Many people are turning to dietary trends or new exercise programs — often with questionable benefits — to start the new year healthier. But there is one strategy that has been proven time and time again to improve both mood and health: meditation.
At the end of 2022, a high level study caused a stir when he claimed that meditation could work just as well as a common drug called Lexapro for treating anxiety. Over the past two decades, similar evidence has emerged on the wide range of health benefits of mindfulness and meditation, for purposes ranging from stress and pain reduction to depression treatments to improve brain health and help manage excess inflammation and long COVID-19.
Despite the growing body of evidence showing the health benefits of meditation, it can be difficult to weigh the science and know how robust it is.
I am a neuroscientist studying the effects of stress and trauma on brain development in children and adolescents. I also study how mindfulness, meditation, and exercise can positively affect brain development and mental health in young people.
I’m very excited about how meditation can be used as a tool to provide powerful new insights into how the mind and brain work, and to fundamentally change a person’s outlook on life. And as a mental health researcher, I see the promise of meditation as a low-cost or free evidence-based tool for improving health that can be relatively easily integrated into everyday life.
Meditation requires some training, discipline and practice – which are not always easy to come by. But with a few specific tools and strategies, it can be accessible to anyone.
What are mindfulness and meditation?
There are many types of meditation, and mindfulness is one of the most common. Basically, mindfulness is a mental state which, according to Jon Kabat Zinn a renowned expert in mindfulness-based practices, involves “awareness that arises by paying attention, voluntarily, to the present moment, without judgment.”
It means not ruminating on something that happened in the past or worrying about that to-do list. Being focused on the present or living in the moment has been shown to have a wide range of benefits, including improve mood, reduce anxiety, reduce pain and potentially improve cognitive performance.
Mindfulness is a skill that can be practiced and cultivated over time. The goal is that, with repetition, the benefits of practicing mindfulness carry over into everyday life – when you are not actively meditating. For example, if you learn that you are not defined by a transient emotion, such as anger, it may be more difficult to stay angry for long.
The health benefits of meditation and other stress reduction strategies are believed to come from increased levels of global mindfulness by practice. Elements of mindfulness are also present in practices like yoga, martial arts, and dance that require focused attention and discipline.
The vast body of evidence supporting the health benefits of meditation is too vast to cover comprehensively. But the studies I refer to below represent some of the highest highest quality and most rigorous summaries of scientific data on the subject to date. Many of these include systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which synthesize many studies on a given topic.
Stress and mental health
Mindfulness-based programs have been shown to significantly reduce stress in various populations, ranging from caregivers of people with dementia to children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meta-analyses published during the pandemic show that mindfulness programs are effective in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and depression – including the particularly vulnerable period during pregnancy and the postnatal period.
Mindfulness-based programs also show promise as a treatment option for anxiety disorders, which are the most common mental disorders, affecting approximately 301 million people worldwide. Although there are effective treatments for anxiety, many patients don’t have access to them because they don’t have insurance coverage or transportation to providers, for example, or they don’t feel only limited relief.
It is important to note, however, that for people affected by mental or substance use disorders, mindfulness-based approaches should not replace first-line treatments like medicine and psychotherapy like cognitive-behavioral therapy. Mindfulness strategies should be seen as a complement to these evidence-based treatments and a complement to healthy lifestyle interventions like physical activity and healthy eating.
How does meditation work? A look into the brain
Studies show that regular meditators experience better attention control and better control of heart rate, breathing and functioning of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates the body’s involuntary responses, such as blood pressure. Research also shows that people who meditate have
lower cortisol levels – a hormone involved in the stress response – than those who do not.
A recent systematic review of neuroimaging studies showed that focused attention meditation is associated with functional changes in several regions of the brain involved in cognitive control and emotion-related processing. The review also found that more experienced meditators had stronger activation of brain regions involved in these cognitive and emotional processes, suggesting that brain benefits improve with more practice.
Regular meditation practice can also avoid age-related thinning of the cerebral cortexwhich may help protect against age-related diseases and cognitive impairment.
Limitations of meditation research
This research has limits. These include a lack of consistent definition of the types of programs used and a lack of rigorously controlled studies. In gold standard randomized controlled trials with drugs, study participants do not know whether they are receiving the active drug or a placebo.
In contrast, in trials of mindfulness-based interventions, participants know what condition they are affected by and are not “blinded” so they can expect some of the health benefits. can happen to them. This creates a sense of expectation, which can be a confounding variable in studies. Many meditation studies also frequently do not include a control group, which is necessary to assess how it compares to other treatments.
Benefits and Wider Applications
Compared to medications, mindfulness-based programs may be more readily available and have fewer negative side effects. However, medications and psychotherapy — especially cognitive behavioral therapy — work well for many, and a combined approach may be best. Mindfulness-based interventions are also cost-effective and have better health outcomes than usual care, especially in high-risk patient populations – so there are also economic benefits.
Researchers are exploring ways to deliver mindfulness tools on a computer or smartphone app, or with virtual reality, which can be more efficient than conventional in-person meditation training.
It is important to note that mindfulness is not just for people with physical or mental health diagnoses. Anyone can use these strategies to reduce disease risk and reap health benefits in daily life, such as improved sleep and cognitive performance, elevated mood, and reduced stress and anxiety. anxiety.
Where to start ?
Many recreation centers, fitness studios, and even universities offer in-person meditation classes. For those looking to see if meditation can help in the treatment of a physical or mental condition, there are over 600 clinical tests is currently recruiting participants for a variety of conditions, such as pain, cancer, and depression.
If you want to try meditation from the comfort of your home, there are plenty of free online videos on how to practice, including meditations for sleep, stress reduction, mindful eating and more. Several apps, such as Headspace, show promise, with randomized controlled trials showing the benefits for users.
The hardest part is of course getting started. However, if you set an alarm to train every day, it will become a habit and might even translate into everyday life – which is the ultimate goal. For some it may take time and practice, and for others it may start happening quite quickly. Even a one-time five-minute session can have positive effects on health.
