Meditation can reduce feelings of loneliness and the
expression of genes which cause inflammation, a recent study found.
Since so many older people live alone — with children at a
distance and partners having passed away — researchers at UCLA targeted older
adults for a study of meditation.
They recruited 40 people between the ages of 55 and 85 and
assigned them to either a control group or a mindfulness meditation group.
Participants assigned to the mindfulness condition went to
two-hour meetings once a week and also practiced meditation for 30 minutes each
day.
Mindfulness involves training the mind to be attentive to
what is going on in the present moment, rather than dwelling on the past or the
future.
After the eight-week study, participants who had been
meditating felt significantly less lonely.
But the benefits did not end there, the researchers also
found that meditation altered the genes related to inflammation.
After meditating, participants showed lower levels of the
inflammatory marker C-reactive protein and there were beneficial alterations in
a genetic transcription factor (NK-kB) which has been found to be important in
heart disease.
While inflammation is one of the body’s natural reactions to
disease and other attacks, when it becomes long-lasting it can cause other
diseases and depression.
The researcher, said:
“Our work presents the first evidence showing that a
psychological intervention that decreases loneliness also reduces
pro-inflammatory gene expression
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