Meditation may slow ageing
Breathe in, and breathe out as you clear your mind. Practicing this daily ritual may in fact improve mental and physical health as well as slow the signs of ageing, according to a new University of Sydney study. Based on the ancient definition of meditation – “a meditator sits and like a log, he does not think”.
Breathe in, and breathe out as you clear your mind. Practicing this daily ritual may in fact improve mental and physical health as well as slow the signs of ageing, according to a new University of Sydney study.
Based on the ancient definition of meditation – “a meditator sits and like a log, he does not think”.
“We found that the health and wellbeing profile of people who had meditated for at least two years was significantly higher in the majority of health and wellbeing categories when compared to the Australian population,” research leader, Dr Ramesh Manocha, from the university’s psychiatry discipline, told DPS News.
The study highlighted Sahaja yoga meditation because it focuses on achieving “mental silence”, the closest practice to the “log” definition which was found by the researchers in old texts.
Similarly, a recent study from the University of California’s Centre for Mind and Brain, published in New Scientist magazine, showed meditation may also slow the ageing process.
The researchers found people who went on a three-month meditation retreat had signs of stronger telomeres, which play a part in protecting cells from ageing.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School have also reported people who practised meditation long-term had more active “disease-fighting” genes than those who did not practise any type of relaxation.
Dr Maarten Immink, the director of human movement at the University of South Australia, said meditation had also been shown to strengthen the hippocampus, part of the brain associated with memory.
“Along a number of lines we have evidence that meditation promotes quality of life as we get older,” Dr Immink said.
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