Rx Meditation
Science has taken an interest in meditation and numerous studies have found at least some benefit… and really no adverse effects. Consumers of all ages around the world have also picked up on the health benefits, low costs, and negligible risks of meditation. Maybe the healthcare industry is ready to give clinicians a new tool to help combat chronic diseases… Rx Meditation?
Picture this: you have chronic lower back pain, but getting hooked on painkillers is not an option. Still, the discomfort is bad enough to interfere with your daily life. So, you make a doctor’s appointment. After your doc performs an exam and picks through your medical history, she surprises you: She hands you a prescription for a meditation regimen that you can access through an app on your phone. The app will dispense your daily treatment by way of specific, pain-reducing meditation techniques that will ease your discomfort.
This is the future Headspace Health is painting as they seek FDA-approval for a medical app, which is primed to change the role meditation plays in the American health landscape.
Getting FDA Approval for Headspace
Obtaining FDA approval will involve further clinical trials in conjunction with research partners like Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon, and Kaiser Permanente, which will help nail down exactly how much (and what types of) meditation are most effective and for which conditions. If the FDA goes for it, you could find yourself with a meditation prescription by 2020 (not to mention a little more room in your medicine cabinet).
“Over the past few years, we’ve been increasingly expanding our scientific research pipeline,” says Jones Bell, the chief science officer at Headspace. “Given the promising results we’ve seen, the next logical step was to invest in the healthcare space.”
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