What does meditation do for you?

Certainly anything that helps fight stress is a welcome tool. But what else might meditation be doing for us?

Many studies have shown that meditation not only has a mental effect on the body, but a profound physiological effect as well. Studies have shown that, among other benefits, meditation can help reverse heart disease, the number-one killer in the U.S. It can reduce pain and enhance the body's immune system, enabling it to better fight disease.

More new research offers additional encouragement. In a study published last year in the journal Stroke, 60 African-Americans with atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, practiced meditation for six to nine months. (African-Americans are twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease as are whites.) The meditators showed a marked decrease in the thickness of their artery walls, while the non-meditators actually showed an increase. The amount of change for the meditation group could potentially bring about an 11% decrease in the risk of heart attack, and an 8% to 15% decrease in the risk of stroke.

A second study, published last year in Psychosomatic Medicine, taught a randomized group of 90 cancer patients how do perform "mindful meditation" (another type of practice). After seven weeks, those who had meditated reported that they were significantly less depressed, anxious, angry, and confused than the control group, which hadn't practiced meditation. The meditators also had more energy, and fewer heart and gastrointestinal problems, than did the other group.

Other recent research has looked at precisely what happens during meditation that allows it to cause these positive physical changes. Researchers at the Maharishi School of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, found that meditation has a pervasive effect on stress. They studied a group of people who had meditated for four months and found that they produced less of the stress hormone cortisol. They were, therefore, better able to adapt to stress in their lives, no matter what their circumstances were.

Not only is meditation an absolutely marvelous de-stressor, it helps people relate better to one another.

Meditation's effectiveness has to do with putting aside attachment to one's ego. When you look directly at a star at night, it is difficult to see. But when you look away slightly, it comes into focus. You will find it to be the same way with the ego and meditating. When one zeroes in on a sense of self through a practice of meditation, the self-important ego paradoxically becomes elusive. You become more aware that you are interconnected with other beings, and you can better put your own worries into their proper perspective.

A group of elderly Chinese maintains their connection by meeting every day at daybreak in the village common in Monterey Park, California. They swoop their arms and stretch their torsos in graceful harmony, and then stand absolutely still, simply meditating. Only puffs of warm air flow from their nostrils. All of them look vibrant and relatively young, when in fact they are well into their years.

While western scientists are still exploring exactly how and why meditation works, we already know that it has both physiological and psychological benefits. Many therapists consider it a valid complement to more traditional therapies. Perhaps we should practice what makes us feel better.

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