Meditating the back pain away for the elderly

A lot of people may not buy into the zen-like approach to medicine and meditation. It can seem a little hokey to some. However, while they believe meditation can lend itself to dealing with chronic pain sufferers, elderly citizens are not usually the ones to drop down on a yoga mat every week.

That's what provoked an interesting study that tried to address senior adults and chronic back pain in regards to meditation. It was led out of the University of Pittsburgh, but many people didn't think elderly individuals would take interest. Apparently there was a common myth that senior citizens would scoff at meditation -- but that wasn't the case!

Instead, they discovered over three dozen signed up, and 30 actually finished. This is an accomplishment for them, because it took an eight-week commitment to stick with the program. Even though they continued to take regular medication, many senior citizens were so pleased with the results that they continued to practice meditation on their own time!