AGEING, LONGEVITY AND IMMORTALITY :Part- 3 Ageing and the Biology of meditation-2

By His Grace and Blessings, I write…

Ageing and the Biology of meditation-2

continued from part-1

Dr Blackburn or Medicine Buddha  (as referred to by HH Dalai Lama, in 2006) immersed herself in research aiming at increasing lifespans and health-spans by preventing and slowing  down the wear and tear of telomeres . She looked for many ways and many of them like calorie restrictions, social relationships, feeling of safety, quality nutrition etc proved effective.

However, of all, meditation was the most profound. It was found that in case of experienced meditators, like Buddhist monks, biological age was higher than chronological age. While chronological age gives us a measure of years since birth, the biological age reflects the functional capacity of bodily organs which is the is most important bio-marker of ageing. A person born in 1970’s will be 50 years as per chronological age, but his biological age may be > or < 50. It all depends on how his bodily parts functioned. For Buddhist monks invariably the biological age < chronological age which meant that they were slowing/delaying and reversing ageing. When researched at molecular level, it was found that their telomeres were longer and quantity of telomerase was also higher.

So, when a Nobel Prize winner starts talking about meditation, it ruffles a few feathers. Many of us are uncomfortable with thinking and discussing about meditation. Either it is an unfamiliar territory or it has some religious and spiritual leanings which our  rationalistic minds shies away from. Particularly so, any connotation of spiritual, religious or paranormal beliefs makes  many of us skeptics as we consider ourselves educated people with scientific tempers.

The skepticism however, could not deter Dr Blackburn from furthering her research into realms of meditation, particularly with the idea of looking for its impact on length of telomeres and quantity of telomerase inside the cells. From her studies on stressed mothers who were caregiver to their chronically sick children, a direct correlation was found between their years under stress and telomere length. In fact, it was  found that not only actual stress but perceived stress also mattered a lot. The higher the perceived stress, the lower were the telomerase and shorter the telomere lengths. It invariably meant shorter health-span for mothers suffering from actual/perceived stress over longer periods of time.

However, the studies also highlighted a contradiction. In some mothers, despite caring for their chronically sick child for years, there had been no telomere shortening. It was found that these women viewed stressful situations as challenge and were very resilient to stress. This has led to further insight that we have control over the way we age, all the way down into our cells.

A study by Dr Blackburn’s lab revealed that those who completed a 3-month long course on meditation, had 30% higher levels of telomerase then group on the waiting list. Similarly, a pilot study of dementia caregivers, published in 2013 by California university, found that volunteers who did an ancient chanting meditation called Kirtan Kriya, 12 minutes a day for 8 weeks, had significantly higher telomerase activity than a controlled group who listened to relaxing music.

The studies have proved that our consciousness is associated with longer telomeres. Mindfulness makes us aware of our own personalities, our tendencies and our behavioural reactions to situations. Its awareness about our responses that can be highly transformative and mindfulness practices promote such awareness.

So, if you habitually respond negatively to situations, or you are what psychologists call type-A personality (80% of us are), you always see a stressful situation as a threat. It results into constriction of blood vessels; stress hormone cortisol shoots up and stays up over longer time. This persistent higher level of cortisol damps down telomeres. Thus, our attitudes towards situations matter a lot, as was seen in studies of mothers of chronically sick children. Meditation is what helps us change our attitudes by making us aware of them. Understanding of self is the first crucial step.

Most of the people in developed countries and many of us relatively better-off  in the developing countries, are unlikely to succumb to scarlet fever, TB or malaria etc. Indeed, many of us are going to live long enough to succumb to diseases of slow degeneration like Alzheimer’s, dementia, cancers of various kinds, cardiovascular disease, diabetics, osteoporosis and stress etc. These diseases of ageing are rooted in shorter telomere lengths and reduced telomerase. Meditation can help us in avoiding all these diseases.

Dr Blackburn’s findings are very important for public policy formulation hovering around safety of people, health of girl child and pregnant mothers, a harmonious society and better social relationships etc. This will form part of my next blog..till then start meditating before any further procrastination damages your telomeres and health-spans…

By His Grace and Blessings, I write…

                                                      Dr Seema Chaudhary