- Unknown
- 06:20
- لاتوجد تعليقات
Scientists are looking at how the practice of meditation can not just mentally, but physically impact your body. A new study with researchers from Spain, France, and Wisconsin shows specific molecular changes in the body after aperiod of mindfulness meditation.
The study looked at a group of experienced meditators and compared them to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditation activities. After 8 hours of mindfulness practices, the meditators showed a range of genetic changes. Specifically, they showed reduced levels of genes that caused inflammation, which caused a faster physical recovery after stressful events.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice," says study author Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reported on Science Daily.
"Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs," says Perla Kaliman, first author of the article and a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain (IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS), where the molecular analyses were conducted.
The genes impacted included RIPK2 and COX2. But, interestingly, there weren't differences in the groups before the mindfulness practices, only after them.
“Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression," Davidson says.
It’s already been shown the meditation can strengthen your brain. Meditation causes increased folding of the insula, the outermost layer of the brain which plays a role in consciousness as well as memory and attention.
"The insula has been suggested to function as a hub for autonomic, affective and cognitive integration," said Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro-Imaging. "Meditators are known to be masters in introspection and awareness as well as emotional control and self-regulation, so the findings make sense that the longer someone has meditated, the higher the degree of folding in the insula."
source : http://blogs.discovery.com
The study looked at a group of experienced meditators and compared them to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditation activities. After 8 hours of mindfulness practices, the meditators showed a range of genetic changes. Specifically, they showed reduced levels of genes that caused inflammation, which caused a faster physical recovery after stressful events.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice," says study author Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reported on Science Daily.
"Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs," says Perla Kaliman, first author of the article and a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain (IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS), where the molecular analyses were conducted.
The genes impacted included RIPK2 and COX2. But, interestingly, there weren't differences in the groups before the mindfulness practices, only after them.
“Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression," Davidson says.
It’s already been shown the meditation can strengthen your brain. Meditation causes increased folding of the insula, the outermost layer of the brain which plays a role in consciousness as well as memory and attention.
"The insula has been suggested to function as a hub for autonomic, affective and cognitive integration," said Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro-Imaging. "Meditators are known to be masters in introspection and awareness as well as emotional control and self-regulation, so the findings make sense that the longer someone has meditated, the higher the degree of folding in the insula."
source : http://blogs.discovery.com
No comments :
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.