Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

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Ben
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Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by Ben »

Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds
Recently, the 5000 year old intuitive teachings of meditation were given the backing of science. A report from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center states that meditation can be more effective than morphine...

...As a result of the study, Wake Forest recommended meditation be used as standard clinical practice to deal with pain.
This scientific endorsement came as a welcome, but not unexpected result for those in the profession.

Read more

Cited report from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre:
Demystifying Meditation – Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

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danieLion
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by danieLion »

Ben wrote:Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds
Recently, the 5000 year old intuitive teachings of meditation were given the backing of science. A report from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center states that meditation can be more effective than morphine...

...As a result of the study, Wake Forest recommended meditation be used as standard clinical practice to deal with pain.
This scientific endorsement came as a welcome, but not unexpected result for those in the profession.

Read more

Cited report from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre:
Demystifying Meditation – Brain Imaging Illustrates How Meditation Reduces Pain
It's true. I speak from personal experience. I have serious chronic pain, but am glad to say that if it were not for bhavana I would not be several years free from using opioid pain-killers. Even when it doesn't relieve the pain, it properly adjusts my attitude toward it.

I'm a little puzzled why the link shows a beautiful woman meditating in her underwear? Is meditation really that sexy? ;)
Goodwill,
Daniel
Last edited by danieLion on Mon Feb 20, 2012 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mikenz66
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by mikenz66 »

There is a discussion of this in Kelly McGonigal's talk here:
http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2012/02/bg ... -practice/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
She first discusses how in some studies meditators are able to be mindful of the pain without getting caught up in thinking about it:
So this is the front of the brain. And what you see here, the blue parts, those are the areas of the brain that are more active in non-meditators. OK. And you’re seeing, this is essentially looking like that default network that I showed you earlier. Meditators on the other hand, what you see is the only area of the brain that is more active are the areas that are listening to pain. The areas of the brain like the insula or the thalamus that are just waiting to feel the pain that is happening, that are giving you perfect information about what is happening in your body.

And yet, meditators were able to tolerate much more pain, even as they carefully attended to it. And I think those of you who have a strong practice will immediately recognize this is how we dissociate pain from suffering that when we attend directly to the experience and turn off that inner chatter, suddenly the experience of suffering that seems to arise from pain starts to dissolve.

And within the meditator’s group, the greater the decoupling, the functional decoupling between these two brain systems, paying attention to the feeling of pain and making a commentary about it, the greater they were dissociated, the higher the meditator’s pain tolerance was.
Then she goes on to this study of less-experienced meditators:
OK now, it is really important I think as a teacher of meditation to notice that this is what happens in experienced meditators.

This is the study lead by researchers at Wake Forest University that took brand new meditators. They’d only been meditating for four days. Mindfulness meditation. And when they were brought into the laboratory and given the exact same pain test, the heat stimulations to the leg, turns out that the successful meditators, those who could tolerate greater levels of pain or found the pain less unpleasant, that they were doing exactly the opposite in their brain than what experienced practitioners too.

They were inhibiting sensory information that somehow they were shifting their attention to ignore what was happening in the present moment. And that was giving rise to less suffering, inhibiting awareness rather than carefully attending to. And I think those of you who teach recognize this as something that often happens when we start to practice. We accidentally end up doing exactly the opposite of what the practice is asking of us. And sometimes we experience what seems to be pretty good results. And I think studies like this can really give teachers insight into how that process is happening in the mind and in the brain so that we can better guide people thru and beyond that.
:anjali:
Mike
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Ben
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by Ben »

Hi Daniel and Mike,

Yes, I have verified this myself as well by direct experience. A number of visits to hospital I was able to experience pain without pain killers or greatly reduced dosage to the great surprise and interest of doctors and nurses. However, the dentist still freaks me out!
I'm a little puzzled why the link shows a beautiful woman meditating in underwear?
No doubt the sub-editor was looking for an interesting picture to go with the story and the chick in the undies probably fit the bill (for him/her).
Is meditation really that sexy?
Hmmm....I would say - no.

Hi Mike,

That is interesting, thanks for reposting thwe link to McGonikal's talk.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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tiltbillings
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by tiltbillings »

Ben wrote:
I'm a little puzzled why the link shows a beautiful woman meditating in underwear?
No doubt the sub-editor was looking for an interesting picture to go with the story and the chick in the undies probably fit the bill (for him/her).
I'm not complaining.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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pilgrim
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by pilgrim »

tiltbillings wrote:
Ben wrote:
I'm a little puzzled why the link shows a beautiful woman meditating in underwear?
No doubt the sub-editor was looking for an interesting picture to go with the story and the chick in the undies probably fit the bill (for him/her).
I'm not complaining.
The next retreat, I'm keeping my eyes open..
Justsit
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by Justsit »

Any documentation for better pain relief during a migraine headache using meditation vs. drugs?
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mikenz66
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by mikenz66 »

Bhikkhu Bodhi speaks about his pain problems in a talk here:
http://www.audiodharma.org/teacher/19/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, he was unable to completely fix the problems with meditation (or anything else).

:anjali:
Mike
Justsit
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by Justsit »

Thanks, I'll check it out.
That has been my experience as well. :cry:
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Ben
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by Ben »

Hi Justsit,
Justsit wrote:Any documentation for better pain relief during a migraine headache using meditation vs. drugs?
Actually, SN Goenka, talks about his own experience suffering from migranes back before he discovered Dhamma. The story is that he was on morphine and was getting treatment from doctors in the US and Europe but nothign helped. Then after meeting U Ba Khin and started practicing vipassana his symptoms went away.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
Justsit
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by Justsit »

Interesting! Thanks, I'll check that out as well.
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Monkey Mind
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by Monkey Mind »

Not migraines, but I was prone to outrageous headaches before I attended my first 10-day retreat. I have not had any of those since that retreat, 2.5 years later.
"As I am, so are others;
as others are, so am I."
Having thus identified self and others,
harm no one nor have them harmed.

Sutta Nipāta 3.710
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mikenz66
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by mikenz66 »

mikenz66 wrote:There is a discussion of this in Kelly McGonigal's talk here:
http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2012/02/bg ... -practice/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
She first discusses how in some studies meditators are able to be mindful of the pain without getting caught up in thinking about it: ...
The video can be seen here: http://kellymcgonigal.com/2011/08/01/61/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Patrick Kearney has made a couple of interesting comments at the end of the transcript.
... But maybe what we are seeing here is simply that, for most people in the early stages of the practice, the mental factor of concentration or unification (samadhi), associated with serenity (samatha), prevails over the mental factor of mindfulness (sati), associated with insight (vipassana). This is not a problem that teachers need to be concerned about, but an illustration of the relationship between serenity and insight.

And perhaps this indicates how the tradition can inform the reading of the results of scientific tests, rather than speaking only of science informing the tradition.
:anjali:
Mike
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retrofuturist
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

In terms of headaches, I suspect the effectiveness of meditation as prevention/cure probably depends on the underlying cause behind the headache. For example, if you're prone to tension headaches, and through a Dhamma practice inclusive of meditation, you reduce the underlying tension, goodbye tension headaches.

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
danieLion
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Re: Pain relief: meditation better than drugs, study finds

Post by danieLion »

mikenz66 wrote:
mikenz66 wrote:There is a discussion of this in Kelly McGonigal's talk here:
http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2012/02/bg ... -practice/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
She first discusses how in some studies meditators are able to be mindful of the pain without getting caught up in thinking about it: ...
The video can be seen here: http://kellymcgonigal.com/2011/08/01/61/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Patrick Kearney has made a couple of interesting comments at the end of the transcript.
... But maybe what we are seeing here is simply that, for most people in the early stages of the practice, the mental factor of concentration or unification (samadhi), associated with serenity (samatha), prevails over the mental factor of mindfulness (sati), associated with insight (vipassana). This is not a problem that teachers need to be concerned about, but an illustration of the relationship between serenity and insight.

And perhaps this indicates how the tradition can inform the reading of the results of scientific tests, rather than speaking only of science informing the tradition.
:anjali:
Mike
Well, if your going to mention MCGonigal, you might as well mention Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, too. He's authored a books like Mindsight and The Mindful Brain and has a talk on dharmaseed.org and probably more if you Google him.
Goodwill
Daniel
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