The Effects Of Meditation: What Does Science Say?

What are the scientifically proven effects of meditation? Meditation has become so popular that it has become a natural part of our lives in many environments, with different goals. This is not without reason. Meditation has several benefits for your physical and mental health. Maybe that’s why meditation has become trendy. In this article, we will look at some of the research that has been done on the effects of meditation.

Many people reject meditation because they do not “believe” in it. But meditation is not a religion: you do not have to believe that it works, nor does it involve magic or luck.

Next, we will talk about the most distinctive benefits and effects of meditation that researchers have found in recent years. The research continues, so the benefits we will show you below are probably just the beginning.

An interesting benefit of meditation is that it encourages and increases creativity. A study from 2012 at the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands and another at the same university in 2014 showed that certain techniques promote creative thinking.

These studies took a closer look at a meditation technique called “open monitoring”. A form of mindfulness meditation. During it, the participants are receptive to all thoughts and sensations without focusing on any particular concept or object. They performed better on tasks that involved creative thinking and they generated more new ideas than before.

These findings support the notion that meditation can have a lasting impact on human cognition. This includes how we come up with new ideas and experience events. This is not only for experienced meditation practitioners, but beginners can also benefit from meditation.

The advantage that most stands out when it comes to meditation is that it helps reduce and prevent stress. A study published in January 2017, conducted by the University of Georgetown in the United States, found that meditation reduced inflammatory hormonal responses to stress; especially after practicing mindfulness. This rigorously designed clinical study found objective physiological evidence that conscious meditation fights anxiety.

The researchers found that patients with an anxiety disorder, after taking a course in meditation, drastically reduced their stress hormone levels and reduced the risk of inflammation in response to stressful situations. Patients who participated in a stress management course without meditation showed poorer results.

Another study published in May 2017 by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada found that just 10 minutes of meditation helps people with anxiety gain better focus. The study evaluated the effects of meditation on 82 participants who experienced anxiety. It found that the development of conscious presence in the present reduced repetitive thoughts that are irrelevant – a hallmark of anxiety.

Researchers explain that a wandering mind accounts for almost half of the daily flow of consciousness for a person. For people with anxiety, repetitive thoughts, which leak into tasks they are engaged in, can adversely affect their ability to learn, complete tasks, or even function properly.

Many people report positive health effects of practicing yoga and meditation and feel that it promotes their mental and physical health. But we still have a lot to learn about exactly how these methods affect the health of the mind and body.

A new research article, published in August 2017, examined the effects of meditation and yoga on humans by observing physiological and immunological markers of stress and inflammation. The researchers studied the participants during an intensive three-month retreat. They discovered that the exercises had a positive effect on the physiological and immunological markers of stress and inflammation. They also improved subjective well-being.

The following article, published by Frontiers in Human Neuroscience , examines the effects of meditation and yoga on what is known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), effects on the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal cortex (HPA axis) and inflammatory markers. .

This time, the researchers studied the participants of an intensive 3-month yoga and meditation retreat. They found that these training methods had a positive effect on BDNF signals, a positive effect on the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and on immunological markers.

Participants reported a decrease in anxiety and depression, as well as an increase in conscious presence and attention. The research team saw increases in the levels of BDNF in the blood plasma. This is a neuromodulator that plays an important role in learning, memory and regulation of complex processes such as inflammation, immunity, mood regulation, response to stress and metabolism.

They also observed improvements in the cortisol awakening response (CAR), which is part of the stress axis; hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal cortex (HPA). This indicates better resilience to stress.

A 2011 study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, published in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging , revealed that meditation, and especially mindfulness, can bring about measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, self-esteem, empathy and stress. This study first documented the changes that meditation over a period of time brought about in the gray matter of the brain.

Analysis of the MRI images showed a higher density of gray tissue in the hippocampus. This is important for learning and memory. They found it in structures associated with self-awareness and introspection as well. The reductions in stress also correlated with the decrease in density of gray matter in the amygdala. This is known to play an important role in anxiety and stress.

Another study conducted in 2013 by researchers from Wisconsin, Spain and France was published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology . It reported on specific molecular changes that occurred in the body after a period of conscious meditation.

The study examined the effects of meditation during a full day of intense mindfulness practice on a group of experienced meditation practitioners. They compared this to a control group of untrained people who participated in silent but non-meditative activities.

After eight hours of practicing mindfulness, meditators demonstrated a range of genetic and molecular differences. This included altered levels of gene regulatory mechanisms and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory genes. This is associated with faster physical recovery in a stressful situation. These are the same goals that manufacturers of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs are trying to achieve with drugs.

A recent study, from June 2017, conducted by the University of Coventry in the UK, found that mind-body interventions, such as meditation, yoga and tai chi, do not just relax us. They can “reverse” or compensate for certain parts of our DNA that may be risk factors.

The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology , examines more than a decade of study. These studies analyze how different mind-body interventions affect how our genes behave. The 18 studies had 846 participants over 11 years.

When examined together , they show a pattern in the molecular changes that occur in the body as a result of mind-body interventions. They also show that these changes benefit the patient’s mental and physical health.

The researchers focused on how gene expression is affected. That is, they focus on how genes are activated to produce proteins that affect the biological composition of the body, brain and immune system.

Millions of people around the world are already enjoying the health benefits of mind-body interventions, such as yoga or meditation. But these benefits start at the molecular level and can change the shape of our genetic code. The researchers called this a “molecular signature”, which reverses the effects of stress or anxiety on the body.

Pain relief is another reason why there is research on meditation. A study published in June 2017 by the University of Leeds Beckett in the UK found that meditation could be a cheaper alternative to traditional painkillers.

According to the study, ten minutes of mindfulness could be enough, and that this could be used as an alternative to painkillers. The results suggest that a single ten-minute mindfulness session can improve pain tolerance, pain threshold, and reduce pain-related anxiety.

Other previous studies had examined the possibility of relieving pain without opioids through meditation. That was the case with a study from the USA from March 2016. It was conducted by Wake Forest Baptist Health and published in the Journal of Neuroscience . According to this study  , pain decreased after a short period of meditation training.

These results are particularly important for those who have developed a tolerance to opiate-based drugs. These people are looking for a non-addictive way to reduce pain. Meditation can be used with other traditional therapies or medications to relieve pain without side effects.

A previous study from 2015, conducted by the same center, showed that conscious meditation reduces pain better than a placebo. The study used two approaches to verify the results. They used pain scores and brain imaging to determine if mindfulness is a placebo or has real effect.

This study showed that participants who practiced mindfulness reported greater pain relief than the control group that had received placebo. Brain scans showed that their brain activity was different from those who had taken placebo.

Here we just talked about some of the studies that dealt with the effects of meditation. Undoubtedly , there is interest in us seeing benefits that go beyond myths, beliefs and the placebo effect.

We do not need to prove that if you want to verify that this works, you must try it yourself. You should have an open mind and a non-judgmental mindset. There are no side effects, and once you do, you will see the effects of meditation in your own life.