55+ Living Guide Winter 2018 Winter 2018 55+ issue for Joomag | Page 46

HEALTH & WELLNESS SERIES: PART 2
Ways Meditation Can Help
the Aging Brain
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by Alice G. Walton . reference: Forbes.com
Meditation-and-the-brain research has been rolling in
steadily for a number of years now, with new studies
coming out just about every week to illustrate some new
benefit of meditation. Or, rather, some ancient benefits
that are just now being confirmed with today's technol-
ogy. The practice appears to have an amazing variety of
neurological benefits – from changes in grey matter
volume to reduced activity in the “me” centers of the
brain to enhanced connectivity between brain regions.
Below are some of the most exciting studies to come
out in the last few years and show that meditation really
does produce measurable changes in our most important
organ. Skeptics, of course, may ask what good are a few
brain changes if the psychological effects aren’t simultane-
ously being illustrated? Luckily, there’s good evidence for
those as well, with studies reporting that meditation helps
relieve our subjective levels of anxiety and depression,
and improve attention, concentration, and overall
psychological well-being.
Meditation Helps Preserve the Aging Brain
In 2015, a study from UCLA found that long-term
meditators had better-preserved brains than
non-meditators as they aged. Participants who’d
been meditating for an average of 20 years had
more grey matter volume throughout the
brain — although older meditators still had
some volume loss compared to younger
meditators, it wasn’t as pronounced as the
non-meditators. “We expected rather
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small and distinct effects located in some of the regions
that had previously been associated with meditating,” said
study author Florian Kurth. “Instead, what we actually
observed was a widespread effect of meditation that en-
compassed regions throughout the entire brain.”
Meditation Reduces Activity in the Brain’s
“Me Center”
One of the most interesting studies in the last few years,
carried out at Yale University, found that mindfulness
meditation decreases activity in the default mode network
(DMN), the brain network responsible for mind-wander-
ing and self-referential thoughts – a.k.a., “monkey mind.”
The DMN is “on” or active when we’re not thinking about
anything in particular, when our minds are just wander-
ing from thought to thought. Since mind-wandering is
typically associated with being less happy, ruminating,
and worrying about the past and future, it’s the goal for
many people to dial it down. Several studies have shown
that meditation, through its quieting effect on the DMN,
appears to do just this. And even when the mind does
start to wander, because of the new connections that
form, meditators are better at snapping back out of it.
Its Effects Rival Antidepressants
for Depression and Anxiety
A review study in 2014 at Johns Hopkins
looked at the relationship between
mindfulness meditation and its ability to
reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety,
and pain. Researcher Madhav Goyal