(25-02-11) Mindfulness meditation benefits and changes brain structures in 8 weeks

by Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor

(NaturalNews) (NaturalNews) Meditation is just a way to relax and maybe calm
you down for the moment, right? Wrong. Not only will most regular meditators
tell you that meditation makes them feel better emotionally and physically, but
now there is also scientific evidence that regular meditation literally changes
the body -- specifically, it changes the brain in ways that appear to be
beneficial.

In a study published in the January 30 edition of Psychiatry Research:
Neuroimaging, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers concluded that
an eight week mindful meditation practice produced measurable changes in
participants' brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and
stress. This is the first study to document meditation-produced changes in the
brain's grey matter over time.

"Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of
peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that
meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist
throughout the day," Sara Lazar, PhD, of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging
Research Program, the study's senior author, said in a media statement. "This
study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these
reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they
are spending time relaxing."

Previous research has documented structural differences between the brains of
experienced mediation practitioners and individuals with no history of
meditation. These brain changes included thickening of the cerebral cortex in
areas associated with the integration of emotions and attention. However,
earlier studies were unable to document that those brain differences were
actually caused by meditation.

So for the new study, MR images were taken of the brain structures of 16 study
participants two weeks before and two after they participated in the 8-week
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program at the University of
Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. Besides attending weekly practice
sessions featuring mindfulness meditation (which focuses on nonjudgmental
awareness of sensations, feelings and state of mind) the research subjects also
used audio recordings for guided meditation practice and were asked to keep
track of how much time they meditated daily, too. MR brain scans were also
taken of a group of non-meditators over a similar time interval to serve as a
control.

The meditators reported spending about 27 minutes a day practicing mindfulness
exercises. The MR images, which focused on areas where meditation-associated
changes were noted in earlier studies, showed increased grey-matter density in
the hippocampus (an area of the brain known to be important for learning and
memory) and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and
introspection.

Participants' answers to a mindfulness questionnaire indicated significant
improvements in the meditators' stress levels compared with pre-participation
responses -- and reductions in stress also were correlated with decreased grey-
matter density in the amygdala, part of the brain which is known to play an
important role in anxiety and stress. None of these changes were seen in the
control group.

"It is fascinating to see the brain's plasticity and that, by practicing
meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase
our well-being and quality of life," Britta Holzel, PhD, first author of the
paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany, said in
the press statement. "Other studies in different patient populations have shown
that meditation can make significant improvements in a variety of symptoms, and
we are now investigating the underlying mechanisms in the brain that facilitate
this change."

For more information:
http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~lazar/

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In evidenza

"L'informazione presente nel sito serve a migliorare, e non a sostituire, il rapporto medico-paziente."

Per coloro che hanno problemi di salute si consiglia di consultare sempre il proprio medico curante.