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Jack  Kornfield

Jack Kornfield

Clinical psychologist, meditation instructor and author

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Sharon Salzberg

Co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society and magazine...

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Stephan Bodian

Meditation teacher and author of Meditation for Dummies

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AIDS Slowed By Meditation?

AIDS Slowed By Meditation?

As reported by Reuters, researchers here in the United States suspect that meditating can actually slow down the progression of AIDS in a matter of weeks. If proven with further studies, patients will have access to an incredibly peaceful, painless and fulfilling “medicine” to help fight off the deadly health diagnosis.

Scientists studied patients who practiced mindfulness meditation—“awareness of the present moment”—and found that their overall stress levels were lowered. Not exactly surprising if you know about this practice! The real surprise was that with lowered stress levels came higher T-cell counts, meaning that AIDS patients were battling the illness with more success.

What this could mean for AIDS treatment, and the treatment of other diseases in general, is encouraging and exciting. Obviously, meditating has no side effects (except for positive ones!) and lacks the risk involved with the proverbial drug cocktails and other invasive treatments. Are there minor or major illnesses in your own life that have been significantly helped, in your opinion, by the regular practice of meditation?

Posted: 7/29/08
Dadeeyo189

Totally agree!

Meditation is the key to a lot of things. When I started Bikram Yoga just for exercise, I ended up falling deep into the meditation and became... one with myself :). My stress level reduced and I could just feeeeeeeel the health benefits.

VictoriaB

That's fascinating. Of course, not surprising given all that we are finally starting to admit about the mind-body-spirit connection.