Meditation can change the human genome

International group of scientists for the first time were able to identify the biological mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of deep meditation.

Scientists have found that deep meditation can relieve a person from disease by altering the body at the genetic and molecular level.

The researchers found that as a result the entire eight hours of meditation in the body occur specific changes at the genetic and molecular level. Work published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

The authors - experts from the University of Wisconsin (USA), the Institute of Biomedical Research (Barcelona, ​​Spain) and the Center for neurological research institute INSERM (Lyon, France) - examined the effect of a day spent in "meditation clear mind" on a group of 19 experienced meditators. < br />
"Meditation clear mind" - the state fair understanding of what is happening. In this form of meditation, a person is oriented to focus on your breathing and bodily sensations, quietly passing through the uncomfortable thoughts and emotions.

The control group included 21 people with no experience of meditation. They were asked to engage in non-meditative calm occupations in the same environment. All the participants before and after the experiment, the expression levels of genes related to circadian rhythms, chromatin modification and the inflammatory response in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. In addition, both groups were special tests designed to assess the performance of the body stress.

At the start of the expression levels of investigated genes participants in both groups were similar. However, it was found eight hours deep meditation raised several genes histone deacetylases HDAC, which epigenetically regulated activity of other genes, and pro-inflammatory genes RIPK2 and COX2. The expression levels of these genes were meditators reduced as compared with the control group. At the same time lowering the expression of genes RIPK2 and HDAC2, as the researchers found, is associated with a faster physical recovery of the body after the release of the hormone cortisol in a situation of social stress - for example, when you need to speak extemporaneously before the public, reports MedPortal.

The fact that the changes did not affect the rest of the genes suggests that meditation affects only certain specific regulatory pathways involved in the mechanisms underlying its therapeutic potential, the authors note. "The changes observed in genes are usually the targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, so the results obtained are the basis for future studies of the possibility of application of meditative practices for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases," - the authors.