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Even more research is drawing a clear link between mindfulness meditation and lowered stress.

A new study in the journal Health Psychology shows an association between increased mindfulness and decreased levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

“This is the first study to show a direct relation between resting cortisol and scores on any type of mindfulness scale,” study researcher Tonya Jacobs, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis Center for Mind and Brain, said in a statement.

For the study, 57 people spent three months in a meditation retreat, where they were taught mindful breathing, observation skills, and cultivation of “positive” mental states like compassion.

At the beginning and end of the retreat, the participants also had their cortisol levels measured with a saliva test, and their mindfulness levels rated on a scale, which Jacobs explained in the statement “measured the participants’ propensity to let go of distressing thoughts and attend to different sensory domains, daily tasks, and the current contents of their minds.”

Researchers noted that the participants’ mindfulness scores on the scale were higher at the end of the retreat than at the beginning. Plus, they found an association between increases in mindfulness and decreases in cortisol levels in the saliva.

However, it’s important to note that this study did not use a control group to compare cortisol levels to. Researchers noted that future studies should include a larger group of participants and a study design that includes a control group.

This study joins a whole host of other research showing mindfulness meditation’s stress-busting effects. For example, a 2007 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that going through integrative body-mind training (a type of meditation training) helped to lessen the body’s release of cortisol and lower anxiety and fatigue levels in college students. And a 2008 study in the Journal of American College Health showed that meditation could reduce stress and boost forgiveness.

Related on HuffPost:

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• Doctors

  a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/mindfulness-meditation-doctors_n_1456870.html” target=”_hplink”Mindfulness meditation/a could help doctors provide better care to their patients, University of Rochester Medical Center researchers found.

  When doctors underwent mindfulness meditation training, they a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/mindfulness-meditation-doctors_n_1456870.html” target=”_hplink”listened better/a and were less judgmental at home and at work, according to the emAcademic Medicine/em study.

• People With Rheumatoid Arthritis

  Practicing mindfulness meditation exercises could help people with the painful condition to a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/mindfulness-meditation-rheumatoid-arthritis_n_1171685.html?1325055022ref=health-news” target=”_hplink”decrease their stress/a and fatigue levels, according to a study from Oslo’s Diakonhjemmet Hospital.

  In that study, published in the journal emAnnals of Rheumatic Diseases/em, the a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/28/mindfulness-meditation-rheumatoid-arthritis_n_1171685.html?1325055022ref=health-news” target=”_hplink”goal of the mindfulness meditation/a exercises was to help people concentrate on their own thoughts, experiences and pain in the moment, without actively trying to avoid them or judge them. The researchers found that people who did the exercises had lower stress and fatigue measurements than people who didn’t partake in the meditation.

• The Elderly

  Practicing mindfulness meditation could help decrease feelings of a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/29/mindfulness-meditation-loneliness-elderly_n_1702112.html” target=”_hplink”loneliness in the elderly/a. The small study, published in the journal emBrain, Behavior Immunity/em, showed that undergoing an eight-week mindfulness meditation training program, as well as doing meditation exercises at home, was linked with lower feelings of loneliness emand/em a reduction in the expression of genes known to be linked with inflammation.

  This finding is important because, among the elderly, loneliness is known to increase the risk for a a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/29/mindfulness-meditation-loneliness-elderly_n_1702112.html” target=”_hplink”number of other health problems/a — including heart risks and even a premature death.

• Stroke Survivors

  Practicing yoga for eight weeks helped stroke survivors to a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/yoga-stroke-balance-survivors-patients-_n_1724580.html” target=”_hplink”improve their balance/a in a study published in the journal emStroke/em.

  Improving balance among stroke patients is important for reducing the risk of falls. People who had balance problems, or feelings of dizziness and/or spinning, were five times more likely to fall than those without balance issues, according to an earlier 2003 study in emStroke/em.

  And in other research, presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine this year and conducted by the same researchers as the balance study, they found that yoga helped stroke survivors to a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/03/yoga-stroke-rehabilitation_n_1563208.html” target=”_hplink”be more flexible/a, be stronger, and have more endurance and strength.

• Caregivers

  It’s not just people with an ailment who can benefit from yoga — people emcaring/em for the sick can be helped, too. A study in the emInternational Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry/em found that caregivers who participate in meditation have a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/13/yoga-caregivers-meditation-kirtan-kriya_n_1342389.html” target=”_hplink”decreased symptoms of depression/a and even a decrease in cellular aging from stress.

• Inmates

  The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office in Reno, Nevada, is offering a href=”http://www.foxreno.com/news/news/local/yoga-classes-offered-jail-women-prisoners/nP6kq/” target=”_hplink”yoga to female prisoners/a to help them with anger and stress issues, Fox Reno reported.

  The twice-a-month classes are taught by volunteers, and are part of the Alternatives to Incarceration Unit’s Women’s Empowerment Program, according to Fox Reno.

• Teachers

  Meditation could be the key to a href=”http://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/0329/an-om-a-day-keeps-teachers-stress-away.aspx?xid=tw_everydayhealth_hootsuite” target=”_hplink”minimizing stress for busy teachers/a, according to a study from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.

  The findings, published in the journal emEmotion/em, showed that undergoing eight weeks of meditation helped to lower anxiety and depression, also, in the teachers, Everyday Health reported.