Meditating an hour daily can help in reducing eye pressure in patients suffering from glaucoma, finds a new study conducted by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
"This is the first study in the world which offers robust scientific evidence for lowering of eye pressure with meditation by targeting the brain and improving both the eye condition as well as general health of the patients," said Dr Raj Kumar Yadav, Professor in-charge of Integral Health Clinic, Department of Physiology at AIIMS.
To conduct the study, 90 patients of glaucoma were randomly divided into groups. While one group practised meditation and breathing exercises one hour daily along with medicines for 21 days, second group continued only with the medicines.
At the end of three weeks, they noticed that in 75 per cent of the patients who practised meditation along with medicines, there was 25 per cent reduction in the eye pressure. Apart from that, the study also suggested that the patients who underwent meditation therapy also had major changes in stress hormones with improvement in wellbeing. Nevertheless, doctors suggested that meditation therapy can be recommended as an adjunctive therapy for glaucoma patients and not as a substitute for medicines/eye drops. The study was funded by the Ministry of AYUSH.
