Yesterday, I blogged about research on how meditation may affect telomere length, a measure of biological aging and stress. Here is the abstract for a meta-analysis of available research:
“The enzyme telomerase, through its influence on telomere length, is associated with health and mortality. Four pioneering randomized control trials, including a total of 190 participants, provided information on the effect of mindfulness meditation on telomerase. A meta-analytic effect size of d = 0.46 indicated that mindfulness meditation leads to increased telomerase activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These results suggest the need for further large-scale trials investigating optimal implementation of mindfulness meditation to facilitate telomerase functioning.”
This seems like a very promising area of research. Here is a good National Geographic video explaining telomers
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