A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Benson is the author or co-author of more than 175 scientific publications and 11 books on the benefits of what has come to be called Mind-Body Medicine.
Dr. Benson published his first book in this subject area in 1975.
According the BHI's web site, Dr. Benson "has written that the fundamental element of mind/body medicine - the elicitation of the relaxation response - can be traced back to the earliest civilizations. It appears that one of our most basic bodily avenues to better health is the simple following of the breath, in and out, and the avoidance of distracting thoughts.
Dr. Benson and his colleagues have taken this universal activity and extensively researched and adapted it; today mind/body medicine and self-care has been shown to be effective and essential in improving our health and, thus, is growing in acceptance to become a third modality in health care, taking its place next to surgery and pharmaceuticals."
Now, here we are in 2007, and the same folks trying to cover up Rx drug deaths want you to believe that there is no proof of effective improvement in your health with supplements or meditation.
Thousands of years of proof is more than anecdotal in my mind.
What's in yours?
And in the mean time propaganda rolls on.
No Clear Evidence Meditation Can Boost Health: Study
THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- There's no definitive evidence that meditation eases health problems, according to an exhaustive review of the accumulated data by Canadian researchers.
"There is an enormous amount of interest in using meditation as a form of therapy to cope with a variety of modern-day health problems, especially hypertension, stress and chronic pain, but the majority of evidence that seems to support this notion is anecdotal, or it comes from poor quality studies," concluded researchers Maria Ospina and Kenneth Bond of the University of Alberta/Capital Health Evidence-based Practice Centre, in Edmonton.
They analyzed 813 studies focused on the impact of meditation on various conditions, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and substance abuse.
Released Monday, the report looked at studies on five types of meditation practices: mantra meditation; mindfulness meditation; yoga, Tai Chi and Qi Gong.
Some of the studies suggested that certain types of meditation could help reduce blood pressure and stress and that yoga and other practices increased verbal creativity and reduced heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol in healthy people.
However, the report authors said it isn't possible to draw any firm conclusions about the effects of meditation on health, because the existing studies are characterized by poor methodologies and other problems.
"Future research on meditation practices must be more rigorous in the design and execution of studies and in the analysis and reporting of results," Ospina said in a prepared statement.
Bond added that the new report doesn't prove that meditation has no therapeutic value, but it can inform medical practitioners that the "evidence is inconclusive regarding its effectiveness."
For the general public, the report "highlights that choosing to practice a particular meditation technique continues to rely solely on individual experiences and personal preferences, until more conclusive scientific evidence is produced," Ospina said.
The study was funded by the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Bethesda, Md., part of the National Institutes of Health.
The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has more about meditation for health purposes.
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