The Benefits of Mindfulness

The effects of mindfulness on a wide range of groups have been robustly tested and researched in some of the world’s leading universities.

The benefits fall into three main categories: general improvement of physical and mental wellbeing; a reduction or slowing down in some symptoms of physical illness; and a reduction of frequency and intensity of some destructive or unpleasant moods or feelings. Amongst the many researched benefits are:

Significant improvement in emotional and social functioning
Improvement in general health and vitality
Reduction in visits to healthcare provider
Effective method of stress reduction
Reduction in psychological distress for sufferers of long term conditions
Speeding up in clearance of skin lesions in patients with psoriasis
Boosting of the immune response to vaccination
35% reduction in the symptoms of stress experienced by group of cancer patients
65% improvement in quality of life experienced by group of cancer patients
Reduction in blood pressure in patients with mid to moderate hypertension
Significant reduction in blood pressure amongst healthy adolescent students
Significant long-term improvement in anxiety levels amongst patients suffering from anxiety disorders
Significant reduction in the recurrence of depression amongst people with three or more previous episodes of depression
Reduced intake of pain relieving medications amongst chronic pain sufferers
Reduced levels of depression and anxiety after eight week mindfulness programme

Because regular practice of mindfulness can result in such a wide range of benefits, both physical and mental, for people whether they are well or suffering illness, Mindfulness Scotland wishes to make the practices of mindfulness become a mainstream norm across all strands of Scottish life.

Stressful lives often lead to us living on ‘automatic pilot’. When this becomes our habitual state, it can be associated with a number of stress related health problems.

When we can get in touch with qualities of mindfulness, the sense of brightness, clarity of purpose and sense of playfulness, creativity and inner peace, has many health benefits.

But don’t just take our word for it. The well-being felt through practicing mindfulness is evidenced-based.

In an urban study in 2004 mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), an eight week programme showed significant improvement in the participants’ emotional and social functioning, as well as their general health and vitality.
MBSR can improve physical symptoms and psychological distress as well as improve general wellbeing. An analysis of 20 published and unpublished studies of MBSR indicate that MBSR is an effective method of stress reduction, associated with clear benefits in terms of overall health.
MBSR has also been shown to have positive therapeutic effects in medical students, who commonly report high levels or stress and low levels of psychological wellbeing.
Results from another recent study showed that the number of visits made by urban patients to their healthcare provider was substantially reduced following the completion of a MBSR training programme.
The positive impact of meditative techniques such as MBSR and TM is also evident in their beneficial effect on stress-related medical conditions, For example, the combination of conventional treatment and MBSR produced complete clearance of skin lesions in patients with stress related skin disorder psoriasis in a much shorter time than conventional therapy alone. Similar benefits have been found in people with asthma.
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to boost the immune response to a vaccination, and meditation has also been shown to reduce the body’s immune response to stress, such as that evoked by prolonged strenuous activity.
In another study, regular meditative practice was shown to significantly increase melatonin levels in patients with breast cancer
In a study of the effect MBSR in patients with breast and prostate cancer, eight weeks of MBSR practice resulted in improvements in the symptoms of stress experienced by the patients and a general improvement in quality of life.
The strongest evidence for the use of medication in patients with cancer stems from a study that showed that MBSR led to a 65 per cent improvement in mood and a 35 per cent chance reduction in stress symptoms in a mixed population of cancer patients.
In a recent study, patients with a mild to moderate hypertension were randomly assigned to two treatment groups, the first group received instruction in contemplative meditation with breathing technique (CMBT) and followed an eight week practice schedule. The second group did not receive CMBT, and acted as a control. Those in the CMBT group were found to have lower blood pressure compared with the control patients, both at rest and during exercise.
One study of healthy, adolescent students showed MBSR leads to a significant reduction in blood pressure, both at rest and during the day at school and other studies are on-going.
In one long term study, patients with anxiety disorders showed significant improvement in both subjective and objective measure of anxiety levels following three years of meditative practice.
Patients with anxiety and depression undergoing a three month programme in MBCT reported significant improvements in their emotional state, and more than half continued with the mindfulness-based technique after the programme.
MBCT was found to significantly reduce the risk of depressive relapse in patients who has three or more previous episodes of depression (which was more than three quarters of the participants.
An eight week MBSR programme showed promise as a new method of quitting smoking with more than half the participants still abstinent six weeks after completing the programme.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed MBSR, reports that 65 per cent of rational medical care showed marked improvements in pain after ten weeks with MBSR. The majority also showed improvement in mood disturbances and the number of troublesome symptoms.
Exploring these benefits in greater detail found that mindfulness meditation improved patient’s body image and self esteem and their ability to carry out everyday activates, lessened psychological problems such as anxiety and depression, and reduced patients consumption of pain relieving medications.
One eight week MBSR programme produced improvements in mood and reduced levels of depression and anxiety.

References

Source: http://www.mindfulnessscotland.org.uk/benefits/