Johns Hopkins Intensive Meditation and Migraine Study
Wildmind Meditation News (September 23, 2009)Johns Hopkins is currently recruiting participants for a research study. If you are interested, and have at least 4 migraines per month, you may be eligible. Johns Hopkins is also interested in those who have chronic daily headaches.
Men & women 18 years and older are eligible.
Learning meditation can require a significant amount of personal training to be effective. Some people have more time than others to devote to this type of personal project. Our training begins with a 12 day retreat that helps you get started. We have a couple of retreats, one about a 2 hour drive from Baltimore and another about a 7 hour drive from Baltimore. During the retreat you would train for about 10 hours each day. Participants are not expected to have any experience in meditation beforehand.
The first day begins with a seminar that introduces you to the concepts and technique of meditation. Then the group practices meditation (wearing comfortable clothes and seated in a comfortable position) in hour-long blocks while listening to pre-recorded voice guidance. At the close of each day there is another seminar discussing the steps for how to train the next day. After the training, you would practice on your own daily. You would also get together weekly with others to practice meditation for an hour or two. It does not involve religion or any religious practices. It is not inconsistent with any religious beliefs.
Your involvement in the study will last 12 months. During this time, we will be doing 24 hour monitoring of your heart rate and blood pressure periodically. We will also be doing periodic evaluations of your headaches and general health. Regardless of the effects of Vipassana Meditation on your headaches, you would gain a thorough grounding in how to meditate, as well as learn a tool that some believe is helpful for coping with stress and pain.
The next retreats are:
September 23 – Oct 4 (Chestertown, MD)
Spring to be determined (April or May, 2010)
Johns Hopkins is currently recruiting participants for this research study. If you are interested, and have at least 4 migraines per month, you may contact them at: hopkinsmeditation@gmail.com
Comments
Comment from Eric
Time: September 28, 2009, 6:52 pm
Will the results of this study be available? We work with chronic pain patients in Toronto using meditation and would be very interested in knowing more about your study.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: September 28, 2009, 8:02 pm
That would be a question for Johns Hopkins. There’s an email address at the end of the article.
Comment from Eric
Time: September 29, 2009, 6:51 am
Thanks very much. I love your site, by the way. Very informative. While I am not a Buddhist, I have practiced meditation in various forms for over 30 years. My approach is secular, but if I had to name a tradition that came closest to what I practice, it would be Zen. Glad to have found your site. Keep up the good work.
Comment from Jeanne C. Wolf
Time: April 1, 2010, 9:51 am
Hello.
Re: headaches. I do not take any medications. Especially not pain pills.
I have had some problems with extreme head aches for months, but have a friend in New Jersey who is into YOGA, SHAMENS, HEALERS, VEIASSANS ETC. AND THEY JOINED FORCES TO OFFER ME HELP… It is actually amazing what they taught me on how to manage and control my pain. (Via emails, no “hands on”) I was so desperate I sent out emails to people I know begging for help for the head aches. Now I am in full control and after months of extreme, violent pain I have been able to keep myself headache free for three days. It takes a lot of mind control when I feel the symptoms coming on and I use my entire body to stop the headache from progressing. I can be driving in my car with other people around me when I get the small sharp warnings and still I can prevent the headache without letting anyone in the car know what I am doing.. just special breathing, and rearranging my posture, and mind work.
I know Johns Hopkins is doing research on Vipassana (sp) meditation to cure migraines.
I believe there is a variable often overlooked in any medical help research and that is “does the person really want to be cured? Does he or she want to be a healthy person?”
Best wishes on your research.
Jeanne
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