Once limited to Hindu yogis and Buddhist monks seeking spiritual enlightenment, meditation has gone mainstream. It started in the sixties and seventies alongside the popularisation of yoga and other eastern traditions and has snowballed since then. There are now hundreds of meditation techniques to choose from. Most of them share a common goal: to teach students how to relax and quieten the mind. While the enthusiasm of meditators for the practice has largely been responsible for its popularity, until recently there has been little scientific evidence of the benefits of meditation. That is changing, though and researchers are discovering that regular meditation can have a number of scientifically verifiable benefits, including longer life.
Why Meditation May Lead to a Longer Life
Is it possible that meditation could be the long sought after "Fountain of Youth"? While that may be an exaggeration, there is scientific evidence that meditation can actually lead to a longer, healthier life. Telomeres are protective caps on the ends of chromosomes. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres shorten and in this way play a role in the aging process. University of California at Davis researcher Clifford Saron and colleagues studied meditators at a three month intensive meditation retreat and discovered greater levels of an important enzyme that lengthens telomeres in the meditators than in a control group that did not meditate. This led their study to conclude that there may be a biological basis to the belief that meditation can extend life.
While the UC Davis study indicates a direct link between meditation and aging, other studies show more indirect links:
- Levels of cortisol, the "stress hormone," are lower in regular meditators than in the general population.
- Beneficial changes have been noted in the amygdala, a small organ in the brain that is largely responsible for triggering the "fight or flight" instinct. Many studies have shown that this instinct has gone out of control in our modern society and that meditation may be one way to control the anxiety and fear that amygdala activity triggers.
Together, these benefits alone are a powerful argument for taking up regular meditation practice, but the benefits of meditation go even further. Some of the other health benefits of meditation include:
- Boosting the immune system: In studies at the University of Ohio, a progressive muscle relaxation technique similar to meditation resulted in a decrease in the recurrence of breast cancer in study participants. Other relaxation techniques taught to the elderly made them more resistant to viruses and tumours.
- Fertility: A study at the University of West Australia showed that women who were relaxed were more likely to conceive than women who were stressed.
- Irritable bowel syndrome: After a study conducted at the University of New York at Albany, researchers recommended meditation as an effective natural treatment for IBS, noting significant reductions in the major symptoms of the disorder.
- High blood pressure: Regular meditation can help reduce high blood pressure and hence may lessen the risk of heart attack and other diseases associated with it.
No Time to Meditate? No Worries
Not everyone can take the time to go on a three month meditation retreat or even meditate extensively at home every day. In one study in which brain imaging technology was used to study beginning meditators, beneficial changes in the brain were noted after only 3 hours of practice of an "integrative mind-body training" based on Traditional Chinese Medicine. After 11 hours of practice, functional changes in the white matter of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a part of the brain that is associated with self-regulation of mental states was noted.
While having a regular meditation schedule and sticking to it may be ideal, even short "mini-meditations" while sitting at your desk or on public transportation can be highly beneficial. One simple way to get started at meditation is to sit comfortably with your eyes closed and just observe your breath as you inhale and exhale naturally. One taste of the profoundly relaxing benefits of meditation may be all it takes for you to explore meditation further, find a meditation program that resonates with you and learn more advanced techniques.
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