Welcoming a Guest! -Allison Brooks-

Allison is a writer and advocate for spiritual bell-being. Today, she's sharing her thoughts on the link between meditation and health. Thanks, Allison!

How the use of meditation can reduce medical bills

Over the years, there have been many studies regarding the use of complementary and alternative
medicines paired with allopathic treatments. In a recent study, there was a rise in the use of mind-
body therapies (MBT) being suggested by medical-care providers, and now there is more evidence that
meditation practices can ease up the costs of medical care.

In a long five year study, Canadian researchers explored the effects of Transcendental Meditation on
health of people. Since a small fraction of a population normally accounts for most of the medical
spending, researchers wanted to see if there was a way to reduce the problem. In the Medicare
community, alone, only 5 percent incurred 43 percent of the spending, and the bills just keep piling up.
The reason for the continuous health issues was due to stress.

Chronic stress of patients is the main reason why medical expenses are so high. The constant worry
can lead to severe side-effects resulting in recurring hospital visits. To help ease the stress, researchers
suggested the use of Transcendental Meditation (TM). They studied and compared the cost changes in
284 “high-cost” participants; 142 practicing TM and 142 non-practitioners. The results were surprising
and affirmed their thesis.

During the five year period, the TM group’s annual rate of change in payments declined significantly.
After the first year, the medical costs of the TM group’s dropped 11 percent and their cumulative
reduction was 28 percent. These are good, solid numbers, especially compared to the non-TM
participants, which saw no change in their medical expenses.

These studies prove as another “win” for mind-body therapies. Not only do they serve as a catalyst for
healing but they also help ease the payments, which is good for times like these. Many doctors now
prescribe the use of MBT for serious treatment plans like ones for a chronic condition or an aggressive
cancer, like non-hodgkin’s lymphoma or mesothelioma. At first it was just to ease the stress, pain, and
other side-effects of conventional therapies, but now they can reduce prolonged medical costs.