Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis by Jelinek George;

Author:Jelinek, George; [Professor George Jelinek MD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2016-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

HOLISM study findings on meditation

Our HOLISM study also examined the associations of meditation with health in our large international cohort of PwMS.39 Of around two and a half thousand PwMS doing our study, 2244 completed the questions about meditation. Around half had meditated at least once in the previous year. But over 1000 PwMS in our sample had never meditated—a surprisingly high number given the well-documented benefits in MS of this simple, free therapy. Women, those with higher educational status, those working part-time and older participants were all more likely to have meditated.

Those who meditated at least once a week had considerably better quality of life in terms of mental health (9 per cent better), better cognitive function (10 per cent) and better perception of their own health (13 per cent). Health distress (11 per cent) and emotional well-being (8 per cent) were also significantly better for the meditators. Physical health was significantly better too, but not by as much (6 per cent). Those meditating at least once a week were also around half as likely to screen positive for depression. This is a very important consideration for PwMS, given that half will be diagnosed with depression at some stage during the illness. At any one time, around a quarter of PwMS have depression.40 Meditation appears to be a really simple way of reducing that risk. The study showed no significant associations of meditation with fatigue or with relapse rate.

Overall, the study added considerable weight to previous randomised controlled studies showing the benefits of meditation for PwMS. Given that it is not an expensive treatment modality, and that it has countless other health benefits, why wouldn’t one meditate?

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