Meditation and Brain Health
I asked my research assistant, Abdullah Shafiq (now a second year medical student) to research write the main points about why meditation is good for the brain. This is the document he provided:
1) How does meditation contribute to Brain Health according to research?
Meditation helps to preserve cognition and prevent dementia.
Meditation decreases brain aging.
Meditation helps reduce stress.
Meditation increases brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF).
Meditation helps to reduce the destruction of neurons.
Meditation improves neuronal circuits and enhances cognitive capacity.
Meditation helps to reduce risk of developing depression, anxiety, and neuroticism.
Meditation improves sleep, cognition, and overall mental health.
Multiple forms of meditation, such as Zazen, Samatha, and Vipassana, result in brains being 7.5 years younger when done daily for approximately 25 minutes.
Long term meditators have a thicker pre-frontal cortex, helping improve different cognitive behaviours.
Meditation improves areas of the brain linked to memory, learning, attention, and self-awareness.
2) How much and how often should we meditate for benefits?
Currently, there is no “right” duration of meditation, but many studies have shown that 20 minutes of meditation daily provides excellent results.
Even meditating for less than 20 minutes can also provide many results.
If you are new to meditating, you may need to meditate less than 20 minutes to start getting used to it. You should start with something comfortable and increase it as you progress.
It is also important to try to do it daily. For example, it would be better to meditate 10 minutes every day instead of meditating for 1 hour once a week.
Even one meditation session provides benefits. However, it is better to meditate regularly to maximize the benefits.
Multiple forms of meditation result in brains being “younger.” In one study, more than half of the meditators (59%) had been meditating daily. The number of years they had been practising meditation ranged from 5 years to 46 years with an average of 24 years. The length of time of their meditation sessions ranged from 10 to 90 minutes each session. In this study, scientists detected significantly larger gray matter and significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus in the meditators compared to non-meditators.
Thank you to Abdullah Shafiq for providing us with this document regarding current research about meditation and its benefits on the brain.
