What are the potential health benefits?

Could mindfulness meditation be good medicine for both mental and physical ailments?

Yes, says one expert, who explained the practice and what conditions it can help with.

Eric Garland, director of the Center for Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development at the University of Utah, said certain forms of mindfulness that focus on pleasure have been shown to be as effective as early-stage opioid treatment for pain and more effective than traditional psychotherapy for substance abuse.

But the meditation style may also be effective for more than just chronic pain and addiction.

“The techniques we teach are likely to be highly effective in treating depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as increasing resilience in people without a diagnosable mental illness,” Garland said in a university news release.

So how does it work?

Mindfulness as a form of therapy is a type of mental training that helps you develop awareness, Garland explains, by focusing your attention on the thoughts, feelings and physical sensations you’re experiencing.

The goal, he says, is to “observe your experiences as if you were a witness. It’s a practice of awareness, of waking up to the workings of your mind and becoming aware of how you are acting in life.”

In a study conducted by Garland and his team a few years ago, 15 minutes of mindfulness meditation reduced pain by nearly 30 percent, which he noted was comparable to the pain-relieving effects achieved with an initial dose of 5 milligrams of oxycodone.

Mindfulness also helps people with chronic pain separate their emotional and physical reactions and think of pain as simply a physical sensation, Garland said. This approach reduces the intensity of pain by changing the way the brain processes it.

Mindfulness for addiction treatment, on the other hand, cultivates both self-awareness and self-control: People become more aware of their reactions to drug use and their habits, allowing them to take greater control over their choices, Garland explains.

But just as the effects of drugs are not permanent, the benefits of a “dose of mindfulness” are temporary because the brain reverts to old patterns, Garland said. But his research shows that eight weeks of mindfulness treatment reduces addictive behavior and pain, and the reduction lasts for at least nine months.

Is there anyone who shouldn’t use it?

Garland said it’s still unclear who mindfulness works for and who it doesn’t, and cautioned that not all mindfulness training is created equal, and the quality of the techniques taught is only as good as the instructor.

He added that people who have experienced trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may experience flashbacks during mindfulness meditation and should learn the correct technique from an experienced and qualified psychotherapist.

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