To live longer and better, the science is clear: Just meditate




(NaturalNews) It took scientists decades to understand what Asian hermits have known for millennia: meditation is truly a wonder-worker in the human body. Recent groundbreaking studies concluded that meditating positively impacts gene expression in the body, promotes longevity, protects against stroke and heart disease and drastically reduces visits to the doctor.

Heart disease and stroke are the number one and number four causes of death in America, and both are linked to high blood pressure. Meditation alone was proven to reduce blood pressure readings in those with borderline hypertension from 150/94 to 141/88 over a five-year period, with 120/80 considered ideal. In cases of elevated blood cholesterol, which is also strongly linked to heart disease, meditators’ cholesterol levels dropped from 255 to 225, with 220 being the average for American adults.

Other studies on meditators’ use of the medical system are even more remarkable. Regular meditators visit outpatient clinics, on average, half as much as non-meditators, with older meditators enjoying comparatively even better health: those over 40 visit the doctor only a quarter as much as other people of the same age do. With 60-90 percent of all doctors visits being stress-related, meditation’s proven de-stressing power may be to thank for the lower incidence of illness. Side benefits of meditation include a decreased sensitivity to pain and improved emotional health.

Most exciting of all are recent findings on the impact of meditation on gene expression. Researchers at Harvard found that meditating for just eight weeks dramatically alters gene expression, “turning off” hundreds of genes conducive to the onset of disease while “turning on” hundreds of genes conducive to health. Long-term meditators evinced even more powerful gene changes. And meditation seems to extend lifespan at the cellular level through the action of telomerase, an enzyme that repairs telomeres, the endings of chromosome that provide a biological marker of how long a person will live. While stress has been found to depress telomerase levels, meditation and other lifestyle interventions increase telomere length by 30 percent through improving telomerase levels.

Were meditation in pill form, as Dr. Dean Ornish has said, it would be a multi-billion dollar industry. With nothing necessary for meditation except a mentor and a seat, it may be the most accessible, if unconventional, guarantee of health.

Sources for this article include:

Benson, Herbert. Timeless Healing. New York: Fireside, 1997. Print.
Chopra, Deepak. Perfect Health. New York: Harmony Books, 1991. Print.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm
http://dream.presentme.com/video2010/20101210PCRMOrnish/
http://josefine-cole.suite101.com

Get breaking health news + a LIFETIME 7% discount on everything at the NaturalNews Store


Join two million monthly readers. Email privacy 100% protected. Unsubscribe at
any time.

Have comments on this article? Post them here:

 people have commented on this article.

Related Articles:

The downfall of science and the rise of intellectual tyranny

In U.S., science is distorted to promote political and corporate agendas

Human race being terminated by ‘scientific suicide’

Health Ranger unveils The God Within documentary, exposes the false philosophical foundations of modern science

S.O.S. alert: Help STOP Out-of-control Science from destroying us all

Readers stunned to learn that conventional scientists don’t believe in mind, spirit, free will or consciousness

Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com

Email this article to a friend

Share
this article on
: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us

Permalink to this article:

http://www.naturalnews.com/037199_meditation_science_longevity.html
Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link.

Embed article link: (copy HTML code below):

To live longer and better, the science is clear: Just meditate

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes