Credits: Social Media
Meditation works to relieve pain and is not placebo, study shows
Though some people see meditation as nothing more than an elaborate placebo effect, a study from UC San Diego Sanford trashed that idea while confirming that mindful meditation could relieve physical pain.
In recent history mental health and mindfulness have become major parts of overall health. Though meditation often plays a part, fans are constantly creating new mindful activities to reduce stress like the soundtrack of your life. Namaste.
Meditation is actually better than placebo treatments
We have long heard of the power of the placebo effect, which is when a person’s health improves following a treatment that has no real clinical purpose. Our very own Bruno recently conducted a placebo experiment with decaf coffee.
It has been assumed that positive meditation experiences are the result of the placebo effect, but a new piece of research has trashed that idea while suggesting it actually engages specific mechanisms in your brain.
The mind is extremely powerful, and were still working to understand how it can be harnessed for pain management, said Fadel Zeidan, PhD, professor of anesthesiology and Endowed Professor in Empathy and Compassion Research at UC San Diego Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion. By separating pain from the self and relinquishing evaluative judgment, mindfulness meditation is able to directly modify how we experience pain in a way that uses no drugs, costs nothing, and can be practiced anywhere.
A pool of 115 people were assigned either mindfulness meditation, sham meditation, placebo cream, or a control group. They underwent training in their sector before slipping underneath the MRI machine where they were subjected to pain through heat.
Each group was coached in a different way, with the mindful meditators urged to practice breathing techniques and accept the sensations without judgement. The control group did nothing and the placebo group were told that the cream would help the pain.
Their findings were published in the Biological Psychiatry journal in August.
The results were shocking
The Mindfulness meditation group not only outperformed the placebo and sham treatments, but it also flagged interesting brain activity in the MRI machine. Unlike the other groups, the mindful meditators showed decreased activity in the pain centres of their brain.
While the fake meditation techniques showed little to no effects, those in the placebo cream group showed changes in areas of the pain associated with pain expectations.
It has long been assumed that the placebo effect overlaps with brain mechanisms triggered by active treatments, but these results suggest that when it comes to pain, this may not be the case, the researchers added. Instead, these two brain responses are completely distinct, which supports the use of mindfulness meditation as a direct intervention for chronic pain rather than as a way to engage the placebo effect.
The exciting new research not only destroys the claim that meditation is useless, but it also proves that the act of mindful meditation changes the way our brains process pain.
The authors concluded: Millions of people are living with chronic pain every day, and there may be more these people can do to reduce their pain and improve their quality of life than we previously understood We are excited to continue exploring the neurobiology of mindfulness and how we can leverage this ancient practice in the clinic.
