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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Fun Fact #4 - Meditation reduces stress among other things


Got Stress?

Meditation has been utilized as an effective tool for stress reduction for years.

In addition to stress reduction, meditation has been documented to decrease blood pressure, slow breathing rate, increase oxygen utilization and to have a positive effect on the body's immune system (3).

Meditation and certain Yoga practices have been shown to improve short and long term cardiovascular function (pulse, blood pressure) in healthy individuals (1). It has even been implicated in some studies to increase intelligence (2)

For more information on how to meditate and make it part of your daily practices check out mindfulness meditation by Jon Kabat-zinn. He makes it incredibly easy to use.

Give it a shot!

Resources:

1. Ankad, R B, Herur A, Patil S, Shashikala G V, Chinagudi S. "Effect of short-term Pranayama and Meditation on Cardiovascular Functions in Healthy Individuals" Heart Views. 2011 Apr-Jun 12(2): 58-62

2. R.W. Cranson et al. "Transcendental Meditation and Improved Performance on Intelligence Related Measures: A Longitudinal Study." Personality and Individual Differences 12 (1991), 1105-1116

3. Trivieri, Anderson "Alternative Medicine The Definitive Guide" 2002 Innovision Health Media Inc. Celestial Arts Berkeley, CA:pg 930-931

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