Top 10 Interesting Studies About Meditation

Heads up, Empowered Shoppers, we’re a participant in affiliate marketing programs. For more information, see our disclosure here.

  1. Meditation increases happiness

A study published in Psychosomatic Medicine (Davidson et al., 2003), found that practicing meditation regularly not only made people happier but that the level of happiness increased the longer they meditated. The study also found that the immune systems of people who meditated were much stronger compared to the immune systems of people who didn’t meditate.

  1. Meditation lowers blood pressure

The Lancet medical journal (Patel,1973), published a study that followed 20 patients with hypertension who were taught yoga, meditation, and relaxation techniques. After one year of practicing these activities, scientists discovered that the patient’s level of blood pressure had been significantly reduced. Meditation could even replace medication in some cases.

  1. Meditation lowers cholesterol

It can be difficult to control cholesterol levels as family genes play a big role. However, a study in the Journal of Human Stress (Cooper and Aygen, 1979), found that practicing meditation for over a year helped to decrease the patient’s cholesterol levels six times more than with medication alone.

  1. Meditation improves health

To test whether people who practice meditation are healthier than those who don’t, scientists compared the time both groups spent at the doctor and in a hospital. The study published in the Psychosomatic Medicine journal (Orme-Johnson, 1987), discovered that patients who meditated had fewer medical visits for overall health.

  1. Meditation increases life-expectancy

A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Alexander et al., 1989), found that older people who practiced meditation lived longer than those who just did mindfulness training and relaxation training. They also found that meditators suffered from fewer mental health problems like depression than their counterparts.

  1. Meditation reverses heart disease

The study that proved the link between meditation and heart disease reversal was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Ornish, 1988). It found that when 20 patients suffering from heart disease practiced meditation and lifestyle changes, they not only suffered from fewer heart problems but their health improved.

  1. Meditation increases empathy

Meditation is known to make people more empathetic as the practice encourages meditators to not only think about themselves but also about others. It was proved in a study published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (Lesh, 1970), which found that subjects who were taught Zen meditation were more open to others.

  1. Meditation helps heal Psoriasis

A study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine (Kabat-Zinn, 1998), discovered that psoriasis patients who were given mindfulness meditation treatments along with their regular treatment recovered four times quicker than their counterparts who were only offered regular treatment. The study showed the effectiveness of stress-reduction meditation techniques for skin conditions.

  1. Meditation enhances a good mood

Scientists found that meditation increases the amount of phenylalanine, which is a natural chemical that keeps people happy. The study published in the Journal of Physiology and Behavior (Jevning et al., 1977), proved that subjects who practiced meditation long-term increased their level of phenylalanine by 23 percent more than their counterparts.

  1. Meditation is a natural painkiller

A report published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1985), found that patients suffering from chronic pain, who were trained in mindfulness meditation for 10 weeks, not only suffered from less pain on a day-to-day basis but used fewer painkillers than they did before the treatment began.