What’s the truth about mindfulness and our health?

It has been the craze among celebrities and CEOs for years.

Oprah Winfrey says meditation helped to build her $2.5billion fortune, while singer Katy Perry suggests that without mindfulness practices she would have given up on the music industry years ago.

It was written off as a fad for decades, but now a growing body of research suggests achieving calm states in the mind has measurable mental and physical benefits.

In Silicone Valley, a few quiet minutes with your thoughts long ago replaced the mantra of ‘I’ll sleep when I die’ and ‘Meditation rooms’ are becoming increasingly common at tech companies like Salesforce.

And it seems for good reason. Just this week, a study found that mindfulness meditation, breathing techniques and yoga were just as effective at lowering blood sugar among diabetics as standard drugs.

That followed research last week which suggested just five minutes of breathing exercises a day could lower blood pressure. The researchers said the big dumps of oxygen in the body helps dilate blood vessels and allow  blood to flow through more easily.

Research has also indicated trendy mindfulness techniques can relieve pain as effectively as traditional painkillers, and even stimulate more intense orgasms.

However, the jury’s still out on exactly how well they work. Some scientists suggest it may just be the ‘placebo’ effect — when someone experiences a positive effect because they were expecting it.

Many studies rely on surveys and fail to use control groups which are the gold-standard for scientific research, meaning evidence from them is not water-tight.

HERE, DAILYMAIL.COM LOOKS AT WHAT THE SCIENCE SAYS ABOUT MINDFULNESS

Meditation is credited by many celebrities and CEOs for helping them reach their success. And now a growing body of scientific research suggests there are several measurable benefits to the practice. The key one scientists have found it that the practice eases stress, possibly because it leads to a reduction in the stress hormone cortisol. Just last week a study also suggested 20 minutes of breathing a day could lower blood pressure by causing vessels to dilate, allowing more space for blood to flow. A number of studies have even linked meditation to better orgasms, and some say it can boost the levels of melatonin – or sleep hormone – to help people get more shut-eye

Stress, anxiety and depression

Most Americans turn to meditation to help them handle stress — triggered by work, family life or financial troubles.

An ever-growing body of scientific research suggests it actually does help people relax and dispel feelings of anger, irritability or impatience.

A meta-analysis from 2014 reviewed 47 trials involving meditation among 3,515 people. The practice was associated with ‘moderate evidence’ of lowered stress, anxiety and depression in eight weeks.

Many were practicing transcendental meditation — where participants repeated a mantra in their minds for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day.  

The researchers theorized it lowers levels of the hormone cortisol — nature’s built-in alarm system — in turn lowering inflammation in the body.

There are also suggestions it may be able to change structures in the brain linked to attention and emotion regulation — such as the amygdala which looks out for fearful and threatening situations.

Psychologists add that sitting still with your eyes closed for long periods raises awareness of negative thoughts, and how to…