Highly sensitive to pain? Start meditating, researchers say. A new study has found that Zen meditation appears to make people less vulnerable to pain.

Researchers at the University of Montreal discovered that when they pressed computer-controlled heating plates against the calves of study subjects, those who practiced Zen meditation experienced an 18 per cent reduction in pain intensity.

The plates were heated to varying temperatures, starting at 43 C up to a maximum of 53 C. Many of those who meditated could tolerate the plate at the highest temperature, whereas those who did not meditate remained well below it.

While previous research has suggested that teaching chronic pain patients to meditate can alleviate their suffering, this is the first study to show how pain is processed in healthy, trained meditators.

"If meditation can change the way someone feels pain, thereby reducing the amount of pain medication required for an ailment, that would be clearly beneficial," Joshua A. Grant, co-study author and a doctoral student in the university's physiology department, said in a statement.

The findings are published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

Zen meditation is a centuries-old practice designed to quiet the mind. Practitioners meditate anywhere from five minutes to several hours per day.

For their study, the researchers recruited 13 practitioners of Zen meditation who had at least 1,000 hours of experience, and 13 people who had never meditated.

During a portion of the study when practitioners were asked to meditate, it appears experiencing pain triggered them to utilize their training to cope. They slowed their breathing to 12 breaths per minute, compared to an average of 15 breaths per minute among the non-meditators.

"Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state," Grant said.