Several minutes of meditation a day can improve people’s physical and mental health and even reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease. That’s what scientists say.
Still, the lack of evidence means health services are unwilling to make meditation accessible to all who might benefit, according to the leader of EU-funded research on the subject.
Push for change
“I believe that meditation is one of the tools that can help people become healthier and happier as they age,” said Gaël Chételat, coordinator of the MEDIT-AGEING project.
Although the project ended in March 2022 after six years, Chételat hopes the results will help bring about change in healthcare. She remains committed to this as Director of Research at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).
According to the World Health Organization, the world population of people over 60 will reach 2.1 billion by 2050.
Chételat and her INSERM team had been studying Alzheimer’s disease and aging for more than 20 years when MEDIT-AGEING began in 2016.
Her own experience with “mindfulness” – a form of meditation that focuses on the present moment by attuning to breath, sounds or body sensations – provided inspiration to take a closer look at this area. Equally good was her knowledge of the main risk factors of neurodegenerative diseases.
“The more I practiced meditation, the more I came to the conclusion that it could be of great benefit to the aging population,” Chételat said.
There is evidence that mindfulness meditation improves concentration and memory, and reduces stress, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and even the risk of heart disease.
According to Chételat, these are all factors associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Trial against elders
MEDIT-AGEING’s goal was to provide evidence to health authorities that they are incorporating mindfulness into their support for older people. The idea was that such a move could not only improve the quality of life for older people, but also reduce healthcare costs.
Between 2018 and 2020, MEDIT-AGEING conducted the world’s largest and longest study of the effects of mindfulness meditation on seniors, with a focus on people 65 and older.
In the 18-month study, 137 people were divided into three groups. One learned mindfulness meditation, a second learned English, and the third received no training.
Meditation and non-native language training included two-hour weekly group sessions, daily practice of 20 minutes or more at home, and a day of intense activity.
Questionnaires, blood tests and scans of people’s brains were used to assess general health and look for signs of chronic stress and Alzheimer’s. Sleep quality was also measured and cognitive tests were used to measure attention, executive functioning and memory.
Particular attention was paid to two parts of the brain known to be associated with cognition: the anterior cingulate cortex and the insular cortex.
These structures tend to deteriorate with age, increasing the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. According to Chételat, meditation can slow this decline as we age.
language powers
A strength of the study was the use of foreign language learning.
Learning a foreign language, like meditation, requires cognitive mental training and has been shown to have a positive impact on some brain structures.
The results of the study confirmed that meditation had a significant impact on people’s attention span and ability to regulate their emotions. However, the brain scans did not reveal any significant changes.
While the study results were published in JAMA Neurology last October, Chételat’s team is now retesting the 137 participants to gain more insight.
One question is whether some bodily changes will not become apparent until participants spend more time meditating than in the experiment. A second question is whether such changes only occur several years after consistent meditation.
Study participants interviewed for a documentary about the process said it changed their lives, their relationships with others, their understanding of their bodies and their acceptance of themselves.
“Things like this are extremely difficult to measure,” Chételat said. “But what they say is very important, touching and positive.”
The MEDIT-AGEING team is developing a mindfulness and compassion meditation app for the elderly, to be available in early 2024.
student rehearsals
Ivana Burić, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, became interested in mindfulness while recovering from a traumatic traffic accident that required multiple surgeries.
Practicing mindfulness not only helped her with physical healing, but also led to positive repercussions in other areas of her life.
Now Burić is leading a two-year EU-funded project called INSPIRER, due to end in October.
Using tests similar to MEDIT-AGEING, she researches mindfulness in university students.
Burić, also a trained mindfulness teacher, says many of the benefits come from people learning to manage difficult thoughts or emotions without getting caught up in them.
Mindfulness practices lower stress levels — with important consequences that are not yet fully understood.
It can reduce stress-related inflammation that otherwise increases the risk of conditions such as anxiety, depression, asthma, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases.
“As an adjunct to standard treatments, it appears to help with most mental health problems and many physical ones,” Burić said.
mind and body functioning
Burić recruited 100 people — 50 meditators and 50 non-meditators — and conducted MRI scans, blood tests for signs of inflammation, and questionnaires on the participants’ mental and physical health.
The results of the questionnaire suggest that meditators have better physical and mental health and emotional regulation – and experience less stress.
Burić also recruited about 80 students from the University of Amsterdam for an experiment on the effects of an eight-week standard introductory course on mindfulness.
“We wanted to see if we could see changes in them in that short period of time and compare them to long-term meditators,” she said.
Initial results from questionnaires indicate an increase in mental and physical health.
Like Chételat, Burić hopes scientists will soon have enough evidence to convince policymakers to offer mindfulness to everyone with mental or chronic illness.
She also hopes it will become available in schools, universities and workplaces.
“Mindfulness meditation works, it’s very simple, it doesn’t cost a lot of money and anyone can do it,” Burić said.
The research in this article was funded by the EU and through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU magazine for research and innovation.
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