Meditation has been used for healing for centuries.  It contributes to one’s physiological and psychological well-being.  It does this by turning one’s brainwave pattern to an “alpha” state.  The alpha state of the mind promotes healing. There are three categories of health that can be affected by meditation.  They are physiological, psychological and spiritual. 

Meditation can help with many ailments.  It is useful in treating drug addition by helping to control the immune system, stress and anger.  Coping with stress is one of the key reasons people use meditation.  Stress comes from all aspects of life, work, home, family, illness, and the environment.  Meditation helps to change how a person views these things and helps them cope.  Meditation can help to lower the core temperature of your body and help extend your life. Meditation is very helpful in pain management from fibromyalgia, childbirth, arthritis and other painful conditions.  People are taught deep breathing in childbirth classes. This practice is actually a form of breath meditation.  In other types of pain it can help relieve the anxiety caused by the pain. Anxiety decreases a person’s pain threshold and pain causes anxiety.  This process creates a cycle that is sometimes difficult to break and meditation can help cope with this. Other ailments that can be helped with meditation are heart disease, high blood pressure, infertility, psoriasis, respiratory illnesses, PMS, tension headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia and ulcers. 

Meditation can’t cure many of these medical problems and it can help a person to cope with them and better figure out how to deal with them.  A study conducted by Dr. Ainslie Meares from Australia studied 73 cancer patients who had attended at least 20 meditation sessions.  He wrote, "Nearly all such patients can expect significant reduction of anxiety and depression, together with much less discomfort and pain. There is reason to expect a 10 percent chance of quite remarkable slowing of the rate of growth of the tumor, and a 50 percent chance of greatly improved quality of life."