Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Art of Meditation and Cancer Prevention

Cancer inflicts thousands every year. The medical and research communities have made great strides in defining how cancer starts. They have been successful in developing treatments that address the symptoms, slow down the progression, and in some cases reverse the damage that cancer causes, giving hope for a permanent cure. Many try to live a lifestyle that gives us a fighting chance to avoid this disease altogether. One weapon that we can use as a preventative measure is meditation.

Our bodies are equipped with a natural defense system to fight off invading cells that cause damage to our overall health. This is the job of our immune system. Emerging studies are showing that meditation can improve your immune system. When functioning properly, our immune system allows the cells in our body to perform at optimal levels and keep the "bugs" that we encounter every day from making us sick. In fact, when thousands get their flu shots every year, they are actually being injected with a flu virus so that the immune system learns how to handle it. It's like boot camp for the cells!

It makes sense to do everything you can to ensure that your immune system has the tools to do its job. One way is to be sure that you are eating a variety of foods that provide all the nutrients needed to keep healthy. This variety includes colorful fruits and vegetables, fiber, a good dose of selenium and other minerals, and plenty of water. Medical research supports healthy eating habits. Meditation is another tool that you can add to your healthy living to control stress.

Stress tends to weaken the immune system. So, it also makes sense to do what you can to reduce the amount of stress in your life. Many believe that they have little control over stress. While there may be some situations that come up when you don't expect them, and these unexpected events cause you to feel stressed you still have the opportunity to face these challenges in a manner that can keep your immune system intact. This is through daily meditation.

Imagine if you are the parent of a teenager, having an unpleasant confrontation with your child over their homework, sex, drugs, driving, rules, boundaries, or any number of other issues that come with parenting. This confrontation can cause your heart to beat faster and your blood pressure to rise. Add to this, a heavy work schedule that is filled with deadlines and personality differences with your co-workers or boss...more stress. Then to top it all off, get on the freeway and drive through traffic to get to your next destination or appointment on time! No wonder most people feel that they have no control over the amount of stress in their lives.

But you do. You may not be able to control the situation, but you can control the way that you respond to it. Through a consistent practice of meditation, you can train your brain to respond to normal, everyday, crazy events with a relaxed response rather than one that will throw your body into a state of mind that sets your survival instincts in motion. Simply using one of the many forms of meditation, such as Breathing Meditation or the popular Transcendental Meditation, can change your response and quite possibly change your outcome. When you are constantly operating in "survival mode", the result is overall fatigue; fatigue leads to stress; stress leads to a breakdown in your immune system. Remember, it is your immune system that is vital to giving your body a fighting chance to avoid cancer.

Article source:http://ezinearticles.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

hi art of living...