Meditation Better Than Drugs At Giving Pain Relief

slimvictor

slimvictor

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According to a new study, meditation practice is actually more powerful than medication in terms of its ability to relieve pain.

Researchers from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina worked on this breakthrough study to take a closer look at the type of impact meditation had on pain, and how much relief it could provide.

In a lab setting, researchers applied heat probes to male and female participants at a temperature of 120F.

They did this first while they were on medications or pain relief drugs, and then while they were meditating.

What researchers found is that the meditation allowed for further pain relief than the drugs.

The study has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

cont at
http://smartabouthealth.net/drugs/2011/04/09/meditation-better-than-drugs-at-giving-pain-relief/
 
Wakeforest University has a great school of medicine down there. They have a high tech new program & have been doing all kinds of new experiments towards the future of medicine.

As far as pain meds vs. meditation goes, I have to agree, altho I dont meditate much, I do walk alot & walking relieves alot of my back pain. I guess because the blood is flowing & what not. Meditation has to do more with the mind where the pain is retrieved with the pain signals.
 
No shit.

There has to be a transition from hard opiate medications to meditation.

I take hydromorphone in amounts that most people in "Other Drugs" would kill to be on, but I find that mindful meditation lets me cut my doses in half at least.

First thing you need is to practice meditation. For many years.

I was meditating long before I ever thought about applying it to my pain problem. It takes practice to get good, but the specific physiological effects that I experience are: reduction in negative inflamation, increase in positive inflammation, increase in body temperature, increased peripheral circulation, attenuation of anxiety and depression (90% of CP patients are co-diagnosed with depression and anxiety), as well as increased energy, better libido, longer lasting sex, more intimate sex with my partner, better sleep, a reduction of chronic swelling at the site of my injury, and others that I'm not sure of yet, but have some idea that it is helping with further problems.

If you are so very skeptical, please explain this, which is one of many videos documenting the phenomenal effects of meditation
 
First thing you need is to practice meditation. For many years.
Click to expand...

This itself proves the unrealistic use of meditation.

Sure after a few years maybe I will tap into my mind and be able to relieve my pain, but in the years it takes for me to learn this, what do I do?
 
Deal with the pain until then.

It doesn't take years to get results, but it does take years to be able to meditate like ^ those guys.
It will get better the more you do it, obviously, but I'm not saying there is no effect at first.

Alot of people have chronic non-malignant pain for DECADES, not YEARS, I fall into the Decades category, so it is very useful for me.

It sounds like you have Acute Pain which is much different than Chronic Pain, in that you have 3 broken vertebrae, and your pain is telling you not to fuck around at all. Chronic Pain has outlived it's useful nature to keep you immobilized while your injury heals, it is much different.
 
I'm not saying not to use Western medicine. I guess my quote should have said "Deal with the pain as you have been until then"

I am not saying that it's an either-or, rather, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts when you combine them.

....and it definitely sounds like you have CP - are your vertebrae not healing properly?


Also, i'm going to sound like an asshole for saying this, but i am an asshole, so it's OK -
If you had started meditating when your pain started, you would be a total pro by now.
 
If you had started meditating when your pain started, you would be a total pro by now.
Click to expand...

Touche salesman.......touche.....=D

Yeh I fell quite a distance flat onto concrete, broke my L2, L3, L4, ripped all the muscle off my transverse prostes, and did permanant nerve damage to my left side. The breaks didn't go all the way through my spine but it was DAMN close, I was almost paralyzed :( Ever since then it's just been horrible chronic constant pain

More on topic, I agree with your last post. Meditation in combination with other therapy is a good idea, I apologize for the misunderstanding. I thought you meant meditation should be used instead of medicine instead of in combination with it. My bad!

Hey if it works man then more power to ya, that's what I say, anything to take this pain away man.
 
I don't think that you need to meditate very long to feel strong effects.
I did a 10-day meditation lesson/retreat about 5 years ago, and by the end of the 10 days (of 10+ hours meditating per day, plus talks/lectures on the theory behind the method) I felt like I had gone from zero to sixty. Not that I was (or am) an expert, or enlightened, but just that I was a successful meditator after 10 days.

Meditation is much more powerful than you seem to give it credit for, Mora Fiend.
 
Ooh, that's gnarly. Spine injuries are so bad... saw alot of them as a wilderness EMT.

I'm not trying to sell anyone on this whole meditation and acupuncture thing I'm on, but it really helps when combined with Western Medicine.

I can't imagine going completely to Eastern Medicine in the same way i can no longer imagine going completely to Western Medicine.
 
^ Ya know what, you're right, I think it's a bunch of placebo bullshit. Honestly though I have been wrong many, many times before, so I may actually talk to my doctor about giving it a shot, anyone have links to sites that may help with a method for this pain management meditation?
 
I don't think it's placebo bullshit. I mean, I did practice (Western) medicine as a wilderness EMT, although alot of the best EMT's and Doctors I knew integrated local plants and herbs into their practice.
Anyways though, the best place to start would be with acupuncture. I know this thread is about meditation, but they go together so well I have to recommend it. If you get in with a good acupuncturist, they should know a good place in the area.

For meditation, check out Buddhist retreats and temples in your area. Alot of times you can find professors of Buddhist practice at local Universities and try to talk to them about where to find a Meditation retreat or something of the type. Really anyone that practices Buddhism will be so welcoming and nice you will think they are fucking with you.

I'm really lucky in that I got to study at a university with a great Eastern Studies program, so I learned Meditation from a Tibetan exile, and now that I'm out of Uni for a couple years, I live only an hour from Boulder, CO where the Tibetan Gvt in Exile has its U.S. headquarters, it is also the location of the largest Stupa in North America, but that's more on the religious side of things.

Anyways, good luck and drop me a PM if you have questions.
 
I just don't understand, what does sitting and thinking actually DO?
Click to expand...

Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-mindfulness-meditation-brain-weeks.html
Psychological Functioning in a Sample of Long-Term Practitioners of Mindfulness Meditation
https://webspace.utexas.edu/neffk/pubs/baermeditators.pdf
The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Cognitive Processes and Affect in Patients With Past Depression
http://www.openground.com.au/archive/Effects_of_Mindfulness.pdf
Loving-Kindness Meditation Increases Social Connectedness
https://www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/cgi-bin/drupalm/system/files/LKM+Article.pdf
Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation
http://ppesports.com/uploads/MBM_Short-Term_Impact_on_Performance.pdf
A Randomized, Wait-List Controlled Clinical Trial: The Effect of a Mindfulness
Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program on Mood and Symptoms of Stress in
Cancer Outpatients
http://shamrockdesign.com/sitesOffl..._Symptoms_of_Stress_in_Cancer_Outpatients.pdf
Effectiveness of a Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders
http://www.gsas.columbia.edu/itc/hs/medical/cp4/client_edit/topic4/sg3b-1.pdf

I'm a huge supporter of meditation but I've never used it for relief of physical pain (although I see how it could help).. I was doing a little google-fu and I found studies on using meditation for chronic pain going back to the early 80s

here is a more recent one out of the pain journal

Mindfulness meditation for the treatment of chronic low back pain in older adults: A randomized controlled pilot study
http://www.painjournalonline.com/article/S0304-3959(07)00243-6/abstract

This is a good book to get started for anyone interested:

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Happiness-Meditation-28-Day-Program/dp/0761159258
 
^ What so you think that 9 scientific studies by respected medical journals is gonna change my mind..........ok, so I really didn't think meditation is worth a fiddler's fuck (apparently fiddlers are horrible lays), and apparently I am wrong. I must admit though, this is one instance I am glad I am wrong. I will give meditation a shot. *bows and admits defeat*
 
Trust me man I know where you are coming from.. I though it was some hippie bullshit myself until a friend showed me some literature about it. Once I figured out there was actually a scientific basis behind it and it wasn't just some "spiritual" stuff I tried giving it a shot and it really has helped me.
 
I completely agree, I was super skeptical going into the meditation thing, and I was young, probably like 18 or 19 when I started and just didn't think it could do anything, but it really helped with my long-term anxiety and depression.
When i would stop for any reason (about 30 minutes in the morning most days, some longer) I would instantly notice that My mood deteriorated and my anxiety returned. That's when i made it part of my life permanently.

I didn't think about applying it to pain until 2-3 years after my injury went from acute to chronic pain. At that point, I was already pretty decent at meditation, so it only took a few weeks to refine my meditation technique to help with pain significantly.

I really can't emphasize how skeptical I was before I tried it.
 
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