Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a program that was developed more than 26 years ago by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in response to the recognition that modern American medicine in 1970, for all of its technological wizardry and scientific achievement was failing to address many needs of sick and ailing people. The splitting of the mind from the body and the spirit was at an extreme. Modern medicine had solved many medical riddles, but people felt increasingly disconnected from their own health journey. In addition, there was a great deal of suffering that medicine failed to relieve.
In the inauspicious basement of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Dr. Kabat-Zinn, a molecular biologist from MIT conducted a radical experiment. The patients were suffering from psoriasis, a commonly disfiguring skin disorder treated by weekly exposure to ultraviolet light. They came every week for treatment, would disrobe to expose the affected areas, and stand in a light box for 15-20 minutes of light exposure. The treatment group listened to meditation instructions during the light exposure and healed faster than the control group who did not listen to the meditation instructions! How can this be?! How can simply listening to meditation instructions promote healing of the skin?
Since this wonderful experiment a great deal has been learned about how the mind and spirit can impact all aspects of health from the promotion of healing to reductions in the severity of illness and to illness prevention and the promotion of wellbeing.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction has since evolved into a distinct treatment program which has benefited over 10,000 people at the Stress Reduction Clinic at UMass. It is an 8-week program which trains its participants in a number of mindfulness-based practices. “Mindfulness” is a quality of awareness in which there is enhanced attention to the present moment and a non-judging, openhearted attitude. The program is well-studied and has been shown to improve blood pressure, improve coping with chronic pain from a wide range of disorders, reduce anxiety, prevent relapse for depression, support recovery from substance abuse, and has demonstrated significant benefit for many other disorders.
In a wonderful study done at University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a renown neurophysiologist, Dr. Richard Davidson, MBSR was shown to alter brain functioning by shifting the brain’s orientation towards pleasant and positive attitudes. At the same time, MBSR significantly improved immune function as compared with a study control group. From this study and many others we are now learning to decipher the subtle and complex relationships between the body, the mind and the spirit.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction has spread across the country and the world. There are hundreds of programs in the US and abroad. To learn more about MBSR or to find a program near you, go to umassmed.edu/cfm/mbsr/index.cfm, or visit www.lvh.org/mindfulness.
Susan D. Wiley, M.D.
Dr. Wiley is a psychiatrist, practicing in the Lehigh Valley, PA. She is Co-Founder, along with Joanne Cohen-Katz, PhD. of the Center for Mindfulness at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
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