Can mindfulness meditation reduce pain?

In the second of his reports David Sillitoe speaks with Fiona, a novice mindfulness meditation practitioner hoping to reduce her pain, and Elena Anatova, a neuroscientist at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London. With a growing body of research investigating it's stress and pain reduction effects mindfulness is now accepted as a helpful health intervention and has been in use in mainstream medicine for some time now.

After a short period of regular mindfulness practise Fiona reports that she is able to better manage her pain and this is reflected in her brain activity as revealed by the images interpreted by Anatova.

Further insight as to the capacity of mindfulness practise was illustrated when Anatova looked at Sillitoe's brain images, observing that the area linked to self-centredness became less active suggesting a reduction in David's ego.... fascinating stuff.....