by Greg Schweitzer

About three years ago I had a heart catheterization because I had been experiencing some discomfort in my chest while walking. My doctor suggested that I have a stress test and a work up to determine if there was any risk. I had the catheterization, after much angst, since I'm not one to jump into those kind of invasive procedures casually.

The results indicated that my arteries were in really great shape. In fact, my physician said, "Greg your arteries couldn't be any better". He said, this is a testimony for everything that Dr. Dean Ornish discusses in his book, Reversing Coronary Artery Disease: without drugs or surgery.

If you're not familiar with this book, Dr. Ornish, a cardiologist, has done extensive research, over 25 years, on cardiovascular disease. He says that stress reduction, and meditation in particular, is probably the most important complement in his treatment programs.

Another interesting thing happened for me just this weekend. I was at a holistic health fair at the Goggle Works in Reading. There were people there testing immune system response. They had a sophisticated machine that measured the strength of the immune system with a laser. These people were at the table right next to mine and after I set my booth up, I overheard a number of people coming up, taking the test and getting their results. One guy that I knew fairly well, was a little dismayed when his test score was 13,000, which put him at the lower end of the scale, a high risk.

I had been told that people who were smokers often scored in the 10,000 range. The company that produces this equipment have tested millions of people, and their research indicates an average score of 22,000. After about an hour or two of the expo, when both of us were in a quiet time, I said to the woman administrating the tasks that I would like to have my immune system tested.

I put my hand on the machnine and the woman can began to ask some questions of me to input into the computer. There was another representative of the company across the table from me talking to both the woman and me. As the laser was reading my system and the computer was doing its thing, he was explaining the role of antioxidants on the immune system and the measurements that the machine makes. A low score indicates a high level of oxidation in the body and a weakened immune system.

At one point, the woman administrating the test told me that the results were in and the test was completed. I asked her how I did, and we had to wait about another minute for the score to come off. When the score came up, the administrators eyes practically bugged out of her head as her jaw dropped, she was amazed. My score was 59,000! She had never seen a score that high as not many people score above 50,000. Looking at the chart that they provide, I'm assuming that the highest possible score was 60,000.

This company is not only in the business of testing the strength of your immune system, they also sell supplements to boost your score, to boost the strength of your immunity. Of course, I then told them that they should come over to my table and look at what I do if they are interested in gaining some insight about the high score that I had. One of their representatives, said yes, research done by our company indicates that stress causes an oxidative effect in the body which weakens the immune system. In fact, it's the highest risk factor for compromising the immune system.

Of course, I was elated to see the results that are validating the impact of this meditation practice.

The bottom line is that chronic stress is certainly treatable as evidence by my experiences and hundreds of research studies on the impact of meditation and stress reduction.