Participating in a long -term meditation practice could significantly relieve stress and slow down, suggests a new study published in the Biomolecules magazine.
Researchers at the International University of Maharishi (MIU), the University of Siegen and the University of Uniformed Services of Health Sciences studied the effectiveness of transcendental meditation, which is a program where people silently repeat a mantra in their head to achieve it.
“These results support other studies that indicate that the technique of transcendental meditation can reverse or eliminate the effects of pulmonary tilting stress,” said co -author Kenneth Walton, Miu’s principal researcher, to Fox News Digital.
“The lasting effects or stress are now recognized as causing or contributing to all diseases and disorders,” he added.
The study included two groups of participants, one that varies from 20 to 30 years and another that varies from 55 to 72. Half of the participants followed transcendental meditation and a control group did not.
For each participant, the researchers analyzed the expression of genes linked to inflammatory and aging, according to a MIU press release.
They discovered that people who practiced transcendental meditation had a lower expression of the genes associated with inflammatory and aging.
“The lower expression of age -related genes … extends the findings of short -term studies that indicate that these practices lead to healthy aging and a more stress resistant adaptation,” Walton said in the statement.
The researchers also analyzed the cognitive function through EEG tests. It was discovered that major practitioners or transcendental meditation had faster processing speeds.
That group also received higher scores on the brain integration scale (BIS), which is an integral measure of cognitive performance.
“The findings about cognitive function are particularly exciting,” said co -author Frederick Travis, PhD, head of the Faculty of the International University of Maharishi, in the statement.
“Younger and older TM practitioners showed higher scores in the BIS compared to non -meditators, while older meditators served along with young controls,” he said.
The third focus area was cortisol and hair cortisone, which are steroid hormones that serve as biomarkers for long -term stress exposure and other health conditions.
The amount of active cortisol in the hair, in relation to the form of inactive storage, was lower for those who practiced transcendental meditation, the study found.
“Cortisol plays a fundamental role in the body’s response to stress, and chronically high cortisol levels are associated with a series of health problems released by age, in addition to cognitive declines,” Walton said.
“The reduced cortisol relationship to cortisone in the meditators suggests that they have a more adaptive reserve, more resistance, contributing to health and longevity in general.”
The main limitation in the study of cohorts of years was the lack of a placebo control group, according to Walton.
“These meditators practiced their techniques twice a day for many years, and the control subjects had no similar activity,” he told Fox News Digital. “In addition, most of the subjects spent their years in the same geographical location (southeast Iowa in the United States).”
‘Pesos lifting for the brain’
Biohacker Dave Asprey, author of the next book “Very Meditated: The Quick Road to eliminate its triggers, dissolve stress and activate inner peace”, has spent 25 years studying meditation with shamans and gurus, and investigating Neurus.
Hey agrees that meditation helps to stop the aging process.
“It reduces stress, and the more stress it has not to be a useful stress, such as going to the gym or working hard, that your brain shrinks and makes you old,” Asprey said during an interview in the camera with Fox News Digital. “Meditation has been demonstrated in multiple studies to undo those problems.”
Biohacker also refers to meditation as “weightlifting for the brain.”
“Long -term meditators have brains that can make more electricity than some that do not meditate, and their brains are more orderly.”
Meditation could potentially decrease and perhaps prevent some types of dementia, according to Asprey.
“There are studies that show that people who meditate are better to excrete toxins,” he added.
Asprey emphasized that meditation begins not in the mind, but in the body.
For those who just start, recommend trying a body scan to calm the nervous system.
“For this, you breathe deeply for four seconds and breathe seconds,” he said. “Grant on the fingers of the feet, then the Anles, then on the calves, then the knees, and slowly puts all his conscience in each part of his body.”
“Learning that meditation is an embodied practice versus mental practice can change it for everyone when they are starting up.”
Some studies have shown that the correct form of meditation or breath work may have effects that exceed pharmaceutical products, according to the ASPREY.
“There are deep results that meditation can do much better than antidepressants,” he said. “That said, if you have a medicine and start meditating, you should tell your doctor and probably not get out of drugs without support.”
One of the greatest myths is that all meditation is the same or that all meditation is good for everyone, Asprey said.
“The normal meditation that was designed for farmers will not work if you are a warrior, and it is fine if it does not work. It does not mean that it is a bad thing with you.”