Health Care Saves Big Bucks on Patients Who Meditate

Sometimes the best things in life are free… Researchers studying meditation show that stress is a vicious cycle: Unchecked stress turns into anxiety; anxiety turns into depression, which over time turns into a hormone that plays havoc with the internal organs of the body, producing a variety of illnesses and disorders.

Meditation can turn that around, reducing anxiety, depression, and the hormones that damage our body. Both adults and children are using meditation to control feelings and behavior. When you look at how our children interpret the body’s responses, these feelings are externalized as both bodily dysfunction and behavioral issues. We are seeing that these complaints are endemic in our country and around the world.

How does it work? Meditation can counteract the fight-or-flight response that floods the body with stress hormones which also shuts down the parasympathetic system. This hormone normally restores order after the fight-or-flight response alert is over, somewhat like a reset button.

Taking a closer look on a molecular level, meditation slows metabolism in red blood cells and suppresses the production of proteins associated with the kind of heightened immune response often seen in stressed-out subjects. In one study, meditating a mere 15 minutes twice daily reduced doctor visit over a six-month period saving this health-care system $200 a patient.

Now let’s be honest, maybe we are not so concerned with saving the health care system a lot of money. But aren’t we concerned with how we feel on a daily basis and wouldn’t we want our health care costs lower? I think most of us would agree with these outcomes right? So if 15 minutes twice a day and proper breathing can improve health and vitality, it might be well worth the short commitment. See there, sometimes the best things in life are free!