Meditate To Slow Down AIDS

The deadly HIVdefine, which claims thousands of human lives every year, is still not curable. But scientists have now discovered that mindfulness meditation can slow down the progression of AIDS in the body. The study was published in the online edition of the journal ‘Brain, Behaviour and Immunity’.

Lead study author David Creswell said, “This study provides the first indication that mindfulness meditation stress-management training can have a direct impact on slowing HIVdefine disease progression.”

HIV (Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus) attacks the immune systemdefine of the body. It gobbles up CD4+T lymphocytes (also known as CD4 T cells) that help the body to fight against harmful attacks. It has been found that stress can significantly add to the reduction in the level of CD4 T cells. Scientists believe that in order to reduce stress, meditation can help.

The ‘mindfulness meditation’ programme is basically a group based treatment which is cost-effective too. If the initial findings of the study can be replicated in larger groups of people, then such a powerful complementary treatment for HIV disease can be given alongside medications.

The research consisted of 48 HIV positivedefine adults from Los Angeles, some of whom attended 8 weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) meditation programme. The rest of them were made to attend one day MBSR control seminar. A comparison between both groups showed that participants in MBSR had not lost the CD4 T cells while there was a significant decline in cells in the other group.

“Given the stress-reduction benefits of mindfulness meditation programme, these findings indicate that there can be health protective effects not just in people with HIV but in folks who suffer from daily stress,” Cresswell said.