Anti-Aging Research Asks, “Can Meditation Make You Younger?”
The major part of “Can Meditation Make You Younger?” which appeared in Lifestyle You, the online site of an Australian TV channel and magazine, focuses on studies by scientists and healthcare practitioners investigating the anti-aging benefits of meditation.
I’m honored to tell you I was interviewed for this article because meditation is part of my grow younger process, but the most fascinating part of the article is what these others have to say.
The author, Dana Mrkich of Sydney, discovered my website and spent several days in Taos NM interviewing me while she was on a trip to America’s southwest.
What a delightful gift it was to get to know Dana: she is a treasure! Dana is not only an author, radio host. teacher and counselor, she’s also a talented energy intuitive. Visit her website at www.danamrkich.com. And please comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
Can Meditation Make You Younger?
By Dana Mrkich, Sydney, Australia
Reprinted with permission from LifeStyle You, the online service of LifeStyle You Channel.
Move over expensive creams and painful surgeries. Did you know that regular meditation can make you look and feel 20 years younger, increase health and longevity and prevent brain-deterioration, dramatically changing what we previously thought were inevitable processes?
This natural – and free – practice is rapidly rising as a powerful alternative to the multi-billion dollar anti-aging industry, with experts and studies revealing that the effects go beyond feeling calm and peaceful for a few minutes.
Real life story
Author of The Secret Method for Growing Younger Ellen Wood looks nowhere near her biological age. “Even though I have more than 74 years under my belt, I have more energy, stamina, flexibility, and vitality than even 30 years ago. My body is stronger and my mind much clearer and sharper.”
Ellen credits daily meditation as being one of the key factors in her ‘growing younger’ program. “Growing younger starts with the mind. It doesn’t matter how many exercises you do, or how healthy your diet or the amount of restful sleep, growing younger won’t happen unless your mind can access that joyful place within that releases stress and promotes happy cells. Meditation as a daily habit takes me to that place.”
According to Professor and Doctor of Raphaology Medicine, Morning Spirit Wolf, also a practitioner of Herbal and Nutritional Medicine, meditation allows you to literally step out of time because it taps into the pineal gland of the brain. “Pineal function, a little known gland, produces hormones that regulate bio-rhythms, immunity, perception, and aging.”
The benefits of meditation
The impact of meditation on aging, particularly the aging brain, has been a topic of research for many years for Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa, the founding president and medical director of the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation in Arizona.
“Our research reveals that meditation lowers the stress chemical in the blood called cortisol. Cortisol kills brain cells and leads to cognitive decline. Our research also shows that our simple 12 minute daily meditation called Kirtan Kriya enhances brain blood flow in critical areas of the brain and reverses memory loss.”
Dr Khalsa also explains how meditation can increase our longevity and decrease our overall aging process. “Meditation lowers blood pressure and other markers of aging including MVO2 or oxygen demand. It enhances psychological well-being, perhaps the most significant determinate of telomere length (telomeres are the end cap of our DNA), which is a very important marker of aging and longevity: longer telomeres = less illness and longer life.”
Building healthy cells
Occupational Therapy Practitioner and Host of television show Functional Fitness Suzanne Andrews uses meditation in her treatments with clients, saying that meditation is an important part of healthy cell function, and that our cells ultimately determine everything about the way we look and feel.
“Meditation when combined with diaphragmatic breathing increases oxygen intake which increases blood flow. There are 1 billion oxygen molecules in 1 red blood cell – very important because blood nourishes all of your body systems cells. Adults come with a total number of 100 trillion cells. Each of these cells is an important life form that depends on oxygen and blood to transport nutrients, gases, wastes, and hormones.
Meditation helps our cells work better as a system because a cell is a system of parts that help it to work. Like a watch, if one part breaks down, the whole watch stops keeping time. So too, our cells age when one part breaks down. Keeping our cells healthy slows down the aging process.”
Meditation and fertility
Essentially, meditation is a key way of taking charge of your own health, looks and longevity. Acupuncturist Janet Humphrey is the founder of New York’s Giving Nature Center, and uses acupuncture needles to induce a state of meditation.
“This state restores the body’s optimum functioning and harmonious nervous system function, benefiting our organs, skin and circulation. It helps issues including insomnia, anxiety, depression, ulcers, digestive disorders, menstrual and fertility issues. Cells are receiving the healthy nutrients that they need. When they are well nourished they can work at their best. Once people experience this through acupuncture, they want to maintain it – so I recommend meditation so they aren’t dependant.”
The brilliance of meditation is that it is simple to do, and accessible to everyone.
Thank you so much for this article Ellen. I knew that it was most likely that meditation could make you younger because I have been on a journey for some time now that includes daily meditation and I feel it has made an amazing difference in my efforts to participate in the anti aging process. Articles like this validate my committment. Thank-you, Blessings, pacia
Ah, Pacia, you’re wonderful. Yes, meditation is definitely an important part of growing younger. The irony is that NOT trying to grow younger is what makes it happen. Love,
Ellen
I learned a lot from this post, great help for me, thank you!
Wonderful article! We are linking to thiks particularly great article on our site.
Keep up the great writing.
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