Why Meditate?
Contributor: Francis van Schaik
Website: www.kindercoaching-ikben.nl
Meditation is like a surfboard that allows you to glide over the daily stream of thoughts. But it not only offers a handle to transcend everyday delusions, it also seems to protect certain parts of the human brain against old age.
People who meditate regularly for years show a relatively small decrease in grey matter in their brains as they age. [That is, they remain psychophysically healthier.] American researchers report this in the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Processing information
The decrease in grey matter – which is responsible for processing information in your brain – normally starts around the age of 20 and makes the human brain more susceptible to age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, later in life.
Effects of meditation
The scientists found indications for the protective effect of meditation in a study in which MRI scans were made of fifty test subjects. Half of those people had been meditating for an average of twenty years. The other half of the subjects never meditated.
Strongly shrunk
To some extent, the results were not surprising: the older the subjects, the more the volume of gray matter in their brains decreased. But the meditating participants in the study had, on average, less gray matter in their brains in later life than the other subjects.
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Final conclusion
It is not yet conclusive evidence, as it is a small study that needs to be repeated before scientists can draw definitive conclusions about the influence of meditation on gray matter reduction. Previous studies suggest that meditation may also protect other structures in the brain, such as white matter. In addition, forms of meditation are already being used as a treatment for depression.
Happinez
Website: www.kindercoaching-ikben.nl
Francis van Schaik
Francis van Schaik is een coach van jongeren en ook een student van menselijke relaties met de natuur, de wereld en de Waarheid. Ze levert regelmatig bijdragen aan ons online magazine. Francis is de bijdragende redacteur van deze pagina.