By Connor Boyd For Mailonline
Published: 11:26 BST, 25 June 2019 | Updated: 11:59 BST, 25 June 2019
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If you're heading to see your doctor today, you should think about meditating in the waiting room.
Scientists claim meditation, or listening to music on your phone, will make you relax and take on medical advice easier.
They say the anxiety, shame or fear felt before an appointment limits the amount of information patients take on board to 'one or two' key details.
Following a diagnosis, health advice often goes over patient's heads as they are too tense to process the information, researchers said.
But breathing exercises can alleviate negative feelings and bolster your ability to pay attention and retain information, the experts found.
Some patients feel shame, anxiety or fear immediately before seeing their doctor, making them too tense to take on health advice, researchers say
Scientists advised meditating or listening to calm music in the waiting room, rather than watching TV or using a mobile phone.
University of Michigan researchers, who led the project, analysed results from four studies involving 1,450 adults who went to see their doctor.
Some participants meditated or listened to audio that instructed breathing exercises and relaxation, while others listened to historical information.
After completing the listening task, all participants read medical information about flu, cancer, HIV, herpes and gonorrhea.
The volunteers were then quizzed on the information they had read about the health conditions.
Relaxed participants reported paying more attention to key details, according to the study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
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