Meditate Stress and Diseases Away
In the article, "Fighting Loneliness and Disease with Meditation", the author, Amanda Enayati (2012), shares the evidence of a research project that evaluates the effects of meditation on loneliness and disease. According to the article, if a person participates in meditation practice it will then reduce inflammation in the body to further reduce certain disease, and will also lessen levels of stress and loneliness. Due to failed attempts to reduce the amount of loneliness is older adults, J. David Creswell, and assistant professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon's College of Humanities and Sciences, conducted a study on a group of about 40 healthy adults between the ages of 55 and 85. His study required that randomly, half of the participants would take part in two-hour skill training sessions, 30-minute meditation exercises at home, and a day long retreat (all within an eight-week time period). The study proved that those involved in mindfulness meditation reduced their perceptions of loneliness compared to the group that was not revealed to the studies. Not only that, but scientists also made a discovery that the mindfulness meditation also led to a reduction in inflammation in their bodies, reducing serious disease. By conducting the study though random sampling, I believe that Creswell was able to get a correct evaluation on who the study works on and who it does not. The fact that the participants were initially interested in mindfulness-based meditation techniques (Enayati 2012) may increase the placebo effect, of which participants were already expecting some kind of change or reaction to the study. It would be very interesting to see if the results were as positive if the participants were not familiar with mindfulness meditation. I support this study, but believe that an additional study could be done to further evaluate whether mindfulness truly leads to the reduction of loneliness and inflammation of the body. It would be important to learn of the pasts of the participants as far as inflammation and loneliness. To conduct the experiment on persons who have had previous problems with inflammation or depression could possibly support a better research study as to see if it would effect the participants in the same way or not. The study should support more information on how exactly the participants were effected and to what extent each one was effected; if the two outcomes correlate positively or negatively