During the two decades since the relaxation response first appeared, mediation has gone mainstream. Most people who practice it do so to reduce stress, anxiety, anger and other negative emotions. But increasingly, physicians prescribe meditation as part of the treatment for a large and growing number of medical conditions. Here are some of the conditions that mediation can help.

1.Panic Attacks

Sometimes anxiety becomes paralyzing and people feel 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.

2.Pain Management

Anxiety decreases the threshold for pain, and pain causes anxiety. The result is a vicious cycle. Compared with people who feel relaxed, those under stress experience pain more intensely and become even more stressed, which aggravates their pain. Meditation breaks this cycle. Childbirth preparation classes routinely teach pregnant women deep breathing exercises to minimize the pain and anxiety of labor. Few call it breath meditation, but that is what it is. Meditation may not eliminate pain, but it helps people cope more effectively. In a recent study at the Mind/Body Medical Institute, after people with chronic pain learned the relaxation response, their pain-related physician visits decreased 36 percent.

3.High Blood Pressure

Transcendental meditation (TM) reliably reduced blood pressure in meditators. In a study, the relaxation response was taught to 36 people with moderately elevated blood pressure. After several weeks of practice, their average blood pressure declined significantly, reducing their risk of stroke and heart attack.

4.Cancer

Cancer is very scary. Meditation and other approaches to deep relaxation help center people so they can figure out how they would like to handle the illness and proceed with life.

5.Respiratory Crises

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.

6.Depression

Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and isolation are hallmarks of depression - the nation's most prevalent mental health problem. Meditation increases self-confidence and feelings of connection to others. Studies have shown mood elevation in depressed people who regularly elicit the relaxation response.

7.Infertility

Couples dealing with infertility may become depressed, anxious and angry. To help them cope, relaxation response was taught to one group of infertile couples at the Mind/Body Institute. Compared with a similar group of infertile couples who did not learn deep relaxation, the meditators experienced less distress - and were more likely to get pregnant.