Study finds Zen meditation alleviates pain

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Study finds Zen meditation alleviates pain

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/uom-sfz020309.php

University of Montreal pain management study in Psychosomatic Medicine

This release is available in French.

Zen meditation – a centuries-old practice that can provide mental,

physical and emotional balance – may reduce pain according to

Université de Montréal researchers. A new study in the January

edition of Psychosomatic Medicine reports that Zen meditators have

lower pain sensitivity both in and out of a meditative state compared

to non-meditators.

A. Grant, a doctoral student in the Department of Physiology,

co-authored the paper with Pierre Rainville, a professor and

researcher at the Université de Montréal and it's affiliated Institut

universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. The main goal of their study

was to examine whether trained meditators perceived pain differently

than non-meditators.

" While previous studies have shown that teaching chronic pain

patients to meditate is beneficial, very few studies have looked at

pain processing in healthy, highly trained meditators. This study was

a first step in determining how or why meditation might influence

pain perception. " says Grant.

Meditate away the pain

For this study, the scientists recruited 13 Zen meditators with a

minimum of 1,000 hours of practice to undergo a pain test and

contrasted their reaction with 13 non-meditators. Subjects included

10 women and 16 men between the ages of 22 to 56.

The administered pain test was simple: A thermal heat source, a

computer controlled heating plate, was pressed against the calves of

subjects intermittently at varying temperatures. Heat levels began at

43 degrees Celsius and went to a maximum of 53 degrees Celsius

depending on each participant's sensitivity. While quite a few of the

meditators tolerated the maximum temperature, all control subjects

were well below 53 degrees Celsius.

Grant and Rainville noticed a marked difference in how their two test

groups reacted to pain testing – Zen meditators had much lower pain

sensitivity (even without meditating) compared to non-meditators.

During the meditation-like conditions it appeared meditators further

reduced their pain partly through slower breathing: 12 breaths per

minute versus an average of 15 breaths for non-meditators.

" Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may

influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state. " says

Grant. " While previous studies have found that the emotional aspects

of pain are influenced by meditation, we found that the sensation

itself, as well as the emotional response, is different in

meditators. "

The ultimate result? Zen meditators experienced an 18 percent

reduction in pain intensity. " If meditation can change the way

someone feels pain, thereby reducing the amount of pain medication

required for an ailment, that would be clearly beneficial, " says

Grant.

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Partners in research:

This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research,

the Mind and Life Institute Varela Grant (J.A.G.) and the Fonds de la

recherche en santé du Québec.