Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Meditation Benefits

There is good news for meditators.



People who have meditated for only 5 years may be physically 5 years younger than their chronological age and long term meditators may be up to 12 years younger based on certain age indicators like blood pressure, near-point vision and auditory discrimination.



The reason for the differences between the chronological age and the "real" age, may be found in the hormone levels. (See RealAge.com to determine your "real" age.)



In as little as 90 days, 20 minutes of daily meditation causes an increase in the hormone, DHEA, which is associated with decreased stress, better memory, sexual function, and weight control. DHEA is associated with anti-aging benefits for this reason. Meditation, breathing exercises or self-hypnosis all have these benefits, because they increase your DHEA level naturally.



A recent article in Time reports that meditators may live longer than non-meditators, because of a higher level of the enzyme, telomerase. This is because in as little as 30 days, the enzyme shows an increase. You can read more about it at healthland.time.com.



I can also recommend an excellent book about meditation, by a colleague of mine, Mark Beck. It's called Personal Empowerment through Meditation and is available at SmashWords:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/35703
This is a practical book which gives you straight-forward advice about how to use meditation to improve your life on a daily basis.



I will also review it in my other blog, Verbal Impact.

1 comment:

Lewis J. Fishman said...

Meditators enjoy increased levels of serotonin, sometimes known as "the Peace Molecule". Earlier antidepressants affected the norepinephrine/ epinephrine system; today's mostly target the serotonergic pathways. It has been shown that non-meditators in the same room with meditators ALSO have higher levels of circulating serotonin. The bottom line--feel better! Meditate more!