| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 7/4/2008 9:52:13 AM | Complete News:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113735.php
Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Research from the US suggests that mind body techniques like yoga and meditation that put the body in a state of deep rest known as the relaxation response, are capable of changing how genes behave in response to stress.
The study is the work of researchers at Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Genomics Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and is published online in the open-access journal PLoS One.
Research from the US suggests that mind body techniques like yoga and meditation that put the body in a state of deep rest known as the relaxation response, are capable of changing how genes behave in response to stress.
The study is the work of researchers at Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Genomics Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and is published online in the open-access journal PLoS One.
Co-lead author of the study Dr Jeffery Dusek formerly of the Benson-Henry Institute and now with the Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis said:
"Changes in the activation of these same genes have previously been seen in conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder; but the relaxation-response-associated changes were the opposite of stress-associated changes and were much more pronounced in the long-term practitioners."
Benson said that people across different cultures have been using mind body techniques for thousands of years. They found that it didn't particularly matter which techniques was used, whether it was meditation, yoga, breathing, or repetitive praying, they acted via the same underlying mechanism.
"Now we need to see if similar changes occur in patients who use the relaxation response to help treat stress-related disorders, and those studies are underway now".
Libermann said they used "cutting edge" genomic analysis and the "latest bioinformatics tools to identify potential gene functions, generating hypotheses that can then be tested in laboratory or clinical studies."
"There are a lot of differences in gene expression between one healthy person and another, so it is challenging to analyze the kinds of subtle changes we are seeing and identify what changes are significant and what are just background noise," explained Libermann.
"Genomic Counter-Stress Changes Induced by the Relaxation Response. "
Jeffery A. Dusek, Hasan H. Otu, Ann L. Wohlhueter, Manoj Bhasin, Luiz F. Zerbini, Marie G. Joseph, Herbert Benson, Towia A. Libermann.
PLoS ONE 3(7): e2576, Published online 2 July 2008
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0002576 | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/14/2008 4:09:09 PM | here is a wonderful article on this very subject.
and here is the link i found this article at..
http://www.dalailama.com/news.112.htm
How Thinking Can Change the Brain
Published: Monday, 29 January, 2007
20 Jan 2007 (Sharon Begley, Wall Street Journal) Dalai Lama helps scientists show the power of the mind to sculpt our gray matter.
Although science and religion are often in conflict, the Dalai Lama takes a different approach. Every year or so the head of Tibetan Buddhism invites a group of scientists to his home in Dharamsala, in Northern India, to discuss their work and how Buddhism might contribute to it.
In 2004 the subject was neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change its structure and function in response to experience. The following are vignettes adapted from "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain," which describes this emerging area of science:
The Dalai Lama, who had watched a brain operation during a visit to an American medical school over a decade earlier, asked the surgeons a startling question: Can the mind shape brain matter?
Over the years, he said, neuroscientists had explained to him that mental experiences reflect chemical and electrical changes in the brain. When electrical impulses zip through our visual cortex, for instance, we see; when neurochemicals course through the limbic system we feel.
But something had always bothered him about this explanation, the Dalai Lama said. Could it work the other way around? That is, in addition to the brain giving rise to thoughts and hopes and beliefs and emotions that add up to this thing we call the mind, maybe the mind also acts back on the brain to cause physical changes in the very matter that created it. If so, then pure thought would change the brain's activity, its circuits or even its structure.
One brain surgeon hardly paused. Physical states give rise to mental states, he asserted; "downward" causation from the mental to the physical is not possible. The Dalai Lama let the matter drop. This wasn't the first time a man of science had dismissed the possibility that the mind can change the brain. But "I thought then and still think that there is yet no scientific basis for such a categorical claim," he later explained. "I am interested in the extent to which the mind itself, and specific subtle thoughts, may have an influence upon the brain."
The Dalai Lama had put his finger on an emerging revolution in brain research. In the last decade of the 20th century, neuroscientists overthrew the dogma that the adult brain can't change. To the contrary, its structure and activity can morph in response to experience, an ability called neuroplasticity. The discovery has led to promising new treatments for children with dyslexia and for stroke patients, among others.
But the brain changes that were discovered in the first rounds of the neuroplasticity revolution reflected input from the outside world. For instance, certain synthesized speech can alter the auditory cortex of dyslexic kids in a way that lets their brains hear previously garbled syllables; intensely practiced movements can alter the motor cortex of stroke patients and allow them to move once paralyzed arms or legs.
The kind of change the Dalai Lama asked about was different. It would come from inside. Something as intangible and insubstantial as a thought would rewire the brain. To the mandarins of neuroscience, the very idea seemed as likely as the wings of a butterfly leaving a dent on an armored tank.
Neuroscientist Helen Mayberg had not endeared herself to the pharmaceutical industry by discovering, in 2002, that inert pills -- placebos -- work the same way on the brains of depressed people as antidepressants do. Activity in the frontal cortex, the seat of higher thought, increased; activity in limbic regions, which specialize in emotions, fell. She figured that cognitive-behavioral therapy, in which patients learn to think about their thoughts differently, would act by the same mechanism.
At the University of Toronto, Dr. Mayberg, Zindel Segal and their colleagues first used brain imaging to measure activity in the brains of depressed adults. Some of these volunteers then received paroxetine (the generic name of the antidepressant Paxil), while others underwent 15 to 20 sessions of cognitive-behavior therapy, learning not to catastrophize. That is, they were taught to break their habit of interpreting every little setback as a calamity, as when they conclude from a lousy date that no one will ever love them.
All the patients' depression lifted, regardless of whether their brains were infused with a powerful drug or with a different way of thinking. Yet the only "drugs" that the cognitive-therapy group received were their own thoughts.
The scientists scanned their patients' brains again, expecting that the changes would be the same no matter which treatment they received, as Dr. Mayberg had found in her placebo study. But no. "We were totally dead wrong," she says. Cognitive-behavior therapy muted overactivity in the frontal cortex, the seat of reasoning, logic, analysis and higher thought. The antidepressant raised activity there. Cognitive-behavior therapy raised activity in the limbic system, the brain's emotion center. The drug lowered activity there.
With cognitive therapy, says Dr. Mayberg, the brain is rewired "to adopt different thinking circuits."
Such discoveries of how the mind can change the brain have a spooky quality that makes you want to cue the "Twilight Zone" theme, but they rest on a solid foundation of animal studies. Attention, for instance, seems like one of those ephemeral things that comes and goes in the mind but has no real physical presence. Yet attention can alter the layout of the brain as powerfully as a sculptor's knife can alter a slab of stone.
That was shown dramatically in an experiment with monkeys in 1993. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, rigged up a device that tapped monkeys' fingers 100 minutes a day every day. As this bizarre dance was playing on their fingers, the monkeys heard sounds through headphones. Some of the monkeys were taught: Ignore the sounds and pay attention to what you feel on your fingers, because when you tell us it changes we'll reward you with a sip of juice. Other monkeys were taught: Pay attention to the sound, and if you indicate when it changes you'll get juice.
After six weeks, the scientists compared the monkeys' brains. Usually, when a spot on the skin receives unusual amounts of stimulation, the amount of cortex that processes touch expands. That was what the scientists found in the monkeys that paid attention to the taps: The somatosensory region that processes information from the fingers doubled or tripled. But when the monkeys paid attention to the sounds, there was no such expansion. Instead, the region of their auditory cortex that processes the frequency they heard increased.
Through attention, UCSF's Michael Merzenich and a colleague wrote, "We choose and sculpt how our ever-changing minds will work, we choose who we will be the next moment in a very real sense, and these choices are left embossed in physical form on our material selves."
The discovery that neuroplasticity cannot occur without attention has important implications. If a skill becomes so routine you can do it on autopilot, practicing it will no longer change the brain. And if you take up mental exercises to keep your brain young, they will not be as effective if you become able to do them without paying much attention.
Since the 1990s, the Dalai Lama had been lending monks and lamas to neuroscientists for studies of how meditation alters activity in the brain. The idea was not to document brain changes during meditation but to see whether such mental training produces enduring changes in the brain.
All the Buddhist "adepts" -- experienced meditators -- who lent their brains to science had practiced meditation for at least 10,000 hours. One by one, they made their way to the basement lab of Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He and his colleagues wired them up like latter-day Medusas, a tangle of wires snaking from their scalps to the lectroencephalograph that would record their brain waves.
Eight Buddhist adepts and 10 volunteers who had had a crash course in meditation engaged in the form of meditation called nonreferential compassion. In this state, the meditator focuses on unlimited compassion and loving kindness toward all living beings.
As the volunteers began meditating, one kind of brain wave grew exceptionally strong: gamma waves. These, scientists believe, are a signature of neuronal activity that knits together far-flung circuits -- consciousness, in a sense. Gamma waves appear when the brain brings together different features of an object, such as look, feel, sound and other attributes that lead the brain to its aha moment of, yup, that's an armadillo.
Some of the novices "showed a slight but significant increase in the gamma signal," Prof. Davidson explained to the Dalai Lama. But at the moment the monks switched on compassion meditation, the gamma signal began rising and kept rising. On its own, that is hardly astounding: Everything the mind does has a physical correlate, so the gamma waves (much more intense than in the novice meditators) might just have been the mark of compassion meditation.
Except for one thing. In between meditations, the gamma signal in the monks never died down. Even when they were not meditating, their brains were different from the novices' brains, marked by waves associated with perception, problem solving and consciousness. Moreover, the more hours of meditation training a monk had had, the stronger and more enduring the gamma signal.
It was something Prof. Davidson had been seeking since he trekked into the hills above Dharamsala to study lamas and monks: evidence that mental training can create an enduring brain trait.
Prof. Davidson then used fMRI imaging to detect which regions of the monks' and novices' brains became active during compassion meditation. The brains of all the subjects showed activity in regions that monitor one's emotions, plan movements, and generate positive feelings such as happiness. Regions that keep track of what is self and what is other became quieter, as if during compassion meditation the subjects opened their minds and hearts to others.
More interesting were the differences between the monks and the novices. The monks had much greater activation in brain regions called the right insula and caudate, a network that underlies empathy and maternal love. They also had stronger connections from the frontal regions to the emotion regions, which is the pathway by which higher thought can control emotions.
In each case, monks with the most hours of meditation showed the most dramatic brain changes. That was a strong hint that mental training makes it easier for the brain to turn on circuits that underlie compassion and empathy.
"This positive state is a skill that can be trained," Prof. Davidson says. "Our findings clearly indicate that meditation can change the function of the brain in an enduring way." | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/14/2008 4:23:49 PM | Terrific post .,..ty so much!
I did alot of research on psychoneuroimmunology back in the day at U of T. We found dozens of immunological responses to neurotransmitters and played around with tissue in various states of inflammation. The neuroimmunological thread in this field has kind of run out of steam, mostly because we cant seem to find a central control center in the CNS which has a regulatory effect on the immune system. There is innnervation from the thymus to the midbrain, and lots of autonomic fibers innervating the lymphoid organs, but both the clinical and laboratory evidence for some modulatory effect is still non robust.
By focussing on gene expression, which occurs almost instantly, I think this team has hit the nail on the head. My thesis supervisor had done his PhD with Benson at Harvard, its nice to see this field still moving ahead. Maybe its time to go back to research...
Again, OP, thank you very much... and the above poster..fascinating additional material. | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/14/2008 5:34:07 PM | There are two very books on this subject, written on a anybody can read level are
Mind Wide Open by Steven Johnson, and Change Your Brain Change Your Life, by Dr. Amen.
This sort of opens up the idea of hypnosis and rewiring the subconscous response to things.
ohmy, and the whole new age idea of "thoughts are things" hopefully will be next,,
and then maybe the metaphysical idea of "our lives are the sum total of answered prayer" with prayer being anything we give deep thought with feeling.. will once again be a popular idea.. lol, there is never anything new.. | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/16/2008 9:42:53 AM | Thank you for the info SoISaid. Very good reading.
I read about a study done once in China on the affects of the Falun Dafa exercises on a randome sampling of their students (before China banned it) and the medical results were truly amazing. A lot of people have their own opinions of the founder of the Falun Gong, but it seems that the Qigong training itself is incredibly effective in many areas.
I now study Kundalini yoga and a number of Qigong styles, and feel better every day. It's truly enjoyable, not just another daily chore. | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/19/2008 1:04:48 PM | I now study Kundalini yoga and a number of Qigong styles, and feel better every day. It's truly enjoyable, not just another daily chore.
---Steel Phoenix
I remember reading when in high school that if someone can awaken his/her Kundalini Sakti (power) completely, it can bring him/her liberation i.e. to an unlimited bliss. | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/21/2008 5:08:50 PM | "I now study Kundalini yoga and a number of Qigong styles, and feel better every day. It's truly enjoyable, not just another daily chore.
---Steel Phoenix
I remember reading when in high school that if someone can awaken his/her Kundalini Sakti (power) completely, it can bring him/her liberation i.e. to an unlimited bliss."
A great deal has been written about the Kundalini awakening, I am still learning myself. I've heard some say that it can be painful, while for others it is barely perceptable. The latter was the case for me, but I had been doing the Five Tibetans for a time first, so maybe my body was better prepared for it than the average person.
I haven't noticed unlimited bliss with me in a literal and continued sense, although I do have periods of it. I notice in general I have far more energy, am far less quick to anger and just generally far happier and at peace even if my situation isn't ideal. But I think the most profound change so far has been my focus. I still enjoy my practice, but I have noticed I live much more for others now, doing what I can to help my fellow human and non-human whenever I can, where before my life was basically about me. Now I do things for others, not for any reward, but just because I enjoy doing it. In fact I try to remain anonymous about that when possible.
There are some that say it takes years to raise the Kundalini, but Yogi Bhajan and some others say it can only take about a month of honest work.
You may be interested in the below website, which contains FREE lessons as well as many learning aids and a teacher locator. Let me know how you like it.
http://www.kundaliniyoga.org/ | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/22/2008 9:16:32 PM | I am an insomniac and many years ago participated in a test to see if meditation could combat the effects of sleep deprivation.
I was so fortunate to have been chosen to participate because, despite the fact that my sum total of sleep for years has been less than a few hours every 24 hrs., I suffer from almost none of the debilitation that sleep deprivation causes. I attribute it wholely to being taught how to meditate and achieve total relaxation in a short period of time.
Meditation has allowed me to avoid the script meds that most insomniacs need. I have used it for so many years, it is simply a part of my life.
When my late husband's illness had progressed to the point that it was becoming necessary for stronger and more pain killers, I was able to help him by teaching him the meditation technique I had been taught.
IMO, meditation should be the first line of defense for sleep, stress, and pain control, not resorted to only when other measures have failed. | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/30/2008 6:07:01 PM |
I still enjoy my practice, but I have noticed I live much more for others now, doing what I can to help my fellow human and non-human whenever I can, where before my life was basically about me. Now I do things for others, not for any reward, but just because I enjoy doing it. In fact I try to remain anonymous about that when possible.
Thanks for the site. I am glad to hear about your progess and interest towards it. I wish
you all the good luck and success in achieving the higher state of life. I hope, more and
more people try to follow the same. | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 8/30/2008 6:58:22 PM | I am delighted to see this thread still alive in current events. Mind body medicine is something thats too wide to sit in Science and Philosophy, and I fear if it were moved there it might kinda disappear, same with a move to Health Fitness. In order to keep this bumped and current, i wonder if we can talk abouit how finding spirituality in life enables us to be more loving, positive beings. This, in the light of what we face in the world now, with increased polarization between the poor nations and the wealthy, and the fear of WMD, and international distrust rooted in conflicts. In general, compared to the 60s, we live in a more rational, empirical time, and less mystical. I am saddened by this pessimism among young people especially, the emo kids for example.
For me, it culminated in January 1980, when I had my last psychedelic experience. I was in the middle of a biology degree, and I had done magic mushrooms over the years many times. But like many folks, they werent taken for entertainment. They were a tool for finding out who we are. That was my last mushroom trip and during it I acheived a state of enlightenment. Years of yoga, meditation and study preceeded it, but there it was, that place. Its accessible to us, just for a glimpse, from time to time.
After that I stopped taking any form of psychedelic agent, and focussed my studies on yoga, teaching classes at Trent University in a student club. I went on to a few different universities for grad school, studying the link between mind and body. The findings arent of interest here, suffice it to say there are many physiological connections; lymphocytes have receptors for neurotransmitters, there are nerves to all the major lymphoid organs, lymphocytes release chemicals which stimulate the nervous system (thats how we get a fever, for example), and on.
So where I have come to, after a PhD in the field and 2 masters later, is that health is a process, not a state of being. And that process is in evolution. Evolution is not only physical, but neurological. I studied the Baldwin effect, whereby a species behavioral repetoire influences evolution. The implications are tantalizing. | |
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| Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
Posted: 9/5/2008 7:40:25 PM | Thanks to everyone for all of the wonderful information and insights!
Several years ago I was practicing yoga for fun and relaxation and as a way to calm the sensory bombardment from my life and job (as a bartender near Bourbon Street.) It worked very well. I coped with some pretty heavy stress and still maintained my reasonably cheerful demeanor and good health.
After Katrina, though, the physiological deterioration caused by emotional and psychological stresses sounded a very big alarm in me. My body started shutting down due to the stress. During Mardi Gras weekend, several months after the storm, my lung collapsed, my appendix burst and barely detectible uterine fibroids had grown so out of control the docs said they thought I had cancer. My brain was killing my body.
I knew if I stayed in that environment, it would kill me as surely as I was watching it destroy people around me. It wasn't just what was going on in my head, but in the entire city. The collective negative energy was eating us alive. People would catch a cold and then die of pneumonia 2 weeks later. To be destroyed by one's own mind was a terrifying thought and I sought to not only stop the damage, but to reverse it by changing my brain and healing myself.
It's been a year since I moved away and I have slowly but surely taken baby steps toward my goal. Yoga, meditation and sound therapy are still things that I am dabbling in (commitment and discipline is still difficult at this point) but each day comes closer and closer. Many times old thoughts try to re-emerge and physical illness pops up, but it's quickly reversed by changing the thought patterns. Works better than Vitamin C!
I have absolutely no doubt that, as surely as psychological negativity can cause a profoundly negative physiological response, so can psychological positivity create a profoundly positive physiological response, not just in an abstract, short term way, but as a permanent restructuring of the physical person. | |
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