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Meditation, Neurobiological Changes, Genes, and Health
Published in Aruna Bakhru, Nutrition and Integrative Medicine, 2018
In summary, the research evidence regarding the effects of meditation on cardiovascular, neurophysiological, and immune function, and the control of chronic diseases associated with these systems is positive. Studies show improvements in symptoms associated with many disorders, including cardiovascular disease, ADHD, depression, and auto-immune diseases, with many studies showing medium effect-sizes, comparable to more conventional management, such as pharmaceutical therapies. New data suggest that meditation improves immune function through altering expression of genes related to stress pathways, inflammatory responses, mitochondrial function, and energy metabolism.
The Relaxation SystemTherapeutic Modalities
Published in Len Wisneski, The Scientific Basis of Integrative Health, 2017
There are clear health benefits to the daily practice of meditation. As previously mentioned, meditation raises levels of melatonin and possibly anandamide. Meditation also may, very possibly, cause the rise of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which is discussed in Chapter 13. Research has also shown that regular practice of meditation leads to an increased EEG-recorded alpha coherence in the frontal lobe, a significantly lower systolic blood pressure and ambulatory diastolic blood pressure, as well as long-term endocrine changes, for example, decreases in serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), growth hormone, and prolactin levels (Dillbeck and Bronson, 1981; Travis and Wallace, 1999; Wallace et al., 1983; Wenneberg et al., 1997; Werner et al., 1986). One of the most comprehensive reviews of research on the various physical effects of meditation is published by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization dedicated to “the development of human consciousness through scientific inquiry” (Murphy and Donovan, 1997).
Mindfulness in Neurological Conditions
Published in Giles N. Yeates, Fiona Ashworth, Psychological Therapies in Acquired Brain Injury, 2019
There is an increasingly mature body of published literature from which to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses have synthesised the evidence in different populations. Piet and Hougaard (2011), in a systematic review and meta-analysis of six large randomised controlled trials (RCTs), found that MBCT is more effective than treatment as usual or placebo control in preventing depressive relapse in nondepressed people with three or more previous episodes and in two studies was at least as good as maintenance anti-depressants. In a review of reviews, Gotink et al. (2015) performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of 23 reviews of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), encompassing 115 unique RCTs and 8683 patients, in diverse clinical populations, including depression, anxiety, cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic pain; they found small to medium effects on clinical outcomes (Depression, Cohen’s d = 0.37; Anxiety, d = 0.49; Stress, d = 0.51; Quality of life, d = 0.39; physical functioning, d = 0.27).1Strauss, Cavanagh, Oliver, and Pettman (2014) examined a more selected sub-group of RCTs with participants with a current primary diagnosis of depression or a formal anxiety disorder. They found, with inactive controls, a medium effect on depression symptom severity, but not anxiety, although the confidence interval overlap with zero effect is small. However, in a systematic review and meta-analysis of effects of meditation on anxiety (Chen et al., 2012), though drawn more broadly than the Strauss review to include anxiety symptoms and not specifically anxiety disorders, there were medium effects in 11 RCTs of MBSR and MBCT.
Individuals practicing meditation have enhanced subcortical auditory processing of speech
Published in Hearing, Balance and Communication, 2022
Sujeet Kumar Sinha, Manisha Sahu
There exists an ample amount of research on the effects of meditation on various physiological and psychological changes. Long term meditation practitioners have shown pronounced structural connectivity throughout the entire brain within major projection pathways, commissural pathways, and association pathways in individuals who practice meditation [4]. And even, short term meditation produces demonstrable effects on the brain and immune function [5]. Several studies have demonstrated alterations in auditory functions also in meditators when compared to the non-meditators. In one of the comparative study by Kumar et al. [6] a group of 30 meditators (aged 50–65 years) had higher performance in speech perception task and temporal tasks such as duration discrimination, modulation detection, and backward masking and duration pattern tests. However, meditators and non-meditators did not vary on certain other temporal tasks such as gap detection test.
Hypnosis and Mindfulness Meditation: The Power of Suggestibility
Published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2021
Michele E. Gloede, Marty Sapp, William Van Susteren
Both mindfulness and hypnosis interventions have demonstrated modest to large effect sizes in outcomes (Elkins, 2020). Eberth and Sedlmeier (2012), using 39 studies, examined 14 categories of psychological effects of meditation and reported an r effect size of .27 for mindfulness meditation, which corresponds to a d of .56. In contrast, Sapp (2015) reported an effect size for r of .68 for hypnosis. Flammer and Bongartz (2003), using 57 studies, found that hypnosis had a weighted or adjusted average effect for d of .56 (medium effect size). For DSM-diagnosed disorders, they found that hypnosis had a d effect size of .63. They also performed a meta-analysis on 444 hypnosis studies and found a d effect size of 1.07, and the d effect size for randomized studies was .56 and for nonrandomized studies a d effect size of 2.29. They found a correlation of .44 between hypnotic susceptibility and treatment outcomes.
Harnessing neuroplasticity: modern approaches and clinical future
Published in International Journal of Neuroscience, 2018
Andrew Octavian Sasmita, Joshua Kuruvilla, Anna Pick Kiong Ling
Mental training through long-term meditation and mindfulness practice regimens have been observed to increase grey matter density within brain stems of human subjects [161,162], which correlates with learning and memory improvements. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a region often associated with meditation, has been reported to play a role in an increased size of white matter in meditation practitioners and not in control participants, which further support the functionality of mental training as a way to rewire neural connections for the better [163]. Meditation also displays anti-inflammatory properties by significantly reducing TNF-α as shown by Epel et al. [164], while another study showed effects of yogic meditation in reducing the level of pro-inflammatory NF-kB from caregivers of demented patients as a stress model [165]. Effects of meditation which include HDAC2 silencing [166] have also been suggested to depend on the time that individuals have spent meditating [167]. Exercises also often include components of concentration and focus which are commonly found in meditation, and thus these activities may synergistically promote activity-dependent neuroplasticity.