RESEARCH
KATIE BARNES » MANAGING EDITOR » SPA BUSINESS T e research is the
most comprehensive study of intensive meditation to date
THE
FINISHING TOUCH
STOP THE CLOCK Meditation may have long-term implications on health and could help delay the ageing process I
t’s well documented that meditation leads to improvements in perception and wellbeing. Small trials, involv- ing short courses of meditation have also indicated that it can infl uence
actual physical responses such as lowering blood pressure, slowing disease progression in HIV patients and improving the immune response in cancer patients. Now research from the Shamatha Project –
the most comprehensive long-term study of intensive meditation to date* – is the fi rst to link positive wellbeing with cellular ageing and possibly with the delay of the ageing process.
THREE-MONTH RETREATS
T e Shamatha Project, which focused on 60 meditators, was co-ordinated by Clif- ford Saron, a neuroscientist at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of Cal- ifornia, Davis, in the US. Half of the participants attended a three-
month retreat at the Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado in the spring of 2007, while the other half, a control group, abstained from meditating at that time. T e groups then switched places in the autumn, with those who attended the retreat not meditating for three months and vice versa. While at the retreat, participants took part
in two daily group meditation sessions and their own individual sessions for about six
hours a day in total. T ey practiced a mix of mindfulness meditation, in which people are aware of their own thoughts and surround- ings; and compassion meditation, in which people extend feelings of love and kindness to others. T ey were also off ered ongoing train- ing by B Alan Wallace, a Buddhist scholar. Over the three months, the groups were
subjected to a variety of tests, mostly focus- ing on the control of emotions and changes in cognitive function. Yet Elissa Epel, a psychol- ogist from the University of California, San Francisco, was interested in fi nding out what impact the meditation had on telomeres. Telomeres are DNA structures at the end
of chromosomes, which shorten every time a cell divides. When they fall below a certain length, the cell cannot divide and eventually dies. T is cell loss causes wrinkling and age- ing. An enzyme called telomerase, however, can rebuild and lengthen them.
MEDITATION AFFECT
Epel found that at the end of the three- month retreat, telomerase activity was signifi cantly higher – one-third more – in the white blood cells of participants on the retreat, compared to those in the control group. In an article in UK newspaper T e Observer, Epel said that in theory this could stop and maybe even reverse cellular ageing: “If the increase in telomerase is sustained
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long enough, it’s logical to infer that this group would develop more stable and pos- sibly longer telomeres over time.” During the retreat, the psychological state
of participants was also assessed using ques- tionnaires. Interestingly, three psychological qualities in particular resulted in higher telomerase activity: a higher feeling of per- ceived control (over life and surroundings); an increased sense of having a purpose in life; and decreased neurotic feelings such as being anxious, tense or in a bad mood. In conclusion, Saron says: “T e take-home
message from this work is not that medita- tion directly increases telomerase activity and therefore a person’s health and longevity. Rather, meditation may improve a person’s psychological wellbeing an in turn these changes are related to telomerase activity in immune cells, which has the potential to pro- mote longevity in those cells. Activities that increase a person’s sense of wellbeing may have a profound eff ect on the most funda- mental aspects of physiology.” To that eff ect, simply doing something we enjoy or which makes us feel less stressed
– whether that’s meditating, exercising, gar- dening, reading or painting – may help us age well and live longer. ●
*Jacobs TL, et al. Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity and psychological mediators. Psychoneuroendocrinology (2010).
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