By Truth | The Healers Journal
September 16th, 2012
In yet another case of science catching up with established ancient medical and spiritual practices, recent studies from such prestigious universities as Harvard and respected publications such as the Journal of Scientific Exploration have clearly demonstrated that meditation is a powerful tool for not only substantially improving subjective measures of quality of life (happiness, self worth, etc.) and physical health, but also positively influencing our DNA.
Meditating for as little as 5 minutes a day can have profound, transformative effects on your physical and mental health, studies show:
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. (Natural News)
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Researchers at Texas Tech have found that as little as 11 hours –no, not all at once- of Chinese style mindful meditation causes physical changes in the brain that are associated with better moods and finer focus. A Texas Tech news release reports that researchers using MRI technologies have confirmed that even a little practice of integrative body-mind training (IBMT) results in changes in structural efficiency of white matter in the brain related to positive behavioral changes such as improved mood and better brain-signaling connections. They also found an expansion of myelin, the protective fatty tissue that surrounds the nerves in the brain’s anterior cingulate region, a region whose poor function is associated with attention deficit disorder, dementia, depression, schizophrenia and many other disorders (Texas Tech)
While these findings have massive implications for promoting health and wellbeing, perhaps the most interesting findings as of late relate to meditations effects on our DNA.
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. (Natural News) (Journal of Scientific Exploration)
According to this research, not only does meditation have a positive effect in the short term, but it fundamentally alters our genetic code in such a way as to permanently imprint these positive changes on our DNA. Clearly, the implications of these studies are nothing short of profound and lay a solid scientific foundation that substantiates claims that meditators and its proponents have been making for millennia.
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The Healers Journal offers a selection of guided meditations & sound healings for download here: Sound Healing Collection
