Meditation, Neurobiological Changes, Genes, and Health
Marjorie Hines Woollacott
August 6, 2018 DOI: 10.1201/9781315153155-17 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review |
|---|---|
| Interventions | Meditation Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinically Standardized Meditation mind-body therapies |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key findings | The chapter argues that meditation and related mind-body therapies have physiological benefits, including improved cardiovascular, neurophysiological, and immunological function and altered gene expression, and that meditation lowers blood pressure and reduces blood norepinephrine levels. It contends these effects matter because norepinephrine is described as a factor in cardiovascular disease progression, cardiovascular mortality, congestive heart failure hospitalization, ischemic events, and myocardial infarction. |
Abstract
This chapter explores the evidence to support the use of meditation and other mind–body therapies to aid healing for a variety of disorders. It discusses the physiological benefits of meditation, including improvements to cardiovascular, neurophysiological, and immunological function, examines the effects of meditation on gene expression, and discusses specific research on its healing capacity with respect to different diseases. Jon Kabat-Zinn was one of the first persons to develop a clinically based form of meditation practice, which is called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Clinically Standardized Meditation uses the mental repetition of a sound selected from a list of sounds, which is allowed to move at its own pace. In addition to reductions in blood pressure, meditation also modulates sympathetic nervous system activity, reducing norepinephrine levels in the blood. This is significant as norepinephrine is known to be a factor indicative of cardiovascular disease progression, cardiovascular mortality, hospitalization for congestive heart failure, ischemic events, and myocardial infarction.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical populations | 2003 | Review | |
| Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects | 2007 | Review | |
| Mindfulness Interventions | 2016 | Review | |
| Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation | 2017 | Review | |
| Mindfulness and acceptance: expanding the cognitive-behavioral tradition | 2005 | Review |