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Stress not only destroys our peace of mind, but causes a variety of diseases, and causes financial loss worth billions of dollars every year due to decreased productivity. Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon discovered 90 years ago that when we are stressed, our blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and breathing rate increases. In 1967, Dr. Herbert Benson, also from Harvard, found that the effect of meditation on our body is exactly opposite – i.e. lessens our blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and breathing rate. He wrote a book entitled ‘The Relaxation Response’ – where he argued that meditators counter acted the stress induced ‘fight or flight response’ and achieved a calmer, happier state. The book became a best seller. Several researches has also found that meditation decreases the secretion of cortisol, a hormone responsible for stress. Since then, research has proved again and again the meditation is one of the most effective ways to combat stress. Researchers have studied the impact of meditation on the stress levels of different groups of people, including students, critical care nurses, incarcerated people, war veterans etc. and found that meditation helps reduce stress in all these groups. Researchers have also found that meditation helps recover from post traumatic stress disorder. Increasing evidence suggests that chronic stress may increase a process called ‘oxidative stress’ in our bodies, in which. There is considerable evidence that oxidative stress is one of the causes of aging and the diseases associated with it, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, psoriasis etc. Several studies have found that meditation reduces oxidative stress. For example, in 2006 and 2008, researchers Van Wijk and others have used an innovative technique – ultra weak photon emission measurement- to measure the amount of the reactive oxygen species that causes damage in 60 male volunteers divided into two groups. They found that the levels of photon radiation, and there for oxidative stress, was much less in meditators in comparison to not meditators.

 

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