A medical conference opening today in Des Moines will feature a presentation from a southeast Iowa researcher who advocates the use of yoga and meditation in trying to mend brain injuries. Dr. Alarik Arenander, director of the Brain Research Institute in Fairfield, says he’ll present new evidence on the impact of using meditation to calm the mind, enabling the body to heal itself. Dr. Arenander says “There’s a tremendous amount of dysfunction and confusion and emotional disorder in the individuals following these injuries and the value of an approach like transcendental meditation is that it can bring about a very quick and profound state of calmness or orderliness to the brain which helps the brain reorganize itself.” While transcendental meditation, or T-M, is often associated with certain Eastern religions, Arenander says T-M is a -not- a faith-based practice. He says it’s very easy to learn and the results are seen right away and grow over time.
The Brain Research Institute is part of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield. Arenander is the only scientist from Iowa to speak at the conference, which is sponsored by the Brain Injury Association of Iowa and the Iowa Department of Education. He says he’ll present research showing T-M brings a remarkable increase in the coherence and integration of the brain. Arenander says about every 21 seconds, a person in the U-S sustains a traumatic brain injury or T-B-I, that’s about one-and-a-half million a year. More than five-million Americans currently live with disabilities resulting from T-B-Is. Many people who sustain a blow to the head show no immediate significant problem, but over the next six months begin to show symptoms of brain dysfunction. The 11th Annual Traumatic Brain Injury Conference opened this morning at the Hotel Fort Des Moines. Arenander will deliver a keynote address at the three-day conference on Friday afternoon.
