Modern life seems to be moving at a faster and faster pace, with no sign of slowing down. Between our 24-hour news cycle, the push toward greater global connectivity, and faster and better technology, people are living extremely busy lives. Trying to keep up with work, relationships, and raising children can be exhausting, leaving us feeling drained and overwhelmed.

Many of Dr. Nathen Horst’s patients are eager to do more than just undergo chiropractic adjustments for specific musculoskeletal issues, but want to start an active wellness lifestyle that will improve their overall health over the long term. He will often suggest meditation as a simple, easy, and effective means to take time out from the hectic world around us and take time to care for ourselves emotionally and spiritually. However, there is evidence that meditation may also offer surprising physical benefits.

How Many People Practice Meditation in the United States?

According to a 2012 nationwide survey conducted by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH, one of the National Institutes of Health), more than 18 million American adults practice some form of meditation. This translates to approximately 8 percemt of the U.S. population. An additional 927,000 American children also practice some form of meditation.

Meditation Can Be Good for Your Heart

An article in the Annals of Behavioral Science looked at how meditation might have a positive effect on heart health. The authors of the article examined meditation’s effects on heart rate, blood pressure, and heart rate variation (how fast or slow the heart beats). In one study, a group of healthy subjects participated in two meditation sessions for relaxation, four weeks apart. Another group listened to an audio book. At the end of four weeks, those in the meditation group showed a significant drop in blood pressure. Furthermore, the women in the meditation group also had a drop in their heart rate variation. This would seem to make a case that meditation can help improve your heart health.

Meditation Reduces Pain Perception

Another study looked at the effect of meditation on perceptions of pain. In one experiment, subjects underwent painful electrical stimulation both before and after three days of 20-minute meditation sessions. Subjects were asked to rate their perception of the pain stimulation. In a second experiment, patients were given a math task to perform between the two pain stimulations. Finally, the differences in pain perception before and after meditation were compared to those before and after the math task. Although both meditation and math tasks did lower pain perception, those subjects who did meditation rated their perception of pain afterward to be lower than the pain perception of those who did the math task. This could represent good news for chronic pain patients, as a means to cope with pain flares.

There’s no doubt that meditation can calm you both emotionally and mentally. However, recent research also points to even better news showing ways in which meditation can help us physically cope with a world that seems to be spinning faster and faster with each passing day.