"People who practice the meditative technique called mindfulness meditation https may be able to reduce the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome https IBS https a new study shows. The study found that the physical and psychological symptoms of IBS https were more effectively managed by people practicing mindfulness meditation than in support group therapy. Susan Gaylord PhD of the University of North Carolinas program on integrative medicine https set out to evaluate mindfulness meditation as a therapeutic technique for IBS https because it has been reported to improve symptoms in other chronic conditions such as depression https and fibromyalgia https In a study of  women between the ages of  and  participants were placed in a mindfulness meditation group or a comparison group that offered mutual support for IBS and lifes problems. Each group took an eightweek course that included weekly sessions and a halfday retreat. After the end of the eightweek period overall IBS severity was reduced more among patients in the mindfulness meditation group compared to the support group . vs. .. After a threemonth followup . of those in mindfulness meditation reported a reduction in severity of IBS symptoms https compared with only . who said that among patients who took part in the support group therapy. Mindfulness Meditation and IBS Symptoms Changes in qualityoflife impairment anxiety https and psychological distress were not significantly different after the eightweek period. But all were much improved at the threemonth followup in the meditation group. Our study indicates that mindfulness meditation is a practical widely applicable and inexpensive method to enable irritable bowel syndrome patients to improve their clinical outcomes and gain associated improvement in wellbeing says Olafur S. Palsson PsyD a licensed clinical psychologist https and one of the researchers. Palsson an associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill says this method can be learned in educational classes without the need for clinical therapists for longterm use. In an abstract he defines mindfulness meditation as a behavioral technique that involves attending intentionally to presentmoment experience and nonjudgmental awareness of body sensations and emotions while letting go of fixation of thoughts of past and future. Though mindfulness meditation seems to work the exact method of how it works is not known the researchers say and more investigation is planned. This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the peer review process in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal."