ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the evidence to support the use of meditation and other mind–body therapies to aid healing for a variety of disorders. It discusses the physiological benefits of meditation, including improvements to cardiovascular, neurophysiological, and immunological function, examines the effects of meditation on gene expression, and discusses specific research on its healing capacity with respect to different diseases. Jon Kabat-Zinn was one of the first persons to develop a clinically based form of meditation practice, which is called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Clinically Standardized Meditation uses the mental repetition of a sound selected from a list of sounds, which is allowed to move at its own pace. In addition to reductions in blood pressure, meditation also modulates sympathetic nervous system activity, reducing norepinephrine levels in the blood. This is significant as norepinephrine is known to be a factor indicative of cardiovascular disease progression, cardiovascular mortality, hospitalization for congestive heart failure, ischemic events, and myocardial infarction.
