Scientists at the School of Icahn Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, the University of California in San Francisco, and the School of Medicine at Harvard (EU) conducted a study rigorously designed to assess the biological impact of meditation compared with holidays.
They examined the effect of meditation on patterns of gene expression in regular meditators and found that the holidays offer a strong and immediate impact on the molecular networks associated with stress and immune pathways, in addition to short-term improvements in welfare as measured by feelings of vitality and anguish.
A meditation retreat in those who meditate regularly, was associated with molecular networks characterized by antiviral activity. The molecular footprint of long – term meditators were different from non – meditators holiday.The study is published in the journal Springer Translational Psychiatry .
In the study 94 healthy women, 30-60 years old participated. Sixty-four women were not regular meditators. The participants were in the same facilities in California for six days, and was randomized so that half was simply on vacation, while the other half did a meditation training program run by the Chopra Center for Wellbeing.
The program included training in meditation mantra meditation, yoga and self-reflection exercises, designed by Deepak Chopra, who was not involved in the collection and analysis of data.
For a better understanding of the long-term effects of what scientists called the “effect of meditation” compared to the “effect of the holidays”, the team also studied a group of 30 experienced meditators who were already enrolled in retirement this week.
The researchers collected blood samples and surveys of all participants, immediately before and after your stay, as well as surveys a month and ten months later.
“This work highlights the importance of studies focusing on healthy people,” says Eric Schadt, lead author and professor of genomics at the School of Medicine Icahn on Mount Sinai, in a press release it.
The research team examined changes in 20,000 genes to determine what types of genes changed before and after the experience. Scientists conducted a transcriptome analysis integrator, comparing gene expression networks through the three groups of participants and looking molecular profiles and patterns unique pathways enrichment.
The study results show that all rookies, experienced meditators and tourists- -meditadores groups had significant changes in the molecular patterns of the network after a week at the resort, with a clear mark that distinguished the reference of the post-holiday biology .
The most notable changes in gene activity were related to the stress response and immune function.
