Brief Meditation Can Increase Pain Tolerance

Not many are aware that meditation can help relieve pain. The good news is, you don't have to be an expert in meditation to benefit from it. Based on research, even spending a brief meditation training can produce a positive effect on perception of pain.

The study involved college students who had never practiced meditation before and were given one hour of meditation training for three consecutive days to measure their general sensitivity to pain.

According to researcher Fadel Zeidan, one doesn't need to go through rigid training in mindfulness meditation to experience its benefits. Zeidan and his team found that meditation training appeared to have a positive effect on pain perception and tolerance even when the trained participants were not meditating. Since meditation is a form of distraction, it was not surprising that it had a positive impact on pain perception.

The study also made use of meditation and solving math equations in relation to reducing high-level pain. However, only meditation reduced both high and low-level pain at the same time.

Cigarette Ad Targets Female Teens

An anti-smoking group claims that RJ Reynolds cigarette brand Camel No. 9 may have targeted teenage girls in their marketing and advertising campaign. After it came out in leading women's magazines, 44% of the girls aged 15 were able to name a cigarette brand based on advertising.

RJ Reynolds denied directing its marketing strategy to teens. Camel No. 9 was launched in early 2007. One ad concept shows a classic little black dress in high fashion layout, with women's accessories and cigarettes packaged in black leather, bordered in magenta or teal.

In another layout, the teal-menthol and magenta-regular cigarette packs are bedecked with flowers and have a tagline that reads “light and luscious.”

The ad campaign was featured briefly in 10 national magazines, which included Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, In Style, and Marie Claire. During the launch, Camel No. 9 gave-away several freebies like cellphone jewelry, berry-flavored lip balm, and Rocker Girl wristbands.

Even if cigarette manufacturers don't admit targeting teens for their advertising and marketing campaigns, they have a long history of marketing to women since the mid-1920s, with the Lucky Strike brand ad that featured figure-conscious women to “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet.”