Can Mental Tricks Manage Pain? Day 3

Meditation Meditation may be one of the most powerful tonics for pain. One 2011 study found that mindfulness meditation, which focuses on the breath, reduced pain intensity anywhere from 11% to 70% and pain unpleasantness from 20% to 93% in people who had a heat probe applied to their calves. And these study participants received only 80 minutes of training—other studies indicate that the more meditation hours the better when it comes to subverting pain. Researchers are now pinpointing specific regions of the brain that are responsible for the effect.