According to thousands of years of tradition, Buddhists meditate to understand themselves and their connections with all beings. In doing so, they hope to be released from suffering and, ultimately, to gain enlightenment.
In the past few decades, researchers have realized the benefits of practicing this ancestral tradition. By studying more secular versions of mindfulness meditation, they found that learning to pay attention to our current experiences and accept them without judgment can really help us to be happier. Studies so far suggest that mindfulness affects many aspects of our psychological well-being - improving our mood, increasing positive emotions, and decreasing our anxiety, emotional reactivity, and burnout.
But does mindfulness affect our bodies as well as our minds?
Researchers have recently explored this issue - with some surprising results. While much of the early research on mindfulness was based on pilot studies with biased measures or limited groups of participants, more recent studies have used less biased physiological markers and randomized controlled experiments to arrive at the answer. Together, the studies suggest that mindfulness can impact our hearts, brains, immune systems, and more.
While nothing suggests that mindfulness is an independent treatment for illness or the most important ingredient for healthy living, here are some of the ways in which it appears to benefit us physically.
Mindfulness is good for our hearts
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for about 1 in 4 deaths each year. Therefore, anything that lessens the risks or symptoms of heart disease would have a significant impact on the health of society. Mindfulness can help with that.
In one study, people with prehypertension were randomly assigned to increase their drug treatment with a conscious meditation course or a program that taught progressive muscle relaxation. Those who learned mindfulness had significantly greater reductions in their systolic and diastolic blood pressure than those who learned progressive muscle relaxation, suggesting that mindfulness could help people at risk for heart disease by lowering blood pressure.
In another study, people with heart disease were randomly assigned to an online program to help them practice meditation or a waiting list for the program during normal treatment for heart disease. Those who did the mindfulness program showed significant improvements in the six-minute walk test (a measure of cardiovascular capacity) and slower heart rates than those in the waiting list group.
Although a review of randomized controlled studies has shown that mindfulness can have mixed effects on physical symptoms of heart disease, a more recent review published by the American Heart Association concluded that, while the research remains preliminary, there is sufficient evidence to suggest attention. as a complement to the treatment of coronary heart disease and its prevention.
Mindfulness can also be good for hearts that are already relatively healthy. Research suggests that meditation can increase respiratory sinus arrhythmia, the natural variations in heart rate that happen when we breathe and that indicates better heart health and a greater chance of surviving a heart attack.
Mindfulness can decrease cognitive decline due to aging or Alzheimer's disease
People tend to lose some of their cognitive flexibility and short-term memory as they get older. But mindfulness may be able to slow cognitive decline, even in people with Alzheimer's disease.
In a 2016 study, people with Alzheimer's disease engaged in mindfulness meditation, cognitive stimulation therapy, relaxation training or no treatment and took cognitive tests over two years. While cognitive stimulation and relaxation training appeared to be somewhat beneficial compared to no treatments, the mindfulness training group had far more robust improvements in cognitive scores than any other group.
Why could this be true? A 2017 study of brain function in healthy older people suggests that meditation can increase attention. In this study, people aged 55 to 75 spent eight weeks practicing focused breathing meditation or control activity. Then they underwent the Stroop test - a test that measures attention and emotional control - while having their brains monitored by electroencephalography. Those taking respiratory training had better attention on the Stroop test and more activation in an area of the brain associated with attention than those in the active control group.
While this research is preliminary, a systematic essay writing service review of the research to date suggests that mindfulness may alleviate cognitive decline, possibly due to its effects on memory, attention, processing, and executive functioning.
Mindfulness can improve your immune response
When we come across viruses and other disease-causing organisms, our body sends out troops of immune cells that circulate in the blood. These cells, including pro and anti-inflammatory proteins, neutrophils, T cells, immunoglobulins, and natural killer cells, help us fight disease and infection in a variety of ways. It turns out that mindfulness can affect these disease-fighting cells.
In several studies, mindfulness meditation has appeared to increase T cell levels or T cell activity in patients with HIV or breast cancer. This suggests that mindfulness could play a role in fighting cancer and other diseases that call on immune cells. Indeed, in people with cancer, mindfulness appears to enhance a variety of biomarkers that could indicate disease progression.
In another study, elderly participants were randomly assigned to an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course or moderate-intensity exercise program. In the end, participants who had practiced mindfulness had higher levels of interleukin-8 protein in their nasal secretions, suggesting improved immune function.
Another study found an increase in interleukin-10 in colitis patients who took a mindfulness meditation class compared to a mind-body education program, especially in patients whose colitis had flared up. Another study found that patients who had a greater increase in consciousness after a course of MBSR also showed faster healing, a process regulated by the immune system.
Studies have also found effects on markers of inflammation, like C-reactive protein, which at higher levels can adversely affect physical health. Research shows that people with rheumatoid arthritis have reduced levels of C-reactive protein after taking an MBSR course rather than on a waiting list for the course. Overall, these results suggest that mindfulness meditation may have disease-fighting powers through our immune response.
Mindfulness Can Help Reduce Psychological Pain
Of course, while the above physiological benefits of mindfulness are compelling, we shouldn't forget that mindfulness also impacts our psychological well-being, which in turn affects physical health. In fact, it is very likely that these changes have synergistic effects on each other.
First of all, there is a lot of research suggesting that mindfulness can help healthy people reduce stress. And thanks to Jon-Kabat Zinn's pioneering MBSR program, there is now a great deal of research showing that mindfulness can help people cope with the pain, anxiety, depression, and stress that can accompany it. disease, especially chronic disease.
For example, drug addiction, basically, occurs due to physiological cravings for a substance that temporarily relieves people of their psychological suffering. Mindfulness can be a useful adjunct to drug treatment by helping people better understand and tolerate their cravings, potentially helping them avoid relapses after being safely weaned from drugs or alcohol. The same is true for people struggling with overeating.
As fascinating as it is, we should not overestimate the effects of meditation on physical health at the expense of its importance for emotional health. In fact, it can be difficult to separate the two, as a key impact of mindfulness is stress reduction, and psychological stress has been linked to heart health, immune response, and telomere length. This idea is also supported by the fact that other stress-reducing therapies appear to have an impact on physical health as well.
Still, it's heartening to know that something that can be taught and practiced can impact our overall health - not just mental but also physical - more than 2,000 years after it was developed. This is reason enough to try mindfulness meditation.