Endocrine Changes During Zazen
Author: Higuchi Y 1//Kotani Y 1//Higuchi H 2//Minegishi Y 3//Itami J 4
Affiliation:
Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo, Japan) [1]//College of Tohoku Medical Technology (Sendai, Japan) [2]//Kokushikan University (Tokyo, Japan) [3]//Shibata Hospital (Kurashiki, Japan)[4]
Conference/Journal: J Intl Soc Life Info Science
Date published: 1997
Other:
Volume ID: 15 , Issue ID: 2 , Pages: 404-407 , Special Notes: [Proceedings of Fourth Symposium of Life Information Science; without peer-reviewed] , Word Count: 120
One of the important issues we face in today's stressful society is how to control our thinking. Zazen is considered as one control method. Before and after 40 minutes' zazen, the change occurring in the levels of cortisol, adrenaline, noradrenalilne, dopamine and beta-endolphin in venous blood were measured. The respective levels of cortisol and adrenaline showed a decrease, but noradrenaline increased. beta-endolphin level showed a tendency to increase. The levels of plasma cortisol and adrenaline each showed a decline from which it was concluded that stress was alleviated by practicing zazen, and that the sympathetic nerve activity also declined. The increase in the noradrenaline level seemed to indicate a high level of consciousness. This point is being examined in further experiments.
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