Vedic Meditation in the News

Vedic Meditation: Change Your Brain in Just Eight Weeks

2011-11-25T10:50:00.000-08:00

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that making a habit of meditation can strengthen brain circuits responsible for maintaining concentration and generating empathy.

The study also found that expert meditators showed significantly greater activation of their limbic systems, appearing to have permanently changed their brains to be more empathetic. An earlier study by some of the same researchers found that committed meditators experienced sustained changes in baseline brain function, meaning that they had changed the way their brains operated even outside of meditation.

These changes included ramped-up activation of a brain region thought to be responsible for generating positive emotions, called the left-sided anterior region. The researchers found this change in novice meditators who’d enrolled in a course in meditation and practiced daily for just eight weeks.

Furthermore, MRI scans also showed that experienced meditators have less neural response to the distractions that previously may have interrupted the meditation. The brains of committed meditator shave seemingly built a model on how to go deep and stay deep within the meditation.

Serious brain science around meditation has emerged only in about the last decade, since the birth of functional MRI allowed scientists to begin watching the brain and monitoring its changes in relatively real time.

Increased funding from the National Institutes of Health has helped establish new contemplative science research centers at Stanford University, Emory University, and the University of Wisconsin, where the world’s first brain imaging lab with a meditation room next door is now under construction.

Researches expect meditation studies to exponentially within the next 10 years, further proving scientifically what meditators already know from experience: that meditation works,

PTSD Symptoms in Veterans Reduced by 50% after 8 Weeks of Meditation

2011-08-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

Veterans of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars demonstrated a 50 percent reduction in their post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms after just eight weeks of practicing Vedic Meditation.

According to the study, published in the June 2011 issue of Military Medicine, a program of twice-daily meditation produced significant reductions in stress and depression, as well as marked improvements in relationships.

The paper's senior researcher, Norman Rosenthal, M.D., is clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School and director of research at Capital Clinical Research Associates in Rockville, Maryland.

Rosenthal hypothesizes that Vedic Meditation helps people with PTSD because regular practice produces long-term changes in sympathetic nervous system activity, as evidenced by decreased blood pressure, and lower reactivity to stress. "Vedic Meditation quiets down the nervous system, and slows down the 'fight-or-flight' response," he said. People with PTSD show overactive fight-or-flight responses, making them excellent candidates for meditation.

PTSD is characterized by repeated re-experience of traumatic events, avoidance symptoms, including reluctance to think or talk about the trauma, and excessive arousal symptoms, including poor sleep and poor concentration. The condition affects an estimated one in seven deployed soldiers and Marines, most of whom do not get adequate treatment.

There is an urgent need to find effective and cost-effective treatments for veterans with combat-related PTSD. Based on this study and previous findings, Meditation may well be the most effective solution. Further study is currently underway.

Vedic Meditation Reduces Blood Pressure

2011-06-10T22:46:00.001-07:00

Vedic Meditation improves blood pressure and insulin resistance in heart patients, according to a placebo-controlled study carried out at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center. The results of the study were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers studied 84 patients with coronary artery disease, randomly dividing them into two groups. The first received a 16-week course of health education; the second was enrolled in a course in Vedic Meditation. Both groups continued to receive conventional medical care and advice.

By the end of the study, the participants in the meditation group had significantly lower blood pressure compared with participants in the control group. They also had significantly improved in measures of insulin resistance, the ability of the body to properly process insulin and blood sugar.

The study suggests that Vedic Meditation causes measurable improvements in certain elements of the metabolic syndrome, the group of related symptoms that increase the risk of coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular problems.

"The good thing about meditation is that it has a very nice quality-of-life component," said the senior author of the study, Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, professor of medicine at UCLA. "There's no ongoing financial cost, no side effects and a lot of data to demonstrate that it has a beneficial effect."

It is, she added, "yet another therapeutic modality that can be added to regular care."

Biological Link Between Stress, Anxiety and Depression Discovered

2011-04-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

Scientists at The University of Western Ontario have identified the connecting mechanism in the brain between stress, anxiety and depression.

The linking mechanism in the study involves the interaction between corticotropin, a neurotransmitter produced in response to biological stress which triggers the release of the stress hormone cortisol, and neuroreceptors known as 5-HTRs.

Corticotropin activation leads to anxiety in response to stress. It also increases the number of 5-HTRs on cell surfaces in the brain, which can cause abnormal brain signaling leading to depression.

The research shows how stress, anxiety and depression pathways connect through distinct processes in the brain. While major depressive disorder often occurs together with anxiety disorder in patients, the causes for both are strongly linked to stressful experiences. Stressful experiences can also make the symptoms of anxiety and depression more severe.

"According to the World Health Organization, depression, anxiety and other related mood disorders now share the dubious distinction of being the most prevalent causes of chronic illness," says Anthony Phillips, the scientific director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Meditation and its proven ability to reduce stress "may be the key to improving the lives of so many individuals coping with these forms of mental ill health."

Research Explains Why Meditators Live Longer

2011-03-24T00:30:00.000-07:00

The image of the ancient but youthful-looking sage meditating on a mountaintop might be closer to reality than you think, according to a new study that found that after a three-month stay at a meditation retreat, people showed higher levels of an enzyme associated with longevity.

Researchers led by Tonya Jacobs of the University of California-Davis compared 30 participants at a meditation retreat held at the Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado with matched controls on a waiting list for the retreat.

After the three-month retreat, researchers found that the meditators had on average about 30% more activity of the enzyme telomerase than the non-meditators did. Telomerase is responsible for repairing telomeres, the structures located on the ends chromosomes, which, like the plastic aglets at the tips of shoelaces, prevent the chromosome from unraveling. Each time a cell reproduces, its telomeres become shorter and less effective at protecting the chromosome — this, researchers believe, is a cause of aging. As the chromosome becomes more and more vulnerable, cell copying becomes sloppier and eventually stops when the telomeres disintegrate completely. Telomerase can mitigate — and possibly stop — cell aging.

"Something about being on a retreat for three months changed the [amount of] telomerase in the retreat group," says Elizabeth Blackburn, a study author who has won a Nobel Prize for her previous work on telomerase. The changes we saw tracked quantifiably with the change in people's psychological well-being and outlook."

"It's a very good study with interesting results in terms of health implications," says Alan Marlatt, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington who has studied meditation for decades but was not associated with this research.

In a recent study in mice by Harvard researchers, they found that boosting levels of telomerase reversed signs of aging, restoring graying fur and fertility, increasing brain size and sharpening scent perception.

So how does meditation affect the machinery of cellular reproduction? Bby reducing stress, research suggests. Severe psychological stress — particularly early in life and in the absence of social support — has been linked with poorer health, increasing risk for heart disease, stroke and some cancers. This is likely due to the negative effects of high levels of stress hormones on the brain and body. By reducing stress hormones, meditation contributes to healthier telomeres. Earlier studies have shown increases in telomerase linked with reduced psychological distress.

Research on meditation is expanding dramatically, with studies finding it helpful for pain, depression, addiction and many other conditions. "There's a very exciting dialogue going on," Marlatt says of the research. "It works for many different kinds of clinical problems. It's very promising."

Dr. Oz: Make Meditation Your New Year's Resolution

2011-03-19T23:55:00.001-07:00

Speaking at a December 13th, 2010 benefit to raise funds to teach 10,000 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder how to meditate, celebrated heart surgeon and Vedic Meditator Dr. Mehmet Oz urged adding "learn to meditate" to the top of everyone's list of New Year's Resolutions.

Meditation is a powerful stress-buster. Research shows that it can have health benefits equivalent to or better than some of the leading medications for reducing high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Addressing the impact of stress and its toll on the human heart, Dr. Oz explained how Vedic Meditation reduces the three main risk factors for heart disease.

Stating that high cholesterol is the first major risk factor for heart disease, Dr. Oz cited a one-year study on people with high cholesterol who practiced Vedic Meditation. The study found that cholesterol was reduced by 10 percent, or 30 milliliters. "Now, if you are on medication for cholesterol, we hope you can get 30 milliliters lower," he said.

The second risk factor for heart disease, cautioned Dr. Oz, is high insulin or diabetes. "A randomized clinical trial funded by the NIH found improvements in insulin resistance, glucose and even insulin levels themselves, after just four months of practicing Vedic Meditation, in over 100 people who had coronary blocks. This dramatic change was significantly better than just teaching people about their health."

Meditation also helps reduce hypertension -- the third main risk factor -- according to a randomized control study on people suffering from high blood pressure. "Those practicing Vedic Meditation had a significant reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, of 11 and 6, respectively. Those are big numbers. We don't get these kind of results all the time with medications."

The outcome of a long-term randomized trial on older African American patients with coronary heart disease showed similar promise. Those practicing Vedic Meditation during this 10-year period were found to have 47 percent less incidence of mortality, heart disease and stroke. "This impact in the Vedic Meditation group is stunning -- unimaginable. When you talk about these causes of death and you can reduce them by that much, as well as non-fatal strokes and non-fatal heart attacks, these are spectacularly large impacts."

Further validation of Vedic Meditation is on the way, as the NIH has granted over $25 million for scientists to further research the practice.