Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.
(Buddha)

Benefits of Meditation

The diagnosis and prescription of meditative practices for the prevention/cure of ailments (both physiological as well as psychological) is something, which has received far less attention than it deserves.
The benefits, which vary according to individuals, since the very act of meditation is such an intensely personal experience, are usually realized slowly but surely. On the whole, the effects of meditation are wholly dependent on a person's mental makeup—on the extent to which one is at ease with oneself.
In the recent years there has been a growing interest within the medical community to study the physiological effects of meditation. Many concepts of meditation have been applied to clinical settings in order to measure its effect on somatic motor function as well as cardiovascular and respiratory function. Also the hermeneutic and phenomenological aspects of meditation are areas of growing interest.

Meanwhile meditation has entered the mainstream of health care as a method of stress and pain reduction. For example, in an early study in 1972, transcendental meditation was shown to affect the human metabolism by lowering the biochemical byproducts of stress, such as lactate, decreasing heart rate and blood pressure and inducing favorable brain waves. (Scientific American 226: 84-90 (1972)). In 1976, the Australian psychiatrist Ainslie Meares, reported in the Medical Journal of Australia, the regression of cancer following intensive meditation. Meares would go on to write a number of books, including his best-seller Relief without Drugs.

Phisical Benefits

Addictions an Immunology
Meditation techniques has proven to be a successful coping strategy in helping to deal with addictions, a useful tool in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) by helping to control the immune system, and an effective manager of stress and pain.

Stress Control
Meditation techniques has proven to be a successful coping strategy in helping to deal with addictions, a useful tool in psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) by helping to control the immune system, and an effective manager of stress and pain.Most of the people who get on meditation do so because of its beneficial effects on stress. Stress refers to any or all the various pressures experienced in life. These can stem from work, family, illness, or environment and can contribute to such conditions as anxiety, hypertension, and heart disease. How an individual sees things and how he or she handles them makes a big difference in terms of how much stress he or she experiences.
Research has shown that hormones and other biochemical compounds in the blood indicative of stress tend to decrease during Meditation practice. These changes also stabilize over time, so that a person is actually less stressed biochemically during daily activity.
This reduction of stress translates directly into a reduction of anxiety and tension. Literally dozens of studies have shown this.

Cronical or Terminal Illness
Meditation and other approaches to deep relaxation help center people so they can figure out how they'd like to handle the illness and proceed with life. An Australian psychiatrist who uses meditation with cancer patients, studied seventy-three patients who had attended at least twenty sessions of intensive meditation, and wrote: "Nearly all such patients can expect significant reduction of anxiety and depression, together with much less discomfort and pain.
There is reason to expect a minimum chance of quite remarkable slowing of the rate of growth of the tumor, and a 50 percent chance of greatly improved quality of life. But again, please don't trust us but the medical references at the bottom of the page.

Respiratory Problems
Asthma, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) all restrict breathing and raise fears of suffocation, which in turn makes breathing even more difficult. Studies show that when people with these respiratory conditions learn breath meditation, they have fewer respiratory crises.

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
Meditation can ease physical complaints such as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), tension headaches and other common health problems.
Meditation gives people a psychological buffer so that life's hectic pace doesn't knock them out. Practicing meditation is like taking a vacation once or twice a day. When you nurture yourself, you accrue tremendous spin-off benefits.
For example, when you are under high stress, it can worsen symptoms of PMS because stress can cause the muscle tension associated with PMS complaints such as fatigue, soreness and aching. On the other hand, when you meditate regularly, you dramatically reduce your body's response to stress, and that can ease the discomfort associated with PMS. The results may not be apparent for several months. You will probably need to meditate regularly for several months before your body responds positively.

Insomnia and other
Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcers, and Insomnia Meditation can also improve irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, and insomnia, among other stress-related conditions. Eighty percent of the people who use meditation to relieve insomnia are successful.
Meditation can help prevent or treat stress-related complaints such as anxiety, headaches and bone, muscle and joint problems. Meditation also provides an inner sense of clarity and calm, and that, in itself, may help ward off certain illnesses.

Heart Disease and High Blood Pressure
Meditation is a key component of Ornish therapy, the only treatment scientifically proven to reverse heart disease, besides research has also proven mediation to be very successful in treating various heart ailments and high blood pressure.

Phisical Benefits

Panic Attacks
Sometimes anxiety becomes paralyzing and people feel (wrongly) that they are about to suffer some horrible fate.
Panic attacks are often treated with drugs, but studies show that if people who are prone to panic attacks begin focused, meditative breathing the instant they feel the first signs of an episode, they are less likely to have a full-blown panic attack.

Depression
Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and isolation are hallmarks of depression—the age's most prevalent mental health problem. Meditation increases self-confidence and feelings of connection to others. Many studies have shown that depressed people feel much better after eliciting the relaxation response.

Living in "TODAY"
Meditation may lead to a breakdown of screen memories so that early childhood abuse episodes and other traumas suddenly flood the mind, making the patient temporarily more anxious until these traumas are healed. Many so-called meditation exercises are actually forms of imagery and visualization that are extraordinarily useful in healing old traumas, confronting death anxieties, finishing 'old business', learning to forgive, and enhancing self-esteem. It just make sense if you think that meditation is nothing more the a moment (for most people the ONLY moment) in which you're lone with yourself without anything else to do than "feel" and "be".
Meditation aim to and tend to free persons from tenacious preoccupation with the past and future and allows them to fully experience life's precious moments. Many men and women tend to live in a state of perpetual motion and expectation that prevents them from appreciating the gifts that each moment gives us.
Meditation is a process that returns us to the present moment of our lives and allows us to wake up and reevaluate the way that we live our lives.

References

Of course we don't pretend you to trust US or any non-medical people out there for this fact. So we're providing you a little reference of studies. You can browse them, you can comment and even discuss it in the OpenMeditators area.

If you think you've spotted some other work to reference here please tell us.

In addition to this NOETHIC has a good bibliography too, but if you really want to blow your mind with links and facts you ought to take a look at the Mediation article on Wikipedia
UPDATE: someone spotted that the Referece list is taken from US NCCAM. We strongly thing it's good and right to give awknoledgment where is due...

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