Brain research indicates increased stress tolerance in meditators

World leading brain researcher reports that the brains of advanced TM-pracitioners react more calmly in a stressful situation

The inventor of positron emission tomography (PET) professor Zang Hee Cho, Ph.D.,at the University of California at Irvine has been studying the effects of TM. PET is on of the most advanced tools for brain research, being used all over the world. It can detect and locate changes in brain activity very sensitively.

[Excerpt below from "Imaging CAM: Scientific Investigations Indicate Efficacy of Alternative Medicine" from Radiology Today, August 4th, 2003.]

Going into the study, Cho and dr Orme-Johnson, adjunct faculty of the Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management, speculated that the brain response to stress in the long-term TM practitioners would be less than in non-practitioner controls. “Our working hypothesis is that long-term TM practice develops inner stability and lower levels of anxiety, so that the reaction to pain is not amplified by subsequent distress reactions,” says Orme-Johnson. “This has been shown independently by numerous studies and meta-analyses.”

The study initially involved only eight subjects 55 to 65 years old: four long-term TM practitioners, who had anywhere from 10 to 40 years of practice, and four non-meditating subjects. As in Cho´s acupuncture study, hot water (approximately 50 degrees C) was the pain stressor. The imaging technique employed was fMRI using a Philips 1.5T MRI system. Cho said he opted for fMRI in this study because it is somewhat easier to use than a PET scan.

The researchers concluded that these first results showed that both the brain and heart responded less to pain stimulation in the TM group than in control group. “The fMRI images show less activity in the brain of meditators in the pain stimulation than in the control subjects,” said Orme-Johnson. “We are just at the very preliminary phases of the study, but initially we are seeing much less of a reaction.”

Further, they pointed out that the increased heart rate indicated a defensive reaction of elevated sympathetic arousal—the fight or flight response—that can cause damage to the body.

They also pointed out that their result concurred with other evidence that suggests that TM practice changes an individual´s response to stress. This change, they said, is beneficial to cardiovascular health