulness meditation, breathing techniques and yoga are just as effective at lowering blood sugar in diabetics as standard medications.

This follows research last week which suggested that just five minutes of breathing exercises a day can lower blood pressure. Researchers say that large amounts of oxygen in the body help dilate blood vessels and allow blood to flow more easily.

Research has also shown that trendy mindfulness techniques can relieve pain as effectively as traditional painkillers and even induce more intense orgasms.

However, the jury is still out on how well they work. Some scientists think it may just be a ‘placebo’ effect – when someone experiences a positive effect because they expected it.

Many studies rely on surveys and do not use control groups, which are the gold standard for scientific research, meaning their evidence is not watertight.

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Many celebrities and CEOs credit meditation with helping them achieve success. And now more and more scientific research shows that the practice has more measurable benefits. Key scientists have found that this practice relieves stress, possibly because it leads to a reduction in the stress hormone cortisol. Last week, a study also suggested that 20 minutes of breathing a day can lower blood pressure by causing blood vessels to dilate, allowing more room for blood to flow. Many studies even link meditation to better orgasms, and some say it can increase levels of melatonin — or the sleep hormone — helping people get more shut-eye.

Stress, anxiety and depression

Most Americans turn to meditation to help manage stress triggered by work, family life, or financial problems.

A growing body of scientific research shows that it actually helps people relax and dispel feelings of anger, irritability or impatience.

A meta-analysis from 2014 reviewed 47 experiments involving meditation among 3,515 people. The practice was associated with “moderate evidence” of reduced stress, anxiety and depression over eight weeks.

Many practiced transcendental meditation — where participants repeated a mantra in their minds for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day.

Researchers theorized that it lowers levels of the hormone cortisol—nature’s built-in alarm system—and thus reduces inflammation in the body.

What is meditation?

Think of it as fitness for your mind.

Meditation calms the body, lowering blood pressure, stress levels and improving overall mood.

The goal of doing mind-body activities is to use your thoughts to positively influence your body’s physical responses to the outside world.

The practices are part of a general wellness trend that has been touted by celebrities and tech giants for years.

These activities include….

Awareness

The process of focusing the breath and focusing on a specific thought, object, or activity to promote a stable emotional state.

Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present and aware of our surroundings.

A common technique is to focus silently on each sense in turn.

Pilates and yoga

They involve breathing and coordinated, concentrated movement.

Both low impact exercises improve strength, flexibility and posture.

In yoga, you take positions and hold them or move to another position.

In Pilates, people get into positions and then work their core muscles by moving their arms or legs.

Qigong, tai chi

Martial arts that promote physical fitness and mental discipline.

Qigong and tai chi are traditional self-healing exercises originating in ancient China.

They are characterized by coordinated movements focused on body posture, deep breathing and mental focus.

Qigong can involve movement or simple mediation in a seated or standing position.

Tai chi, on the other hand, involves complex and choreographed movements that match the breath.

There are also suggestions that it might be able to change structures in the brain associated with attention and emotion regulation – such as the amygdala, which watches out for fearful and threatening situations.

Psychologists add that sitting still for long periods of time with closed eyes increases awareness of negative thoughts and how to counter them – it also helps to reduce stress.

But some experts warn that meditation doesn’t always alleviate these feelings and can actually have the opposite effect.

Another one meta-analysis from 2020 suggested that as many as one in 12 people who take up meditation actually experience the opposite effect – leading to panic attacks, suicidal thoughts and increased anxiety.

dr. Miguel Farias, a psychologist at Coventry University in the United Kingdom who has conducted several studies on mindfulness, suggested that the negative effects may be due to the intensity of the practice and a potentially incompetent teacher.

However, he also suggested that this may be due to the fact that the participants were previously unaware of the state of their mental health.

There’s also evidence that, in rare cases, meditation may be linked to schizophrenia — where people have trouble interpreting reality and experience hallucinations — according to a 2019 study in Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine.

More than 40 million American adults are said to suffer from stress or anxiety, according to National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Lower blood pressure

There are some suggestions that mindfulness may help lower blood pressure.

Just last week a study found that performing breathing exercises for five minutes each day had an effect after patients breathed through a device that created resistance.

And even the American Heart Association says it might have “beneficial effects,” though they warn it shouldn’t be used in place of other treatments.

Scientists have hypothesized that this may be due to the practice dilating blood vessels, allowing more flow through them.

Another 2012 paper involved 101 adults meditating for 20 minutes a day for several months while their blood pressure was monitored.

The meditation group had a 48 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease and stroke up to seven years later. Blood pressure is a key risk factor for these conditions.

Some papers, however, found “no significant difference” in blood pressure after meditation, including one from 2013 in American Journal of Hypertension where participants meditated for 45 minutes a day for two months.

Another one study from 2009, which looked at 298 college students with moderate blood pressure, also found a small drop after 40 minutes of meditation a day with eyes closed for three months.

Both papers note that their results may be due to the small sample size they used or because the participants did not have very high blood pressure.

In a statement last year, the AHA said, “Meditation was a reasonable adjunct to other cardiovascular risk reduction methods given the low cost and risk and potential benefits.”

Nearly half of American adults — or more than 110 million people — have high blood pressure, according to the CDC.

Improved orgasms

Studies show that mindfulness meditation can improve orgasms and sex life.

One of the most famous is a paper from 2018, which interviewed 450 women between the ages of 17 and 70, including 198 participants who had already practiced meditation.

The researchers found that these women had higher scores for sexual arousal, lubrication, orgasm and desire than those who did not use the method.

Experts believe this may be because meditation can reduce stress.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a popular form of meditation in which you focus on an intense awareness of what you perceive and feel in the present moment.

The practice includes breathing techniques, guided imagery and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.

It is often touted as a universal tool for improving mental well-being by reducing stress, anxiety and depression.

Mindfulness has become popular in recent years as a way to improve mental and physical well-being.

Celebrities who have endorsed him include Emma Watson, Davina McCall, Angelina Jolie and Oprah Winfrey.

How can it lower blood pressure?

Deep breathing is believed to help dilate blood vessels, allowing blood to flow through them and lowering blood pressure.

Scientists believe that strong respiratory muscles allow for deeper breathing, which increases the effectiveness of exercise.

But researchers say it shouldn’t be a substitute for other healthy habits, like exercise, that have benefits beyond blood pressure.

They also say it could help increase levels of dopamine and serotonin – the brain’s reward chemicals – which in turn can increase sex drive and appetite.

Another one study from 2014, 26 women were asked to complete three 90-minute mindfulness sessions over two weeks. Their sexual arousal was assessed before and after the sessions with surveys, and the results showed that there was a ‘significant benefit’ to arousal.

There are also studies on men with erectile dysfunction that show that the method can increase their sexual pleasure.

However, little research has been done in this area and more papers are needed.

Better sleep

Mindfulness meditation can help people who have trouble settling down at night sleep longer.

However, there is little evidence to suggest that it improves sleep quality for those who get enough shut-eye.

Studies suggesting a link include a 2015 paper in which 49 people aged around 66 who struggled to fall asleep were asked to meditate for up to 20 minutes a day or take a ‘sleep hygiene’ course for 10- weekly course. period.

Sleep hygiene is a Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for sleep problems in which participants are asked to try room changes—such as blackout curtains and only dimmed lights—to improve sleep.

Research showed that both groups slept better and were less tired, but the improvements were significantly greater in the meditation group.

This may be because meditation reduces stress.

But it may also be related to the fact that it increases the level of melatonin – the sleep-inducing chemical – in the brain, which helps someone to relax.

Among the studies looking at how sleep improves in patients without insomnia was a 2013 paper involving 336 women who had undergone surgery for breast cancer.

It was found that meditation improved sleep only in those who were already struggling to close their eyes, while there was no improvement in the rest.

Scientists believe that mindfulness can improve sleep as it can reduce stress in the brain and increase users’ relaxation.

It can also reduce levels of inflammation, which is similarly linked to feeling more relaxed.

As many as 50 to 70 million Americans are said to struggle to get the recommended eight hours, putting them at risk of many health risks, including heart disease, difficulty concentrating and even high blood pressure.

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