Yoga practitioners know firsthand the physical and mental benefits the activity produces, as meditation is often embedded in yoga sessions. Now, yogis have got science to back their claims of well-being and focus, as new research shows more clearly how yoga-induced mindfulness has an impact on pain perception.
The findings come from research carried out by PhD student Tim Gard at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He started with recent findings showing that mindfulness can attenuate pain, and set out to discover more about the underlying brain mechanisms that are involved.
To do that, he carried out an experiment that involved applying unpleasant electric stimuli to a group in a meditative state and to a control group with a similar healthy lifestyle, each group comprising 17 volunteers. All test subjects were in an fMRI scanner when the stimuli were applied.
The experiment produced surprising results, as it revealed that mindfulness practitioners were able to reduce pain perception by 22 percent and anticipatory anxiety by 29 percent during a mindful state.
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- See more at: http://www.stonehearthnewsletters.com/meditation-yoga-mental-health-benefits-documented-in-new-dutch-study/mental-health/#sthash.C20zAV2m.vYQfCujX.dpuf
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