Mindfulness meditation could help ease post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among war veterans, according to a new study.

The research, published in the journal Depression and Anxiety, shows that going through an eight-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy treatment program is associated with decreased PTSD symptom severity.

"The results of our trial are encouraging for veterans trying to find help for PTSD," study researcher Anthony P. King, Ph.D., a research assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, said in a statement. "Mindfulness techniques seemed to lead to a reduction in symptoms and might be a potentially effective novel therapeutic approach to PTSD and trauma-related conditions."

The study included PTSD patients recruited from a VA outpatient clinic. Some of them were put in groups that underwent the eight-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy treatment program, while the others received typical PTSD treatment. Their symptoms were measured before and after the eight-week treatment regimens. The mindfulness-based cognitive therapy included learning how to do mindfulness meditation (focus on emotions and breath), "body scanning" (focusing attention on individual body parts) and mindful eating.

By the end of the regimens, researchers found that more people who underwent the mindfulness therapy had improvements in PTSD symptoms than those who just underwent the standard PTSD treatment -- 73 percent, versus 33 percent.

Recently, HuffPost's David Wood reported that wounded war vets are finding some relief in yoga -- particularly in easing pain, anxiety, depression, anger and night terrors that so often come after experiencing the mental wounds of war.

Wood reported:

Some forms of yoga are used by special forces, for instance, to build muscle power and flexibility. But yoga teachers working with wounded troops have developed trauma-sensitive forms of yoga, including a technique called iRest. This adaptation uses meditation techniques in a soft and secure setting to reactivate the parasympathetic nervous system by drawing the patient's attention and consciousness inward, rather than focusing on stress and the terrors that dwell outside, said yoga teacher Robin Carnes.

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• It Lowers Stress -- Literally

  Research published just last month in the journal Health Psychology shows that mindfulness is not only associated with feeling less stressed, it's also linked with a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/mindfulness-meditation-cortisol-stress-levels_n_2965197.html" target="_blank"decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol/a.

• It Lets Us Get To Know Our True Selves

  It lets us get to know our true selves. Mindfulness can help us see beyond those rose-colored glasses when we need to really a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/19/mindfulness-understand-personalities_n_2886102.html" target="_blank"objectively analyze ourselves/a. A study in the journal Psychological Science shows that mindfulness can help us conquer common "blind spots," which can amplify or diminish our own flaws beyond reality.

• It Can Make Your Grades Better

  Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that college students a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/mindfulness-testing-focus-reading-comprehension_n_2957146.html" target="_blank"who were trained in mindfulness/a performed better on the verbal reasoning section of the GRE, and also experienced improvements in their working memory. "Our results suggest that cultivating mindfulness is an effective and efficient technique for improving cognitive function, with widereaching consequences," the researchers wrote in the Psychological Science study.

• It Could Help Our Troops

  The U.S. Marine Corps is in the process of seeing how mindfulness meditation training can improve troops' performance and a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/22/marine-corps-mindfulness-meditation_n_2526244.html" target="_blank"ability to handle -- and recover from -- stress/a.

• It Could Help People With Arthritis

  A 2011 study in the journal Annals of Rheumatic Disease shows that even though mindfulness training may not help to lessen pain for people with rheumatoid arthritis, it emcould/em help to a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/mindfulness-meditation-rheumatoid-arthritis_n_1171685.html" target="_blank"lower their stress and fatigue/a.

• It Changes The Brain In A Protective Way

  University of Oregon researchers found that integrative body-mind training -- which is a meditation technique -- can actually result in brain changes that may be protective against mental illness. The meditation practice was linked with a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/mindfulness-meditation-brain-integrative-body-mind-training_n_1594803.html" target="_blank"increased signaling connections in the brain/a, something called axonal density, as well as increased protective tissue (myelin) around the axons in the anterior cingulate brain region.

• It Works As The Brain's "Volume Knob"

  Ever wondered why mindfulness meditation can make you feel more focused and zen? It's because it helps the brain to have a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/14/mindfulness-meditation-brain_n_2680087.html" target="_blank"better control over processing pain and emotions/a, specifically through the control of cortical alpha rhythms (which play a role in what senses our minds are attentive to), according to a study in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

• It Makes Music Sound Better

  Mindfulness meditation improves our a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/06/mindfulness-meditation-music-engagement_n_2623292.html" target="_blank"focused engagement in music/a, helping us to truly enjoy and experience what we're listening to, according to a study in the journal Psychology of Music.

• It Helps Us Even When We're Not Actively Practicing It

  You don't have to actually be meditating for it to still a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/meditation-emotional-processing-emotions-brain_n_2123753.html" target="_blank"benefit your brain's emotional processing/a. That's the finding of a study in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, which shows that the amygdala brain region's response to emotional stimuli is changed by meditation, and this effect occurs even when a person isn't actively meditating.

• It Has Four Elements That Help Us In Different Ways

  The health benefits of mindfulness can be boiled a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/mindfulness-meditation-health_n_1070101.html#slide=309243" target="_blank"down to four elements/a, according to a Perspectives on Psychological Science study: body awareness, self-awareness, regulation of emotion and regulation of attention.

• It Could Help Your Doctor Be Better At His/Her Job

  Doctors, listen up: Mindfulness meditation could help you a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/mindfulness-meditation-doctors_n_1456870.html" target="_blank"better care for your patients/a. Research from the University of Rochester Medical Center shows that doctors who are trained in mindfulness meditation are less judgmental, more self-aware and better listeners when it comes to interacting with patients

• It Makes You A Better Person

  Sure, we love all the things meditation does for us. But it could also benefit people we interact with, by a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/02/meditation-compassion-do-good_n_2993793.html?utm_hp_ref=healthy-living" target="_blank"making us more compassionate/a, according to a study in the journal Psychological Science. Researchers from Northeastern and Harvard universities found that meditation is linked with more virtuous, "do-good" behavior.

• It Could Make Going Through Cancer Just A Little Less Stressful

  Research from the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine shows that a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/02/art-mindfulness-stress-relief-breast-cancer-patients_n_2219268.html" target="_blank"mindfulness coupled with art therapy/a can successfully decrease stress symptoms among women with breast cancer. And not only that, but imaging tests show that it is actually linked with brain changes related to stress, emotions and reward.

• It Could Help The Elderly Feel Less Lonely

  Loneliness among seniors can be dangerous, in that it's known to raise risks for a number of health conditions. But researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that mindfulness meditation helped to a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/29/mindfulness-meditation-loneliness-elderly_n_1702112.html" target="_blank"decrease these feelings of loneliness/a among the elderly, emand/em boost their health by reducing the expression of genes linked with inflammation.

• It Could Make Your Health Care Bill A Little Lower

  Not only will your health benefit from mindfulness meditation training, but your wallet might, too. Research in the American Journal of Health Promotion shows that a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21879945" target="_blank"practicing Transcendental Meditation/a is linked with lower yearly doctor costs, compared with people who don't practice the meditation technique.

• It Comes In Handy During Cold Season

  Aside from a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/cold-flu-prevention-natural-immune-boosters_n_2474430.html" target="_blank"practicing good hygiene/a, mindfulness meditation and exercise could la href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/14/meditation-flu-cold-symptoms-mindfulness-exercise_n_1671543.html" target="_blank"essen the nasty effects of colds/a. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Health found that people who engage in the practices miss fewer days of work from acute respiratory infections, and also experience a shortened duration and severity of symptoms.

• It Lowers Depression Risk Among Pregnant Women

  As many as one in five pregnant women will experience depression, but those who are at a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/12/mindfulness-yoga-depression-pregnancy_n_1760207.html" target="_blank"especially high risk for depression/a may benefit from some mindfulness yoga. "Research on the impact of mindfulness yoga on pregnant women is limited but encouraging," study researcher Dr. Maria Muzik, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan, said in a statement. "This study builds the foundation for further research on how yoga may lead to an empowered and positive feeling toward pregnancy."

• It Also Lowers Depression Risk Among Teens

  Teaching teens how to a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/15/mindfulness-in-schools-re_n_2884436.html" target="_blank"practice mindfulness through school programs/a could help them experience less stress, anxiety and depression, according to a study from the University of Leuven.

• It Supports Your Weight-Loss Goals

  Trying to shed a few pounds to get to a healthier weight? Mindfulness could be your best friend, according to a survey of psychologists conducted by Consumer Reports and the American Psychological Association. Mindfulness training was considered an "excellent" or "good" a href="http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2013/02/lose-weight-your-way/index.htm" target="_blank"strategy for weight loss/a by seven out of 10 psychologists in the survey.

• It Helps You Seep Better

  We saved the best for last! A University of Utah study found that mindfulness training can not only help us better control our emotions and moods, but it can emalso/em help us sleep better at night. “People who reported higher levels of mindfulness described better control over their emotions and behaviors during the day. In addition, higher mindfulness was a href="http://huffingtonpost.menshealthmags.com/2013/03/11/mindfulness-emotional-stability-sleep_n_2836954.html" target="_blank"associated with lower activation at bedtime/a, which could have benefits for sleep quality and future ability to manage stress," study researcher Holly Rau said in a statement.

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