More Evidence For Meditation

Much of the evidence of the health benefits of meditation come from personal accounts or studies of highly skilled long-time meditators.

But we’re beginning to see studies that find quick benefits among new meditators.

In one exciting overview, a research team reported on the results of five days of training in half-hour sessions. A group of Chinese undergraduates learned to meditate well enough that after a session they produced lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in a test—mental arithmetic. The group also reported reduced anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue. Once trained, if they practiced 11 hours over about a month, they showed happy changes in brain areas related to self-control and emotion.

The students practiced a mindfulness technique adapted from the Zen religion and traditional Chinese medicine called “integrative body–mind training” (IBMT), which is practiced by thousands of people in China. The exact method is not yet widely available in the United States, but you can register for information about classes online.

IBMT, as a mindfulness technique, does not include a mantra or prayer. Instead, you’re coached, typically in groups, to sit without speaking or moving. The session begins with music. You monitor your breath and may focus on an image to calm a bouncing busy mind, with the goal of reaching an accepting state of awareness of your body and environment.

Similar results occurred with a group of students at the University of Oregon, in Eugene. But American students needed more help: they tended to keep a more irregular schedule and need make-up sessions and were more likely to want a private session and detailed verbal instructions, rather than follow along with a class.

To test the power of IBMT compared to exercise, among elders, the researchers randomly chose “healthy and high-functioning Chinese elders” about 65 years old who agreed to participate for 10 years in an IBMT or physical exercise group, practicing daily for an average of an hour. At the end of the 10 years, the team measured brain activity, physiology, and behavior. On a variety of measures, including cortisol levels and heart rate variability, the IBMT team did better, but the exercisers had lower heart rates.

“Our results suggested that meditation and physical exercise may work in part by different mechanisms, with exercise producing greater physical fitness and meditation producing greater central nervous system changes. These findings suggest that combining physical and mental training may lead to better health and quality of life during aging,” the researchers concluded.

Children benefit too, the team reported. When Chinese 4.5-year-olds were given 10 hours of practice with a child version of IBMT in half-hour sessions over a month, their parents reported improvements in their self-control, compared to children who remained in an active classroom during those 10 hours.

Portions of this story appear on Your Care Everywhere.