Neuroscience Reveals the Secrets of Meditation’s Benefits

Background Poor psychological and physical resilience in response to stress drives a great deal of health care utilization. Mind-body interventions can reduce stress and build resiliency. The rationale for this study is therefore to estimate the effect of mind-body interventions on healthcare utilization. Objective Estimate the effect of mind body training, specifically, the Relaxation Response Resiliency Program (3RP) on healthcare utilization. Design Retrospective controlled […]

Several hundred peer-reviewed studies in the past 20 years have shown that the relaxation response and mind–body interventions are clinically effective in the treatment of many health problems that are caused or made worse by stress. Recent studies show that mind–body interventions may improve prognosis in coronary heart disease and can enhance immune functioning. It is hypothesized that mind–body interventions reduce sympathetic nervous system activation and increase parasympathetic […]

The efficacy of the regular elicitation of the relaxation response in reducing surgical anxiety and pain in an ambulatory surgery setting was studied in a population of patients scheduled for the surgical removal of a skin cancer. Forty-nine patients with skin cancer were enrolled in the study immediately after being informed of the ned for surgery; 21 of these patients elicited the relaxation response 20 minutes per day until the day of surgery, 21 read for 20 minutes per day, and 7 […]