Meditation Helps You Live Longer
The rapidly growing seduction of the Internet and technologies seems to have caught every one of us in its sweet grip. Needless to say, staying hooked for some reason or the other has now become a part of our daily lifestyle and has caused a not-so-noticeable trend of sleeplessness among individuals of all ages.
In such a society, where there is a dominance of sleep disorders combined with mental health issues like insomnia, narcolepsy, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, meditation offers a solution to calm the body, mind and soul for people of all ages. For years, meditation has been practiced in many cultures with amazing results and has benefited many patients suffering from ailments ranging from stress and anxiety to chronic depression.
Furthermore, meditation is thought to improve overall health of an individual, thus slowing down ageing and helping you live longer. Read on to find out how�
A stunning research from Buddhist Retreat suggests that meditation can actually help slow down ageing and increase life span by preventing the degeneration of chromosomes. Traditionally, meditation has always known to bring about positive changes in the human body including calming down the overall system, inducing peaceful thoughts, relieving stress, depression, anxiety, restlessness, nervousness, panic and bringing about a positive outlook on life. But this research reveals that there is more to the benefits of meditation than what we already know.
The research explains how being in a meditative state protects the telomeres on the ends of the chromosomes thereby delaying the ageing process of the individual. Every time a cell divides, the telomere of the chromosome gets shorter, unless it is regulated by an enzyme known as telomerase. This shortening of the telomere increases an individual's risk of suffering from heart disease, depression, diabetes, obesity and many degenerative diseases like arthritis and osteoporosis.
Shamatha Project
The study conducted in a Buddhist retreat found out that people, while in a meditative state, had much higher telomerase activity than those who didn't. The higher telomerase activity benefited the individual in three ways.
Firstly, the person was found to have an increased sense of control over his circumstances. Secondly, there was an increased sense of purpose in life. And thirdly, there was lower neuroticism (anxiety, moody behavior etc).
Meditation, in general, has many other benefits than just promoting spiritual calm. It helps lower the blood pressure, enhances immunity of the body and speeds up healing processes dramatically. Some studies even show that meditative practices can be more beneficial in treating a person with depression than drug treatments and medications.
Practicing mindfulness meditation or transcendental meditation can help you evolve both physically and spiritually and doing this in addition to a drug therapy will improve health outcomes.
Source: Medindia
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Dr. Enozia Vakil. (2013, February 15). Meditation Helps You Live Longer. Medindia. Retrieved on Nov 25, 2024 from https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/meditation-helps-you-live-longer-114326-1.htm.
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Dr. Enozia Vakil. "Meditation Helps You Live Longer". Medindia. Nov 25, 2024. <https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/meditation-helps-you-live-longer-114326-1.htm>.
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Dr. Enozia Vakil. "Meditation Helps You Live Longer". Medindia. https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/meditation-helps-you-live-longer-114326-1.htm. (accessed Nov 25, 2024).
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Dr. Enozia Vakil. 2013. Meditation Helps You Live Longer. Medindia, viewed Nov 25, 2024, https://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/meditation-helps-you-live-longer-114326-1.htm.