We can combat stress.

Herbert Benson, M.D. (born 1935), is an American cardiologist and founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He graduated from Wesleyan University and Harvard Medical School.

Benson is Mind/Body Medical Institute Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI). He is the author or co-author of more than 175 scientific publications and 11 books. More than four million copies of his books have been printed in many languages.

Benson has pioneered mind-body research, focusing on stress and the relaxation response in medicine. In his research, the mind and body are one system, in which meditation can play a significant role in reducing stress responses. He continues to pioneer medical research into bodymind questions.

Herbert Benson, M.D.

In the early 1970s Herbert Benson,MD’s (now Professor Emeritus at Harvard Medical School) pioneering research established the efficacy of meditation for healthcare through his research. Dr. Benson’s first articles on meditation appeared in the Scientific American and the American Journal of Physiology. His book, The Relaxation Response topped the bestseller lists in the mid-1970s, and is still widely read (and frequently updated). Dr. Benson and his colleagues’ studies showed that meditation acts as an antidote to stress. Under stress, the nervous system activates the “fight-or-flight” response. The activity of the sympathetic portion of the nervous system increases, causing an increased heart beat, increased respiratory rate, elevation of blood pressure, and increase in oxygen consumption. This fight-or-flight response has an important survival function by allowing an organism to run quickly to escape an attack or to fight off an attacker. But if activated repeatedly, as happens for many people in modern societies, the effects are harmful. Many researchers believe that the current epidemic of hypertension, heart disease and depression in the Western world is a direct result. Benson’s early research demonstrated that the effects of the relaxation response induced by TM and other meditation practices generates the opposite of the fight-or-flight response. Meditation decreases the heart rate, decreases the respiratory rate, decreases blood pressure, decreases oxygen consumption,and decreases muscle tension.

Dr. Herbert Benson explains how we can combat stress change the way our bodies and our genes function.