Meditation, a spiritual exercise method, has been around for thousands of years. However, because meditation is cloaked in mysticism, this ancient method of practice originating in the East was only popularized in the West in the 1970s. At present, meditation to improve sleep, reduce stress, and enhance concentration has become a daily practice for many people. So, can meditation really have a beneficial effect on physical and mental health? Is there a scientific basis for it? Recently, a team of researchers at Harvard Medical School confirmed that meditation practice can boost immune function. Let's introduce the scientific insights on meditation now.
A scholar at Harvard Medical School published a paper in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, presenting the results of meditation research. For the study, 104 participants, with an average age of about 40 years, were enrolled and an 8-day advanced meditation retreat was arranged. Blood samples from volunteers were collected several times during the 8th and 5th weeks before the meditation retreat, 1 day before the start of the meditation, and 3 months after the end of the meditation. During the retreat, eat a vegan diet and meditate for 10 hours a day.
Three months after the meditation retreat, the researchers found that participants' response to oxidative stress, detoxification, and cell cycle regulation pathways were downregulated, the relative proportion of neutrophils increased, and interferon pathway activity increased. Through the analysis of gene expression networks, it was found that 220 genes directly related to the immune response, including 68 genes associated with interferon signaling, were upregulated. Given that interferon signaling is the trigger of the immune system, researchers believe that meditation-related signaling can play a positive role in improving health and defending against diseases.
Speaking of scientific research on meditation, we must introduce a key scholar named Blackburn. The scientist, who had studied molecular biology at Yale University, discovered the order of components at the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres, in the 1970s. Later, other scientists discovered that there are also telomeres in human chromosomes, and that they wear out as DNA splits. In the 1980s, Blackburn, along with her graduate students, discovered enzymes that protect and repair telomeres at the University of California, and identified telomerase as a key factor in aging, for which she won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009.
In 2000, Blackburn began to focus on the stress problems faced by women due to accidents. After analyzing blood samples from 58 women, it was found that women with higher pressure had shorter telomeres and lower telomerase activity. Subsequent studies have found that the stress hormone cortisol reduces telomerase activity, while oxidative stress and inflammation directly cause telomere damage. Age-related diseases, such as arthritis, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, etc., are all associated with short telomeres. Another study, which surveyed more than 2,000 healthy Indians, found that people with shorter telomeres had twice as much risk of developing diabetes in the next 5 years as others. In 2003, Blackburn found that over an 8-week period, 12 minutes of ancient chanting meditation were performed daily, and the participants' telomerase activity was significantly improved.
Blackburn's paper and influence directly contributed to research on meditation. In 2011, American scholars used functional magnetic resonance imaging technology to find that meditation can close the brain region associated with anxiety, schizophrenia and other diseases, this area is called the default mode network, the activity of this network is related to anxiety disorders, attention deficit, ADHD and other mental illnesses.
Exercise methods such as meditation, yoga, and tai chi are collectively referred to as mind-body intervention methods in the modern medical system. In 2017, scholars from the UK and the Netherlands conducted a study that reviewed data from 18 projects over a 10-year period. The study found that when people face stress, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, resulting in a nuclear factor that regulates gene expression. Nuclear factors activate pro-inflammatory genes, which produce cytokines that cause an inflammatory response. If inflammation lasts longer, it increases the risk of aging, cancer, and mental illness. Meta-analyses showed that people who underwent mind-body intervention exercises produced fewer nuclear and cytokines, reversing the process of expression of pro-inflammatory genes and reducing the risk of inflammation-related diseases. Therefore, meditation is beneficial to physical and mental health, has a scientific basis, and is reliable.
Whoever loves, pass on health to whom.
Your health, my concern. Professionals observe health from a scientific and humanistic perspective, including a series of express reports, details, reminders, doubts, observations, opinions, historical stories, etc., with the content of the original works of the author Wei Hongling and the team. All forms of misappropriation and reproduction without permission will be refused, otherwise they will be prosecuted in accordance with relevant laws.