Mindful Meditation Reduces Stress by Altering Gene Expression, Study Finds

Mindful meditation alters activity of genes that control inflammation, a team of researchers has found.

Previous research has shown that meditating with full concentration can help old people cope with chronic lower back pain. Other studies have also found meditation helpful in cancer therapy. Meditation can improve cancer-related cognitive dysfunction.

Transcendental Meditation also helps reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, another recent study had reported.

However, this is the first time that researchers have found how mediation affects the body at molecular level.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice," said study author Richard J. Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Interestingly, the genes altered by meditation are the current targets for many inflammation-reducing medications, according to Perla Kaliman, first author of the article at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain.

For the study, researchers looked at stress response in both experienced meditators and a control group.

Researchers found that genes that increase inflammation weren't as active in people practicing meditation as they were in test-subjects. The affected genes were RIPK2 and COX2.

The reduction in activity of these genes co-related with faster recovery of meditators from a stressful situation such as an impromptu speech

"Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression," Davidson said in a news release.

The study is published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

Meditation also causes changes in brain structure. People who have been meditating for many years have more gray matter than other people, according to an earlier study published in the journal NeuroReport.