Any meditation practice like yoga can successfully reduce chronic pain by changing pain perception. It also reduces stress, helps a person feel better in no time. However, it is not an independent benefit and only works in addition to the prescribed medicinal treatment.
The complete study findings are published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
Nearly 89% of the study participants said that this meditation helped them in chronic pain management while 11% shared neutral response.
Pain is a common and daily life problem and those with underlying medical conditions are more likely to suffer from chronic pain. Nearly 100 million people are living with some type of extreme pain which costs at least $635 billion to the healthcare sector.
This small scale study evaluated people living in semi-rural communities of Oregon where healthcare is not affordable and available like big cities. All the participants of this study were given specific instructions to follow on meditation practices for eight-week-long to evaluate their chronic pain.
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It is common for people to lose hope as this pain becomes unbearable sometimes. It is also possible to never recover from the pain completely but meditation practices such as yoga can help to reduce the severity of the pain and promote healing.
The complete recovery from a disease means no more feeling pain. But when the pain persists despite the negative diagnostic results, it means that the disease is still there. At this stage, most people leave it as it is and live the remaining years of their life in immense pain. Although managing pain is easy to buy relying on over-the-counter medicines is wrong. Alternately, meditation practices like yoga can be of great help in even in chronic pain conditions.
After passing eight weeks of doing yoga, the patients were evaluated on the basis of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). It is a standard protocol for evaluating stress and depression and the participants reported a 3.7 point drop on a total of 27 point scale. This result is somehow the same as that of using anti-depressant medicines and pain killers.
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Not many people know but depression and pain run side by side. It is common for the pain patients to feel stressed every now and then which damages their health even more. In this situation, using an easy to do meditation can be effective with or without other treatments for example therapy, medicines, etc.
The information was passed on to the study participants using MBSR which is an education program. It trains people on how to be self-aware of their condition and follow instructions that help them feel better. Not only pain but this program is also effective in stress relief and management.
While pain patients try to find better and safer pain relief solutions, adding yoga or any other meditation practice can increase their chance of a complete recovery. It is necessary to follow a certified yoga instructor or join a yoga class specially designed for patients to get the complete effects.
