In 1979, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts named Jon Kabat-Zinn had an idea. He had a hunch that pared-down meditation techniques could help patients at the university's medical center deal with pain. The idea of mind-body health wasn't well explored at the time, so Kabat-Zinn approached physicians and pain specialists at the university, asking them to refer their patients to his new clinic. The course he started is now offered in dozens of hospitals and medical centers around the country, and studies suggest it does help people cope with the psychological distress of diseases, such as arthritis, psoriasis and cancer. Take for example, a small research study with 63 rheumatoid arthritis patients. After two months of mindfulness training, the patients' physical symptoms did not disappear, but they reported feeling better, with scores of psychological distress dropping 30 percent.
