Mindfulness is a meditative practice which requires paying attention to one's surroundings and the present moment. A study has now found that mindfulness can boost the body's pain tolerance levels. Researchers from Wake Forest School of Medicine in the US conducted this study to obtain some groundbreaking data.
“Mindfulness is related to being aware of the present moment without too much emotional reaction or judgment,” said Fadel Zeidan, assistant professor at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “We now know that some people are more mindful than others, and those people seemingly feel less pain,” said Zeidan, lead author of the study published in the journal Pain.
76 people who had never meditated in their lives were asked to be a part of this research. They underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging where they were administered painful heat stimulation. It was found that people who were more mindful felt less pain as compared to people who weren't.
“The results from our study showed that mindful individuals are seemingly less caught up in the experience of pain, which was associated with lower pain reports,” Zeidan said. “Now we have some new ammunition to target this brain region in the development of effective pain therapies,” he said. Stay tuned for more updates.
