Zazen may be more effective than medication at controlling perceived stress levels. Knowing how an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure, and knowing how Zazen has been useful in the treatments of patients who had already developed a serious condition, the next logical step would be to see if Zazen could be used as a preventative measure. Researchers at Weill Cornell medical center and New York Presbyterian hospital conducted a six-week study of how Zazen managed medical student’s stress levels and sense of well-being. The stress that is applied to medical students far exceeds that of normal day-to-day lives of most individuals and is much greater than those in a traditional educational setting. It is the perfect situation to see Zazen put through its paces. When the researchers registered their values at the six-week mark, their results showed significant positive results in virtually all aspects of mental health quantified during the self-assessment part of the study. Their conclusion showed improvements in happiness, positivity, personal satisfaction, self-confidence, increased patience, and decreased fatigue. In the end they found Zazen to be effective in reducing stress levels and improving aspects of personal wellbeing in the medical students. Granted, Self-assessments are the epitome of a person’s level of perception and not, in a word, factual. However, when the control group contains several racial groups spread over nearly every age group, and they all perceived the same result, that should be taken into serious consideration as proof. This is a healthy indicator that Zazen not only can be a cure, but can be serviceable as a preventative measure.

Meditation programs can hold promise as an effective alternative to those who are not responding well to traditional medical practices.  After covering cure and prevention, the need to delve into a wholly different category becomes apparent. What can Zazen do for those at the end of their lives? A majority of the thought process aimed at helping critically ill patients falls towards the method of keeping the patient comfortable. In that scenario, it is usually a combination of heavy sedatives and pain-killers that keeps a patient “comfortable” as they venture towards the next step in existence. Adding in Zazen for both the patient and their family could result in bringing more peace and harmony to the whole ordeal. A nurse initiated strategy in a critical care facility did just that. The nurses trialed the effects of Zazen on patients who were being weaned off of mechanical ventilation machines. A randomized controlled trial including 54 patients nearing death, who were suffering with difficulties weaning off of their ventilators. The study’s findings showed a large statistical significance in the anxiety reduction of the experimental group versus the non-meditative placebo group. Without a doubt the Zazen care program was applied successfully in terminal patients that had difficulties weaning. There is an indication here that adding in some sort of Zazen program into hospice care would greatly reduce the anxiety and discomfort associated with death for not only the patient, but their families as well. That is the truest form of offering comfort, well beyond that which is possible by narcotics alone. 
