Mindfulness meditation is a special meditation technique that involves focusing on the current situation and state of mind. It is called differently: thoughtful meditation, mindfulness, mental involvement, mindful meditation. By whatever name it is, this proverbial technique for relieving stress and pain … has no scientific basis.
Typically, mindfulness meditation means that you think deeply (meditate) about the environment, emotions and breathing, or, more simply, enjoy every bite of the pie. For a long time, science has linked the practice of mindfulness meditation to a range of potential health benefits.
If you stop and think about the world around you, or better yet, do it while you meditate, you can come to a sense of well-being, many studies say. Many experiments have linked mindfulness meditation to cognitive improvement. One study even showed that meditation preserves the ends of chromosomes (telomeres), which shorten as we age.
However, many psychologists, neurologists and meditation experts fear that the hype is outstripping science. In an article published last week in Perspectives on Psychological Sciences, 15 prominent psychologists and cognitive scientists warn that despite the popularity of mindfulness meditation and its perceived health benefits, scientific evidence is grossly lacking. Much of the research on mindfulness and meditation, the authors write, is poorly designed, compromised by inconsistent definitions of mindfulness, and often lacks a control group to rule out the placebo effect.
The new article cites a 2015 review published in American Psychologist that reported that only 9% of studies on mindfulness meditation were tested in a clinical setting that included a control group. The authors also point to multiple placebo-controlled meta-analyzes that conclude that the practice of mindfulness meditation often produced less than impressive results. In a review of 47 meditation studies from 2014, which combined more than 3,500 participants, there was little to no evidence-based benefits associated with improved focus, reduced substance abuse, improved sleep, or weight control.
Lead author Nicholas Van Dam, a clinical psychologist and research assistant in psychological sciences at the University of Melbourne, argues that the potential benefits of mindfulness meditation are grossly exaggerated and literally sold for financial gain. Mindfulness meditation and teaching this "art" is a $ 1.1 billion market in the US alone. “It doesn't follow from our review that mindfulness meditation doesn't help in some things,” says Van Dam. "But strict science is not required to make loud statements." He also expressed concern that in 2015, less than 25% of meditation studies included tracking possible negative effects of an intervention.
Van Dam acknowledges that some good research does support the benefits of informed mediation. A 2014 analysis found that meditation can lead to reductions in anxiety, depression, and pain. However, this is a small percentage of the total number of studies conducted with insufficient rigor.
Two studies published this month in Science Advances also support the practice of mindfulness meditation. The first showed that thoughtful meditation reduced perceived stress, but not cortisol, which is usually a biological marker of stress levels. Other research links the practice of mindfulness meditation to the thickening of the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with complex behaviors, decision making, and personality formation. The authors called for further research to determine the medical meaning of such results. The lack of standardization in research on meditation has led to confusion over the years.
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Mindfulness meditation is rooted in Buddhist doctrine and theory. It was popularized in the West in the 1970s, not least thanks to the efforts of University of Massachusetts professor John Kabat-Zinn, a cognitive scientist who founded a stress reduction clinic and clinical mindfulness meditation center. Kabat-Zinn developed mindfulness meditation to reduce stress as an alternative treatment for difficult-to-treat diseases. By the early 2000s, mindfulness meditation had become wildly popular and sold in many different varieties.
“In general, I suspect that a large number of promises to improve health will be missed, mainly because therapies, phone apps and other inventions come to market without rigorous research and rigorous standardization,” says Van Dam. Of particular difficulty is the need to convey this to people who believe that they are improving their health, deeply mistaken in this.
Ilya Khel
