31 July 2012

Meditate to stay healthy

There has always been a link between loneliness and deterioration in health but researchers have now concluded that mindful meditation may be able to combat this, resulting in improved health.
The small study, conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, has shown a link between mindful mediation and a decrease in loneliness. 40 participants aged between 55 and 85 were involved in the study were asked to do 30 minutes of meditation exercises a day and go to a mediation retreat for one day.

Not only was the link between loneliness and mediation discovered but it was found that there were positive health benefits. Steven Cole, professor at the university said, “Reductions in the expression of inflammation-related genes were particularly significant because inflammation contributes to a wide variety of the health threats including cancer, cardiovascular diseases and
neurodegenerative diseases.”

This is not the first time mediation has been shown to have a positive impact on health. A 2005
study in men and women showed that those who meditated for 40 minutes a day showed an increased thickness in the walls of the brain, effectively slowing brain ageing. In 2008 a study showed that after meditating regularly for 3 months, participants with high blood pressure showed significant drops in this without the use of medication.