Abstract
Meditation is becoming increasingly practiced, especially for stress-related medical conditions. Meditation may improve cellular health; however, studies have not separated out effects of meditation from vacation-like effects in a residential randomized controlled trial. We recruited healthy women non-meditators to live at a resort for 6 days and randomized to either meditation retreat or relaxing on-site, with both groups compared with ‘regular meditators' already enrolled in the retreat. Blood drawn at baseline and post intervention was assessed for transcriptome-wide expression patterns and aging-related biomarkers. Highly significant gene expression changes were detected across all groups (the ‘vacation effect') that could accurately predict (96% accuracy) between baseline and post-intervention states and were characterized by improved regulation of stress response, immune function and amyloid beta (Aβ) metabolism. Although a smaller set of genes was affected, regular meditators showed post-intervention differences in a gene network characterized by lower regulation of protein synthesis and viral genome activity. Changes in well-being were assessed post intervention relative to baseline, as well as 1 and 10 months later. All groups showed equivalently large immediate post-intervention improvements in well-being, but novice meditators showed greater maintenance of lower distress over time compared with those in the vacation arm. Regular meditators showed a trend toward increased telomerase activity compared with randomized women, who showed increased plasma Aβ42/Aβ40 ratios and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) levels. This highly controlled residential study showed large salutary changes in gene expression networks due to the vacation effect, common to all groups. For those already trained in the practice of meditation, a retreat appears to provide additional benefits to cellular health beyond the vacation effect.
Highlights
Ancient practices such as yoga and meditation have long been thought to combat stress and promote longevity, empirical evidence for effects on aging processes under highly controlled experimental conditions is lacking
Our design allowed us to study the effects of meditation independent of the vacation effect, as well as to compare the effects of acute intensive meditation in regular meditators versus those newly trained in meditation
Comparison group of female regular meditators who had already signed up for the retreat for the same week at the resort. This design allowed us to study the effects of meditation independent of the vacation effect, as well as to compare the effects of acute intensive meditation in regular meditators versus those newly trained in meditation
Summary
Ancient practices such as yoga and meditation have long been thought to combat stress and promote longevity, empirical evidence for effects on aging processes under highly controlled experimental conditions is lacking. In addition to high-dimensional molecular data such as gene networks, blood-based biomarkers can provide an integrated overview that indexes biological aging. Telomere length predicts both cellular health and disease in rodent models and humans.[8]. Mindfulness-based stress reduction was associated with increases in telomerase after 3 months.[20] Long-term mind–body interventions, including tai chi, yoga and meditation, have been associated with gene expression (GE) changes associated with inflammatory pathways[21,22] as reviewed elsewhere.[23,24]
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