Chronic pain extracts a heavy toll on sufferers whose daily lives frequently deteriorate into endurance contests with more agony the only foreseeable outcome. Medication isn’t always the answer and while instructing the afflicted to “live in the moment” seems counterintuitive—even flaky—evidence suggests that it may be the best advice on offer.

A recent Canadian study demonstrates that mindful meditation provides an effective way to mitigate pain volume and intensity while improving overall quality of life. Dr. Jackie Gardner-Nix, a pain consultant who operates a meditation program at Sunnybrook and St. Michael’s hospitals in Toronto, Ontario, conducted the study over 10 weeks.

Participants, who practiced meditation for 10 to 20 minutes a day, showed significant improved ability to manage pain—some of them were even able to stop taking medication altogether.

“Anyone can benefit from mindfulness meditation; it is just going back to basics and relearning how to live in the moment, non judgmentally, instead of mostly in the future or the past with a lot of judgmentalism, which is what most of us do! It’s for anyone, whatever their disorder, and even when there is none. It likely helps people with any sort of pain,” says Dr. Gardner-Nix who trained with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, an international authority in the field of medical meditation at the Stress Reduction Center at the University of Massachusetts.

A significant body of research tends to confirm what proponents already report.

“People who meditate have been shown to quickly achieve health benefits such as slower heart rates, lower blood pressure, reduced oxygen consumption and lower lactic acid levels. Some have used meditation to help with everything from headaches and respiratory problems to cancer and coping with death. It’s seen as a crucial tool in treating many mental health illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia, while it’s been shown to actually boost functionality of the immune system. Beyond the science, however, one common health benefit in dealing with stress is perhaps the most important and this is meditation’s ability to help the practitioner shut up and listen,” says Sunirmalya, who operates a meditation retreat in North East Australia and is a founding member of the Meditation Society of Australia

There are indications that when we feel unhappy or anxious our brain exhibits elevated activity in the right pre-frontal cortex—when we’re happy, activity seems to center around the left prefrontal cortex. After weeks of practicing meditation, participants in an American study, whose brains initially showed a disposition to lean right, made a perceptible shift to the left.

“Daily meditation reduces the ‘fight-or-flight’ response to adverse events, and so the body’s physiology is less shifted by adversity-one gets less upset and recovers quicker when practicing regularly. Patients even report a withdrawal effect or agitation if they stop for a week or two. When calmer and more resilient to stress it has a positive effect on those closest to them too—it sort of rubs off on them and they often feel better too. The body’s reduced adverse response to stress has a beneficial effect on the immune system and the gut, as these get put ‘on hold’ when the body is in crisis mode. Quality of sleep, also important for the immune system to function well, and tissue repair to proceed, is also improved by this practice,” reports Dr. Gardner-Nix.

Practice in this case makes more perfect, she says.

“It is not ‘doable’ in the moment when pain is very intense, however, and is best practiced when pain is starting to ramp up, rather than when at its peak. But to be able to employ mindfulness meditation that way, to its full extent, it takes daily meditation practice. Our data on chronic non-cancer pain patients, who have pain quite resistant to pain drugs—more so than acute and cancer pain—shows that we are very successful in improving their quality of life, decreasing catastrophizing about pain, decreasing pain intensity and also decreasing the suffering caused by pain. However, some report their pain is not reduced but their ability to handle it is improved and especially that they are happier.”

Discipline and regular application are essential to the process—patients must make meditation a part of their daily routine.

“Meditation is really just using a focus for a formal period of time each day, whether that is a ‘mantra’ in transcendental meditation, or the breath, which is what we use in our practice. Patients who have meditated for years before doing our course still benefit; I suspect the mindfulness—adding this ‘informal’ form of meditation—paying attention non-judgmentally to whatever is going on in the moment—likely adds a very important component to the practice. It then feels like you’re always in a form of meditation, which feels good, and when you feel good the body works better. The camaraderie of the class is also important—people feel less isolated with their pain and that also has a beneficial effect.”

While the majority of patients report benefits, some people are more receptive than others—being skeptical is okay, as long as you’re open-minded, comments Dr. Gardner-Nix.

“Open mindedness and willingness to do the practice regularly, as we ask, and attend classes every week, are assets. Those who have no spirituality at all seem to not be able to progress. And those with no motivation to do the practice don’t get anything out of it—they have to commit to regular practice. Also, those who just want their problem ‘fixed’ but don’t see they have a part to play in the fixing do poorly. And those who blame their pain purely on the physical abnormality underlying it without remembering that their pain fluctuates from moment to moment—their clue that brain interpretation of the pain, changes, do poorly.”

Mind Over Matter:

• The Meditation Society of Australia offers a free online meditation course to get you started: www.meditation.org.au

“If you believe something will really help you it likely will,” offers Dr. Gardner-Nix. “That’s why studies usually include a placebo arm because the power of the mind is huge—it can sabotage you or help you. The mindfulness really supports that theory—it is using the power of the mind for improving one’s health, healing and wellbeing.”