What can meditation do for you?

Research suggests that meditation can help ease anxiety and depression. Research also shows that meditation helps with pain. People who practiced it for a short time had fewer inflammatory markers in their blood in one study. This means meditation lowered their risk for stress-fueled illnesses like heart disease. Scans showed that communication within the parts of the brain that maintain calm and focus had improved with meditation. Science is evolving, but it still is not clear how often or how long you need to meditate to see results. For now, Madhav Goyal,M.D., of John Hopkins Medicine suggests, "it's best to think of meditation as a skill-the more you develop it, the more likely you are to benefit from it".