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healthbriefs


One-Size Meditation Does Not Fit All A


n intriguing study recently posted online by Explore: The Journal of Science and Heal-


ing, suggests that new meditators are most likely to stick with the practice and reap its healthful benefits if they select methods with which they are most comfortable, rather than those that are most popular.


In one of the first studies to compare medi-


tation techniques head-to-head, author Adam Burke, a professor of health education at San Francisco State University and the director of its


Institute for Holistic Health Studies, taught 247 participants four popular methods— mantra, mindfulness, Zen and qigong visualization. He asked them to choose which they preferred to practice at home for six weeks before techniques were evaluated. The simpler methods, mantra and mindfulness, each were preferred by 31


percent of study participants. Zen and qigong were selected by about 22 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Burke says the results showed the value of providing people new to medita- tion simpler and more accessible methods, and also emphasized that no one tech- nique is best for everyone. He hopes to see more comparative meditation studies, especially to determine if particular methods are better at addressing specific health issues such as addiction. “If that’s the case,” he advises, “healthcare professionals would be able to guide patients toward techniques that will be most effective for them. Additional studies are also needed to determine if there is a way to predict which method will be best suited for any particular individual.”


A Wise Man’s Gift for Arthritis Sufferers


F


rankincense, an aromatic resin obtained from Boswellia trees native to Africa, is an age-old herbal remedy that may help alleviate the pain of arthritis, according to scientists at Cardiff University, in Wales. “The search for new ways of relieving the symptoms of inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis is a long and difficult one,” says Dr. Emma Blain, who led the research with co- investigators Professor Vic Duance, from Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences, and Dr. Ahmed Ali, of the Compton Group. The team believes they have been able to demonstrate that treatment with an extract of Boswellia frereana—a rare frank- incense species—inhibits the production of key inflammatory molecules and helps prevent the breakdown of cartilage tissue that causes the condition. The African Somali people have long used extracts of frankincense as a tradi-


tional remedy for arthritis. “Our research achieved the use of innovative chemical extraction techniques to determine the active ingredient in frankincense,” says Ali. “We will now be able to further characterize the chemical entity and compare its success against other anti-inflammatory drugs used for treating the condition.”


8 NA Twin Cities Edition natwincities.com


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