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Friederike Fabritius, an internationally renowned neuroscientist and leadership expert, recently noticed the positive changes in her father, who’s 73 years old, after he started practicing meditation.In her email to The Epoch Times, Fabritius wrote, “My dad described it as such an amazing experience, allowing him to just block out all ruminations and negative thoughts, and he was instantly hooked after the first session.”
The meditation effect felt by her elderly father was immediate, and he became fully present in the moment.
In Fabritius’s professional opinion, although not everyone will experience the same dramatic effect, meditation can help all of us live longer, age better, and lead a happier life.
According to the World Health Organization, people worldwide are living a longer life. However, the number of healthy years after retirement remains about the same. Although some health problems in seniors are genetic, most are due to their lifestyle, physical environment, and social support.
Meditation May Help You Live Longer
Dr. Zachary Ginder, a psychological consultant and a lifelong yogi, told The Epoch Times by email, “Research has suggested that certain meditation practices, through the reduction in stress and rumination, may support chromosomal health and prevent the deterioration of telomeres.”The shortening of telomeres, cap-like DNA sequences at the end of chromosomes to protect them from deterioration, is indicative of physical aging.
A study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences found that stress appears to be associated with the shortening of telomeres, and that meditation may be able to decelerate cellular aging through stress reduction.
In another study, two randomized controlled trials with a total of 220 subjects were examined. Participants were all older adults with high blood pressure who either performed meditation or underwent other interventions and/or therapies. After a maximum follow-up of 18.8 years, researchers discovered that compared to the groups that didn’t meditate, the meditation group had a 23 percent decrease in all-cause mortality, a 30 percent reduction in cardiovascular mortality, and a 49 percent decrease in cancer mortality.
Meditation Can Help Your Body Age Better
Practicing meditation may offer numerous anti-aging benefits.Meditation May Keep You Looking Younger and Help You Age More Gracefully
Your chronological aging is different from your biological aging. The former refers to the passage of time since your birth; while the latter refers to the decline of your physical body on a cellular level. While you can’t control your chronological age, meditation has been shown to be anti-aging, and therefore, can affect your appearance.A study of 96 healthy adults who participated in a yoga and meditation-based lifestyle intervention found that they had significantly reduced their rate of cellular aging.
Chronic stress and inflammation can cause people to age rapidly. Fortunately, meditation can significantly decrease stress and alleviate the aging effects of chronic stress. Practicing meditation may help you to age more slowly and thus appear to be younger than your actual age.
Meditation Can Prevent or Improve Many Age-Related Illnesses
Meditation has been shown to boost immunity, reduce inflammation, and improve digestion, so it has the potential to prevent or improve many age-related health conditions.Hearing Loss:
Tinnitus is also common among seniors. In one study, 75 patients were randomly assigned to either a mindfulness meditation-based cognitive therapy group or a relaxation group that didn’t perform meditation. Through eight weekly two-hour meditation sessions, the first group experienced a significantly larger reduction in tinnitus severity than the second group. The study concluded that mindfulness meditation is effective in reducing tinnitus severity and also reduces psychological distress and disability.
Chronic Diseases:
Mental Health Issues:
Neurological Disorders:
Currently, there’s no cure for dementia. However, meditation may increase cognitive capabilities, including attention, cognition, memory, executive function, and processing speed, thus improving the symptoms of dementia.
Alzheimer’s disease is one type of dementia. A study that recruited participants with early cognitive decline were found to be at an increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. After they practiced meditation for eight weeks, the researchers discovered that meditation had started reversing their memory loss, while also reducing their anxiety level. They concluded that meditation might be beneficial as part of an Alzheimer’s disease prevention program.
Parkinson’s Disease:
Dr. Norman Doidge, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst wrote in his book, “The Brain’s Way of Healing” that a man with Parkinson’s disease, John Pepper, experienced dramatic results using “mindfulness walking” as therapy. By engaging a healthy part of his brain, he was able to overcome his debilitating symptoms.
Meditation Can Improve Sleep Quality
Many people struggle with sleep problems such as insomnia and wake up feeling tired. Age-related illnesses, including diabetes and depression, can cause sleep disturbances, which can further exacerbate symptoms.Meditation can help you unwind and relax before bed, resulting in better sleep quality. It can help you recover from a critical illness or injury and can lower disease risk in older adults.
Meditation Can Help Your Brain Age Better
Meditation has been shown to improve cognitive function, reduce cognitive decline, and help maintain focus. It has also been shown to boost memory and concentration.Meditation Can Slow Down Your Brain’s Aging and Degeneration
As we age, our brain degenerates and shrinks due to the loss of neurons, reduced blood flow and oxygen to the brain, and decreased neurotransmitters, as well as the shrinkage of certain areas of the brain. Studies suggest that a healthy lifestyle that reduces cardiovascular risk will also benefit the brain.An analysis of a large sample of long-term meditators and non-meditators revealed that at the age of 50, the brains of the meditators were about 7.5 years younger than those of the non-meditators. After age 50, for every additional year, the meditators’ brains were approximately 50 days younger than their actual age. Thus, meditation can significantly lower the speed of brain aging, is beneficial for brain preservation, and can effectively protect the brain from age-related atrophy.
A longitudinal study yielded a similar conclusion, that is, meditation may make your brain younger. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison observed and analyzed the brain-aging profile of a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was a daily meditator, over the course of 18 years.
The researchers used brain imaging to estimate the subject’s “brain age.” When his brain was last scanned for the project at the age of 41, it was found to be on par with the brain of an average 33-year-old, or eight years younger than his chronological age. The researchers also compared his brain with a general population sample of 105 adults and discovered that it aged slower than those of the sample population. Researchers concluded that meditation may be associated with slowed biological aging.
Meditation Can Improve Cognitive Function
Research has shown that meditation can improve the brain’s structure in several different ways.Fabritius also wrote in her email to The Epoch Times, “With mediation, your prefrontal cortex will thicken and this increased surface area will aid in bolstering your rational thinking and cognition. Your bodily awareness, as well as your intuition, will heighten as you strengthen your insula.”
The prefrontal cortex and insula are both associated with attention and sensory processing. White matter contains the axons responsible for transmitting signals between different areas of the nervous system. And gray matter is responsible for processing sensory information, forming memories, learning, and controlling movement.
In one study of 20 experienced meditators, compared with 15 non-meditators, researchers discovered that their brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula were thicker than those of their non-meditating counterparts. Furthermore, in terms of prefrontal cortical thickness, the results were most noticeable among older participants, implying that meditation might counterbalance the cortical thinning due to older age.
In addition, meditation can maintain or even increase the volume of the brain’s white and gray matter.
In a German study, meditation was found to create greater connectivity between the brain’s white matter, which may reduce age-related white matter degeneration. The study also found that compared with non-meditators, there was no fractional anisotropy (a measure of brain connectivity) decline detected among meditators, meaning that the latter had preserved the integrity of their brains’ white matter.
In another study, it was found that even short-term meditation could increase the integrity and efficiency of white matter. Meditation can also preserve the volume of the brain’s gray matter, as attested by a study in which non-meditators had a negative correlation between their gray matter volume and age, while this was not the case with meditators.
Therefore, meditation can help you increase focus and processing speed, improve memory and sensory performance, and enhance learning.
Meditation Helps You Live a Healthier and Happier Life
As meditation is very effective in regulating negative emotions and even in treating certain emotional disorders, when combined with the many benefits it brings for physical health, meditation is an important lifelong practice. Meditation can also enable seniors to live an independent life with a better emotional/mental state.One study showed that meditation focused on lovingkindness can increase empathy and compassionate behavior, making you more willing to help others.
Due to a lack of time, many people tend to practice meditation alone at home during their working years. Once they’re retired, they may have more time to spend in group meditation sessions where they can enjoy socializing and making new friends.
With better health, a more positive outlook, and even greater compassion, meditation can help you to continue doing the things you enjoy the most and living your life to the fullest.
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