Christopher Clark, M.D., is a graduate of Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and a recipient of a child psychology fellowship from the University of Washington. He has practiced medicine for over 20 years and is currently a psychiatrist in Vero Beach, Florida.
Physician Resume
Dr. Clark: Research shows that regular practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique reduces back pain, headache and chronic pain. The TM technique also resets the body’s perception of pain and anticipation of pain. Research also shows that the Transcendental Meditation technique will reduce pain-related stress, insomnia and even depression. These chronic symptoms are often associated with low back or chronic back pain, which afflicts up to 40% of the population at some point in their lives.
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Dr. Clark: Tension headaches are associated with or aggravated by stressful experiences. Even the anticipation of stress can create the same reaction. Research shows that regular practice of the Transcendental Meditation program dissolves stress-aggravated conditions. It allows people to manage tension in their lives to the extent that headaches or other pain-aggravated conditions are reduced or eliminated altogether.
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Dr. Clark: It’s not that you have a headache or backache and then say, “Oh now I’ll go meditate to deal with the pain.” The Transcendental Meditation technique is not an analgesic. It’s a preventative. It tends to reduce the possibility of pain, and it also strengthens the physiology. One’s actual pain threshold may not change, but the physiology gets stronger and therefore the pain is not experienced as acutely.
When one meditates regularly, the brain physiology changes. According to research studies funded by the NIH that involved neuro-imaging of the thalamus and prefrontal cortex, long-term practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique showed a 40-50% reduction in brain activity in response to pain compared with a control group of non-meditators. After receiving instruction in the TM technique and practicing it for five months, people in the control group also showed a 40-50 percent decrease in brain activity in response to pain. The practice of meditation didn’t change the intensity of pain experienced by the subjects—it changed their reaction, which suggested to researchers that the effect of Transcendental Meditation was in reducing anxiety and distress and improving stability and strength.
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Dr. Clark: Yes, definitely. Chronic pain patients have a higher incidence of chronic depression and anxiety, due to their chronic pain. These conditions can sometimes be disabling. Regular practice of the TM technique reduces trait anxiety, reduces depression, and reduces pain. On all these levels, it has been seen to be helpful.
It’s important to recognize that pain, anxiety and depression are all brain- or neurologically-mediated experiences. Abundant research studies show that during the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique, more coherence gets generated in the brain, as measured by brain-wave frequencies. The whole brain becomes more balanced, and this is reflected in more happiness, less stress, and reduced tendency for anxiety, depression and pain.
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Dr. Clark: All experience is neurologically mediated. Experiences of pain, depression and anxiety are not only nerve receptor experiences, but they’re also experiences that are processed through many different layers of the brain and its executive functioning.
How pain is interpreted involves not just a sensation, a pin-prick of pain, but involves higher centers of the brain, which create the psychological effects, including anticipation of pain, anxiety and depression. These side effects of pain are what create such debilitating effects on the daily functioning of the individual. The TM technique is so successful in mitigating pain because it creates balance in the total brain.
You could give someone pain medicine, and that might help with their physical pain, but it wouldn’t treat their anxiety and depression; it wouldn’t make them feel more happy or more joyful. The TM technique is unique because it not only reduces the perception of pain, but it strengthens other levels of brain functioning to reduce anxiety, depression and anticipation of pain.
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Dr. Clark: Many people have found that practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique helps reduce the need for medication. This is significant, because chronic pain is a huge problem in America today. Most patients end up going to chronic pain clinics, where they take heavy medications such as morphine, and even become addicted. Pain medications can affect cognition, make it difficult to concentrate, or even cause memory impairment.
The Transcendental Meditation technique is the opposite. As shown by research, TM reduces the perception and anticipation of pain without negative side effects. Research shows that it improves anxiety, depression, concentration and memory, and results in greater alertness and efficiency in action. For all of these reasons, practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique is a cost-effective way to deal with pain without side effects.
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Dr. Clark: You can see it from both sides. Pain itself creates stress in the physiology, which creates a whole cascade of neurophysiologic reactions, hormonal reactions and so forth. Yet stress itself also makes the physiology more reactive to pain, so they each affect the other. So if we can reduce stress, the physiology could become less susceptible to pain.
Obviously some people have a higher threshold to stress than others. With regard to reactivity, we know from the abundance of studies on the Transcendental Meditation technique that practitioners show a decreased stress response, as demonstrated by galvanic skin response and other measures, showing decreased reactivity of the autonomic nervous system to stressful stimuli. Stress reduction through the regular practice of the TM technique makes the physiology stronger and more resilient to stress, thus making it more able to deal with pain. The mind and physiology aren’t as overshadowed by the pain, so that the underlying sense of well being and happiness are maintained.
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