So you want to be healthier yeah? Don’t we all! At every corner there’s plenty of advice on how to achieve this by exercising more and eating better. Every time we turn on the TV there’s a new reality show on losing weight or cooking up amazingly healthy food. And I’m all for that. A lot of it is great advice which can go a long way to improving your health.
But there’s also another way you can improve your health. Through meditation!
In as little as 10 minutes a day, less time than it will take you to cook up a healthy stir-fry or go for a jog, you could be well on your way to protecting yourself from heart disease, fighting off the flu in those cold winter months, decreasing pain and the need for painkillers, or even reducing your biological age.
Now just a word of note, I’m not saying if you go and meditate for 10 minutes a day you are going to be some perfect healthy specimen with not a single health problem, but given your brain controls every function of the human body, it’s a great place to start on the road to a healthier you.
Let’s have a look at a few of the benefits in some more detail.
A healthier heart – one study looked at people who had coronary heart disease and found those that did had a reduced risk of heart attack, stroke and potentially death as a result of lower blood pressure and psychosocial stress factors.
Improving your immune function – This study found that meditation can be effective in reducing acute respiratory infections which can be the end result of that pesky flu that comes around in the winter months. Got a cold now, meditate yourself to a quicker recovery or just do it for prevention. Another study finding similar results can be found here.
Decreasing pain – Want to stop popping pills for pain relief? Meditation has been linked to an increased thickness in the grey matter of the brain which reinforces the region that regulates pain. For those scientifically minded, here’s another study on meditation modulating pain that has similar findings and plenty of the nitty gritty data.
Reduced inflammation at the cellular level – One study had a look at meditation’s effects on the impact of stress with chronic inflammatory conditions. It shows that meditation resulted in a significantly smaller post stress inflammatory response than other forms of relief.
And last but definitely not least:
Having a younger biological age – How would it feel if someone was to guess your age based on the biology of your body, and they came up with an age that it is younger than what you actually are. I’m guessing that would make you feel pretty damn good! Well here’s a study which suggest exactly that. That there is a correlation with people meditating regularly having a lower biological age than those who don’t meditate.
And these are just a few of the potential health benefits you could get out of meditation. It won’t happen overnight, but with some dedicated meditation practice you could well see yourself achieving a healthier mind and body.
NOTE – We are not medical professionals! So if you suffer from any medical conditions, it is best to consult your doctor or health practitioner before starting any meditation, exercise or nutrition program to improve your health.
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