Meditation Won't Boost Health: Study

Meditation Won't Boost Health: Study



THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- There's no evidence that
meditation eases health problems, according to an exhaustive review of
the accumulated data by Canadian researchers.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20070713/hl_hsn/meditationwontboosthealthstudy


"There is an enormous amount of interest in using meditation as a form
of therapy to cope with a variety of modern-day health problems,
especially hypertension, stress and chronic pain, but the majority of
evidence that seems to support this notion is anecdotal, or it comes
from poor quality studies," concluded researchers Maria Ospina and
Kenneth Bond of the University of Alberta/Capital Health
Evidence-based Practice Centre, in Edmonton.


They analyzed 813 studies focused on the impact of meditation on
various conditions, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular
disease and substance abuse.


Released Monday, the report looked at studies on five types of
meditation practices: mantra meditation; mindfulness meditation; yoga,
Tai Chi and Qi Gong.


Some of the studies suggested that certain types of meditation could
help reduce blood pressure and stress and that yoga and other
practices increased verbal creativity and reduced heart rate, blood
pressure and cholesterol in healthy people.


However, the report authors said it isn't possible to draw any firm
conclusions about the effects of meditation on health, because the
existing studies are characterized by poor methodologies and other
problems.


"Future research on meditation practices must be more rigorous in the
design and execution of studies and in the analysis and reporting of
results," Ospina said in a prepared statement.


Bond added that the new report doesn't prove that meditation has no
therapeutic value, but it can inform medical practitioners that the
"evidence is inconclusive regarding its effectiveness."


For the general public, the report "highlights that choosing to
practice a particular meditation technique continues to rely solely on
individual experiences and personal preferences, until more conclusive
scientific evidence is produced," Ospina said.


The study was funded by the U.S. National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine in Bethesda, Md., part of the National Institutes
of Health.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20070713/hl_hsn/meditationwontboosthealthstudy
Tweet