Mindful Meditation slows HIV progress

Meditation is a bastardized word. People have made it into practices into exercises into methodologies.. everything other than what it is supposed to be. The word for meditation in Sanskrit or Hindi was “Dhyan” – which means “to contemplate”. The eternal question is the most suitable for contemplation – “Who Am I”? It is this question and this alone which takes you to the very edge of creation and beyond.

One of the accompanying step in this contemplation is that one is in the present (the here and the now). Bringing the baggage of the past or the anticipation of the future to a moment, prevents that awareness. Some call it “Mindful Meditation”.

Scientists have just discovered that Mindful Meditation slows the progress of HIV in patients.

CD4+ T lymphocytes, or simply CD4 T cells, are the “brains” of the immune system, coordinating its activity when the body comes under attack. They are also the cells that are attacked by HIV, the devastating virus that causes AIDS and has infected roughly 40 million people worldwide. The virus slowly eats away at CD4 T cells, weakening the immune system.

But the immune systems of HIV/AIDS patients face another enemy as well — stress, which can accelerate CD4 T cell declines. Now, researchers at UCLA report that the practice of mindfulness meditation stopped the decline of CD4 T cells in HIV-positive patients suffering from stress, slowing the progression of the disease.

Interesting! It seems this meditation – of losing ones self – not only gets you spiritual dividends but also health dividends.. and what amazing ones!

 Technorati : HIV, Meditation