When I was in medical school, the “experts” looked at ancient systems of healing with a lot of suspicion.
But I always had an instinct there was something fundamentally right about many things these traditional medical systems do. Even if we couldn’t explain it in the terms of western technology.
Especially something as simple as breathing techniques. After all, every ancient healing system has some form of breathing or meditation included in it.
And today we have proof that the ancients were on the right track.
It turns out these ancient breathing techniques benefit the tiny “time clocks” that are in every cell of your body called telomeres (pronounced “tee-luh-meers”).
Of course, the ancients didn’t know this. But after one of my trips to India, I got to watch and learn about some of the oldest healing practices in existence. Every morning, my teacher took me to a quiet area to teach me a form of meditation.
I noticed a difference in how I felt right away. I was more relaxed and my mind was crystal clear. Most of the early teachings of the ancients claimed meditation and other techniques that control breathing could improve a wide variety of health-related conditions including increasing your overall health, energy level, mental capacity, sex life, resistance to disease – even your lifespan.
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Telomerase activity went down in the “relaxation” group but shot up by 43% in the meditation group! |
Now we know that this is absolutely true.
You see, the enzyme that helps rebuild and maintain your telomeres is called telomerase. Normally, this enzyme is turned off…
But meditation can turn telomerase activity back on, keeping your telomeres longer and improving your overall health.
A recent study looked at 39 family caregivers who were an average of 60 years old. Half were randomly chosen to listen to “relaxation” music and half practiced meditation for just 12 minutes a day.
After only 8 weeks, the people in the meditation group had their telomerase activity skyrocket by 43%! The relaxation group only had a 3.7% increase.1
In another study, researchers looked at people who were at a wellness retreat and found that after three months, those doing meditation training had 33 percent higher telomerase activity in their white blood cells than those who weren’t meditating.2
I’m always most impressed by these kinds of studies. They measure real results in real people.
Higher telomerase activity means the people were protecting their telomeres, so their cells were functioning at a younger age. This is exactly the kind of thing I incorporate into our advice at my anti-aging center.
Remember as the cell counter clicks down and your telomeres get shorter, it lessens your cells’ abilities to defend against the forces of nature like methylation, glycosylation, oxidation, inflammation. These are the things that cause aging by shortening telomeres and making your cells act older and weaker.
If you can get your telomeres to stay longer through the practice of meditation, you’re bettering your overall health.
Lo and behold … bettering your overall health is exactly what the ancients said meditation can do for you.
Meditation is safe and easy. The technique I use is exceedingly simple. The most natural object of meditation is your breath. For beginners, I recommend mastering your focus on your breath before you try any other object of meditation.
- Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit.
- Rest your hands in your lap and close your eyes.
- For the first few minutes, focus on the natural rhythm of your breath.
- At first, don’t try to change it. Just follow your breath.
- The next step is to gently make your breath, quieter, slower, deeper and more regular.
- If your attention drifts to other things redirect it to your breath.
Try to meditate at least 10 minutes once a day. Twice a day is better.
1. Lavretsky H, Blackburn E, Irwin M, et. al. “A pilot study of yogic meditation … effects on mental health, cognition, and telomerase activity.” Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2013;28(1):57-65.
2. Jacobs T, Epel E, Lin J, Blackburn E, et. al. “Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators.” Psychoneuroendocr 2010.