Thursday, June 2, 2011

Benefits of meditation on the effects of stress on our chromosomes

The stress and strife of daily life have a direct effect on our health. Most dramatically, our very chromosomes are affected by stress. Telomeres are the end tips of our chromosomes, little caps that protect our DNA. Telomeres play an important role in cell division, and get a bit shorter every time a cell divides. In studies, subjects with inherently stressful lives—notably mothers of special-needs children and spouses of dementia sufferers—showed extraordinary wear and tear on their telomeres. The stress-induced disruption to their cells' life cycle actually caused them to age faster. But an enzyme called telomerase maintains and repairs the telomeres, prolonging the life of our cells. Increasing telomerase is a way to slow telomeres' unraveling. And guess how we can we do that? Meditation. An exciting 2010 study showed that people in an intensive meditation practice had greater telomerase activity in their immune cells than those who did not meditate. Scientists are working to gather even more information about how mindful awareness and other stress reduction techniques can help us live longer and more healthfully.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Or, you will sleep if you got head pain or feel very tired. Based on biological science, our body has immune system that can overcome all virus and bacteria in our body. But, if our immune system cannot overcome that problem, we need go to doctor to check our problem and get some medicine from there.

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