Harvard Yoga Scientists Find Proof of Meditation Benefit
By Makiko
Kitamura - Nov 22, 2013
Scientists
are getting close to proving what yogis have held to be true for centuries --
yoga and meditation can ward off stress and disease.
While hundreds of studies have been conducted on the mental health benefits of yoga and meditation, they have tended to rely on blunt tools like participant questionnaires, as well as heart rate and blood pressure monitoring. Only recently have neuro-imaging and genomics technology used in Denninger’s latest studies allowed scientists to measure physiological changes in greater detail. John Denninger, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, is leading a five-year study on how the ancient practices affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed. His latest work follows a study he and others published earlier this year showing how so-called mind-body techniques can switch on and off some genes linked to stress and immune function.
“There is a true biological effect,” said Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospitals. “The kinds of things that happen when you meditate do have effects throughout the body, not just in the brain.”
The government-funded study may persuade more doctors to try an alternative route for tackling the source of a myriad of modern ailments. Stress-induced conditions can include everything from hypertension and infertility to depression and even the aging process. They account for 60 to 90 percent of doctor’s visits in the U.S., according to the Benson-Henry Institute. The World Health Organization estimates stress costs U.S. companies at least $300 billion a year through absenteeism, turn-over and low productivity.
Seinfeld, Murdoch
The
science is advancing alongside a budding “mindfulness” movement, which includes
meditation devotees such as Bill George, board member of Goldman Sachs Group and Exxon
Mobil Corp., and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch recently
revealed on Twitter that he is giving meditation a try.
As a
psychiatrist specializing in depression, Denninger said he was attracted
to mind-body medicine, pioneered in the late 1960s by Harvard
professor Herbert Benson, as a possible way to prevent the onset of depression
through stress reduction. While treatment with pharmaceuticals is still
essential, he sees yoga and meditation as useful additions to his medical
arsenal.
Exchange Program
It’s an
interest that dates back to an exchange program he attended in China the
summer before entering Harvard as an undergraduate student. At Hangzhou University he trained with a tai chi
master every morning for three weeks.
“By the
end of my time there, I had gotten through my thick teenage skull that there
was something very important about the breath and about inhabiting the present
moment,” he said. “I’ve carried that with me since then.”
His
current study, to conclude in 2015 with about $3.3 million in funding from the
National Institutes of Health, tracks 210 healthy subjects with high levels of
reported chronic stress for six months. They are divided in three groups.
One
group with 70 participants perform a form of yoga known as Kundalini, another 70 meditate and the rest listen to stress
education audiobooks, all for 20 minutes a day at home. Kundalini is a form of
yoga that incorporates meditation, breathing exercises and the singing of
mantras in addition to postures. Denninger said it was chosen for the study
because of its strong meditation component.
Participants
come into the lab for weekly instruction for two months, followed by three
sessions where they answer questionnaires, give blood samples used for genomic
analysis and undergo neuro-imaging tests.
‘Immortality Enzyme’
Unlike earlier studies, this one is the first to focus on
participants with high levels of stress. The study published in May in the medical
journal PloS One showed that one session of relaxation-response practice was
enough to enhance the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism and
insulin secretion and reduce expression of genes linked to inflammatory
response and stress. There was an effect even among novices who had never
practiced before.Harvard
isn’t the only place where scientists have started examining the biology behind
yoga.
In a
study published last year, scientists at the University
of California at
Los Angeles and
Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that 12 minutes of daily yoga
meditation for eight weeks increased telomerase activity by 43 percent, suggesting an
improvement in stress-induced aging. Blackburn of the University
of California, San Francisco, shared the Nobel medicine
prize in 2009 with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for research on the telomerase
“immortality enzyme,” which slows the cellular aging process.
Build Resilience
Not all
patients will be able to stick to a daily regimen of exercise and relaxation.
Nor should they have to, according to Denninger and others. Simply knowing
breath-management techniques and having a better understanding of stress can
help build resilience.
“A
certain amount of stress can be helpful,” said Sophia Dunn, a clinical
psychotherapist who trained at King’s College London. “Yoga
and meditation are tools for enabling us to swim in difficult waters.”
