What if we could replace morphine and other pain-relieving drugs with meditation?
Fadal Zeidan, PhD from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center recently conducted a study in which he found that a form of mindfulness meditation, known as focused attention, drastically diminished subjects’ experience of pain. In previous findings morphine has been shown to reduce pain by about 25%. In this study, meditation lessened pain by about 40%.
Dr. Zeidan’s study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. He took 15 healthy volunteers, who had no meditation experience, and had them attend four, 20 minute sessions where they learned the technique.
Before and after learning the mindfulness technique, the subjects had a small heat pad placed on their right leg. The heat on their skin was increased to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes. Directly after their legs were cooked, brain scans were taken.
What these scans revealed was that once the subjects learned to meditate, the activity in their primary somatosensory cortex, an area of the brain involved in detecting where and how intense a painful stimulus is, was greatly reduced. Subjects reported a drop in pain anywhere from 11% to 93%.
What was interesting was that meditation also brought about an increased level of activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula, and the orbito-frontal cortex. All of these areas shape how we experience pain. Meditation didn’t just affect one part of the pain process, but influenced the brain in many sections.
What is so great about these findings is that we now have scientific evidence that shows what short periods of meditation instruction can do for pain management. As more people catch onto these ideas, we will see mindfulness and other meditation practices being integrated into clinical work.
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Sup?. How are things?Am happy that we stumbled upon this blog. I just wanted to contribute in appreciation of the things I learned here from the article. 3 years ago my brother was diagnosed with Separation Anxiety Disorder. The diagnosis was a severe tragedy for everyone in the family especially for my Grandmother. Around that time is when my brother-in-law proposed Jade Tun Noy. Jade Noy is a non-religious mind over matter expert. He taught and guided us through the ordeal. Just google him if you want to contact him.
They already teach all this in pain rehab in the UK, nothing new here except the trendy label of mindfulness.
You cannot generalise that morphine helps by 25%. It depends on the dose, the person and what else they are taking. I live in the UK and I hear so much junk science about opiates coming out of the USA it is unbelievable. Here medicine is sensible about and opiates are not a big bad ogre. They are used appropriately and can knock out pain 100%. Anti epileptics are good for neuropathic pain. What sort of pain did the subjects of the study have? Which of their five different pain receptor types were affected? I bet the researchers did not select patients for their study allowing for those factors. More junk science!
This is wonderful. I have done Guided mediation to help with my chronic pain. Art Therapy directives are also known to reduce if not ellimnate pain in clients.
Beautiful. When we no longer identify with the body, but instead, the life force that breathes it, the breath, as you say, Larry, then where is the pain? I’ve had a lot of dental work performed, simply breathing… also a rather grievous injury. It all boils down to “Who are we?… What are we?” Are we the flesh? Or are we spirit? – And “spiritus” in Latin means “breath”. It’s that simple. What appears to be material is shimmering light, movement. E=MC2.
So many times, it seems to me that the particular content of the meditation is less important than the process it’s self. I am not a medical doctor. I am a psychologist. Breathing in the here and now is what the rest of the animal kingdom do with out getting tangled in their ‘selves’ Meditation puts us back to paying attention to our breath in and out deep and shallow. I follow a pattern taking a deep breath, holding it for a couple of seconds and then a deep breathing outl
First stress and now physical pain itself, I am happy to hear that our understanding is growing. Even the pain within the here and now can be moderated by meditation. Keep up the good work