A neuroscientist and her team of researchers at Harvard University found that it is easier to keep young brain young as you age than you think. Sara Lazar discovers that you can change the structure of the brain by meditation. Even short courses will show a positive impact. In her research of a group of meditators who practiced the relaxation technique just for six hours a week over nine years, have thicker right anterior insula and the pre-frontal cortex. These areas are supposed to thin with age. Through meditation, the deterioration has reversed and as a result, their brains function as well as ones which are younger!
This is an important discovery of the relation of meditation to aging. And meditation is not such a difficult exercise or one that is invariably linked to a certain religion or culture. Anyone with some discipline can practice meditation, anytime, anywhere, as long as you can manage distractions. Like Lazar says, it is a matter of focusing on your breath. Just be mindful of the inhale and exhale process and think of nothing else. Even if you are distracted, it is okay, you can always start again. Most people think that you must have a certain religious affinity before you can meditate. This inaccurate thinking may have arose out of the fact that meditation is widely practiced amongst those with the Buddhist faith. It is not so. You do not have to chant the dharma as you meditate or say any prayers. All you have to do is focus on something and relieve you mind of other thoughts and distraction. The point of focus could be a candle light, something in the distant and even the movement of your body as you inhale and exhale. The age old belief that this will keep a person young is now being proven in the laboratories of the most esteemed institution through researches of eminent scientists including Nobel Prize winning Elizabeth Blackburn.
Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), discovered that meditation can impact the production of telomerase in our body. Telomerase is an enzyme that protects telomeres the caps on our chromosomes. It is found that if the telomeres are shortened through stress, we will age faster and be subjected to the invasion by age related illnesses such as osteoarthritis' diabetes, obesity, heart diseases, Alzheimer's and stroke.
Her collaboration with Elissa Epel from the psychiatry department of UCSF verified her lab findings through real life situation. In a study of 58 women in stressful situation, they discovered that the most stressed had their telomeres shortened and the impact could be translated into as much as the extra ten years in aging!
Conversely, it was found that it is not difficult to slow down the aging process. In one experiment, Blackburn and her team found that the production of telomerase shot up as much as 30% for those who completed a three month meditation retreat. In another report, it is presented that regular meditation will result in higher production of melatonin in our body.
Melatonin is a beneficial hormone which retards damage to cells, thus slows aging and energizes the immune system. Melatonin will also induce recuperative sleep which has a lot of beneficial effects. It is said to be able to reduce the feeling of stress.
With all these convincing experiments and findings, meditation should be the relaxation technique of choice. Even the simple logical question from a monk should stir us to give meditation another look. He asked, €You wash your clothes and brush your teeth everyday€¦when was the last time you cleansed your mind?€