Here's another reason why you should come and give it a go!

Yoga and meditation can cut healthcare cost by 43%, says study

• PTI, Houston
•  |  
• Updated: Dec 03, 2015 15:31 IST

Studies suggest that practitioners of yoga and meditation benefitted from neurologic, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal ailments. (Shutterstock)

Here’s more reason why you should start your day with meditation or yoga. According to a new study, practices like yoga and meditation can help curb the need for general healthcare services by almost 50%. “Evoking the relaxation response or a physiologic state of deep rest, helps alleviate stress and anxiety, while also affecting heart rate and blood pressure,” according to a study by Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Technology Assessment and the Benson-Henry Institute.

“Our study’s primary finding is that programmes that train patients to elicit the relaxation response can also dramatically reduce healthcare utilisation,” said James E Stahl. “These programmes promote wellness and in our environment of constrained healthcare resources, could potentially ease the burden on our health delivery systems at minimal cost and at no real risk,” he said.

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By doing a comparative analysis of information available on Research Patient Data Registry (RPDR) of Partners HealthCare and data on individuals participating in the BHI Relaxation Response Resiliency Program (3RP) from 2006 to 2014, researchers came to the conclusion that practitioners of yoga, meditation, prayer spent significantly lower than non-practitioners, on medical services.

The study also found that practitioners primarily benefitted from neurologic, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal ailments.