Amazing! Meditating changes your body's genetic action and improves your health.

You may have heard many times that meditation is an important practice that can improve your physical and mental health, and this is absolutely true. If you're still not convinced that stopping for a few minutes every day, closing your eyes and just focusing on your breathing is really a good deal, we have new and interesting appeals to you.

The truth is that when we subject our brains to some kind of relaxation technique, we end up activating the work of genes whose functions are to improve our health - did it feel good? For there is more: this healthy genetic chain starts working after just a few minutes of meditation.

Recent research on the subject shows us that meditation does have the power to alter the activity of our genes, and that may be the explanation for health improvements in people who meditate, pray and practice yoga.

How can you?

To prove this, Herbert Benson's team at Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed the genetic profile of 26 volunteers who were not in the habit of meditating. These people learned relaxation techniques that last between 10 and 20 minutes - at that time they would repeat words, do breathing exercises and seek to rid their minds of everyday thoughts.

The volunteers spent 8 weeks performing these activities daily, and after that period their genetic profile was evaluated again. What was observed was that genes linked to health benefits were actually more active.

This genetic change led to three major practical changes: improved mitochondrial efficiency and cell strength; increased insulin production, which regulates blood sugar levels; and prevented the depletion of telomeres, which help keep DNA stable and prevent cells from aging and eroding.

Just get better

In contrast, meditation has weakened the activity of genes that cause chronic inflammation and cause diseases such as high blood pressure and heart disease in general, bowel problems and even some cancers.

The researchers were also able to prove that meditation has this healthy effect in the short term by taking blood samples from volunteers shortly after performing relaxation techniques. These genetic changes happen within minutes, which is really exciting news.

To complement their research, scientists analyzed blood samples from other volunteers who have been practicing meditation for 3 years or more, and it turned out that these people had a good genetic functioning even before they started meditating, suggesting that these changes work long term

Let's meditate!

Julie Brefczynski-Lewis of West Virginia University, who also researches meditation, said these results are not as surprising if we look at the opposite: when we are stressed, our bodies feel the short and long term bad effects.

Benson explained that his team found that the more relaxing activities a person does, the more significant the genetic changes will be. The team now seeks to focus on activities that are effective for treating hypertension, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer.

It is worth noting that all this research aims to promote the benefits of meditation for anyone, and even for improving health. However, one must keep in mind that effective illnesses should always be treated with medical follow-up and medication use, where appropriate.