'Vipassana' reduces brain's reaction to pain: Study

New York, Oct 29 (UNI) A new study has revealed that Indian way of meditation, 'Vipassana' may reduce the brain's reaction to pain and increase tolerance, helping in leading a life without stress.

The study by assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Natalia Morone tracked the effect of 'Vipassana' or mindfulness meditation on chronic lower back pain in people above 65 years.

The trial found that the 37 people who participated in an eight-week mindfulness meditation programme had significantly greater pain acceptance and physical function than another group which took the same classes later and showed similar results.

Increasingly, doctors in the US are recommending meditation for pain treatment, and some of the nation's top hospitals, including Stanford, Duke and NYU Medical Center, now offer meditation programmes to patients suffering from pain, Los Angeles Times reported.

Scientitist have studied the effects of meditation on pain ever since 1979, when MIT-trained microbiologist Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus and founder of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, used mindfulness meditation in a 10-week programme to help people cope with chronic pain.

Kabat-Zinn's 1990 bestseller, ''Full Catastrophe Living,'' described the technique he used -- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR.

''MBSR's contribution has been to bring the heart of Buddhist meditation without the Buddhism into the mainstream of Western medicine,'' professor Kabat-Zinn said.

UNI