In open-angle glaucoma, practicing meditation helps reduce pressure in the eye. Combined with treatments, this technique can significantly improve the quality of life of patients.
Meditation would be good for your health. Several studies have suggested it for several years. Meditation consists of focusing on yourself, on your breathing, on sensations felt and helps reduce stress.
Within the Institute for Medical Psychology at Otto-V Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany, researchers observed the positive effects of this technique on open-angle glaucoma. After several weeks of testing, patients had reduced intraocular pressure.
Avoid blindness
Open-angle glaucoma is a disease related to high blood pressure in the fluids in the eye. This intraocular hypertension is secondary to a gene in the flow of fluid which is constantly secreted inside the eye, this increases the pressure in the eye and damages the optic nerve. Ultimately, this disease can cause blindness.
To treat it, it is necessary to reduce the intraocular pressure, this is precisely the result obtained during the practice of meditation: by reducing stress, it lowers this pressure in patients, hence its positive effects on glaucoma. . Bernhard Sabel, co-author: “Research suggests that stress may be one of the causes of glaucoma, using ancient meditation techniques to reduce it is a very useful tool for overall care of patients and not just their eyes “.
A controlled clinical study
90 patients with open-angle glaucoma participated in this research. They were divided into two groups. One followed a three-week program focused on meditation and breathing through daily 60-minute sessions, while continuing to follow the treatment. The second group took only the treatment during this period.
At the end of the study, 75% of the patients who practiced meditation had a 25% reduced intraocular pressure compared to the group without meditation and their stress hormone level was lower.
Beneficial effects on health in general
Last April, a study presented at the Experimental Biology Congress showed that meditation improves heart health. All participants had a reduced heart rate after 60 minutes of meditation, and after several weeks, they reported feeling less anxiety.
According to the France glaucoma association, 70 million people worldwide suffer from glaucoma and 5 million are blind due to sickness.
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