Extraordinary claims require compelling evidence: Concerns about "loving-kindness meditation slows biological aging in novices".
Psychoneuroendocrinology January 1, 2020 H. Friedman, Douglas A. MacDonald, Nicholas J. L. Brown et al.
A reanalysis of data from a published paper claiming that loving-kindness meditation slows biological aging finds no compelling evidence for that claim. The original paper reported that telomere length decreased less in a loving-kindness meditation group than in a control group, with a mindfulness meditation group in between, but the reanalysis shows that the control group's telomere length decreased considerably over a very short time, a change unrelated to meditation. A 2×3 mixed factorial ANOVA found a significant repeated measures main effect but no significant interaction with condition, and one-way ANOVAs on pre-, post-, and change scores were non-significant. Effect sizes were consistently meager, and serious confounds existed, including control group members who meditated and unequal meditation time between the two meditation groups. The extraordinary claim lacks compelling evidence.