Meditation May Slow the Aging Process and More by Super Age

 Of course your incompetent? doctor failed at providing meditation protocols for well over a decade! 

FIREABLE INCOMPETENCE!

meditation (67 posts to January 2012)

Meditation May Slow the Aging Process and More

Stress can age you. A cardiologist explains 3 simple ways to protect your heart in 10 minutes a day

 Don't let your incompetent? doctor stress you out by NOT HAVING EXACT 100% RECOVERY PROTOCOLS! You doctor has known of this fucking failure since medical school and DONE NOTHING! THAT IS PURE INCOMPETENCE!

And your doctor did nothing with all this meditation research, right? 

meditation (66 posts to January 2012)

Stress can age you. A cardiologist explains 3 simple ways to protect your heart in 10 minutes a day

• A cardiologist said most of us have too much stress, an underrated risk factor for heart health.
• Heart disease is on the rise on young patients. Managing stress is key in your 20s, 30s, and beyond.
• A few minutes of meditation, movement, or social connection each day helps protect your heart.

In over a decade as a cardiologist, Dr. Tara Narula has seen a major risk factor for heart disease in 90% of her patients. It's completely preventable — but we're not talking about it enough.

"My patients are walking around with this level of chronic stress that is unimaginable," she told Business Insider. "And most of my patients don't know how damaging it can be."

Chronic stress can be a silent killer, putting strain on your heart that can prompt serious or even life-threatening conditions like a heart attack or stroke. These risks are on the rise in younger people, with heart disease increasingly being diagnosed among patients in their 30s or even younger.

A recent report from the American Heart Association found that women between the ages of 20 and 44 are likely to see the biggest increase in risk of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular disease in the next few decades.

"This is a disease that cuts across every age, and in many ways it can be silent until it's not," said Narula, chief medical correspondent for ABC News and cardiologist at Northwell Health. "Prevention is key, and that means you have to start in your 20s thinking about heart health."

Her new book, "The Healing Power of Resilience," focuses on steps we can take to reduce stress and the crucial connection between physical and mental health.

Narula's book focuses on how building psychological resilience can improve physical health through habits such as reducing stress, exercising regularly, and building social connections. ABC/Heidi Gutman© ABC/Heidi Gutman

She said a few simple strategies can help reduce stress in a few minutes each day, adding up to major benefits for long-term health.

"We are not going to be able to tackle someone's heart health or their risk factors unless we address stress," Narula said.

Have an exercise snack

About 80% of the risk of heart disease can be prevented with lifestyle changes, Narula said, and stress can make it harder to keep up healthy habits.

"If you're under stress, you may not exercise, you may drink more alcohol, you may smoke, you may eat more unhealthy. So it's driving up a lot of those risk factors, but also having direct effects on the cardiovascular system," she said.

Related video: Ways to reduce stress and 

improve overall health (KHOU-TV Houston)

To break the cycle, start small, Narula said.

You don't need to hit the gym for an hour a day to see the benefits. 

She recommends adding a few minutes of activity at a time.

Sometimes called "exercise snacks," 

these small doses of movement can relieve stress 

and strengthen your heart at the same time, studies suggest. 

As few as 500 extra steps a day can boost longevity.

"I'm taking the stairs. I'm parking a little farther away. 

I'm taking a walk on my lunch break. 

All of those micro-movements add up over time," Narula said.

Take a meditation break

Another habit Narula swears by is a regular mindfulness practice. Setting aside a few minutes during the day to breathe deeply and calm your thoughts can quickly change your mood.

"You can sit at your desk in the middle of your office workday and do a meditation for 10 minutes that is going to get your mind in a different space than it was before," she said.

stressful habits, such as doom-scrolling.

"You want to be invested and involved, but at some point, you don't want to be inundated with stuff that's making you feel bad. I think dialing off things that you know upset you is a good thing," Narula said.

Phone a friend

One of the biggest ways to boost longevity is a strong social life. Narula said reaching out to loved ones for support is a great way to ease stress. If you have a packed schedule and tend to postpone social calls, making time for even a quick message can help.

"So many of us have people that, gosh, I've been meaning to call this person in my life, and I'm so busy, I haven't done it," she said. "We put off a lot of the social stuff that we could easily find 10 minutes in the day to connect with another human being."

As you build on your support network, she also recommends finding a qualified therapist. While it takes a bit more time and effort to get started, therapy can help you work through larger issues or stress patterns in your life. Narula said it's been crucial in helping her tackle her fears about the future and let go of past events.

When it comes to heart health and overall wellness, sometimes the biggest benefits come from facing the things you struggle with the most.

"It's an investment," she said. "The more you invest in it, the bigger the payoff is going to be."

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to follow Business Insider on MSN.

You Don’t Have to Clear Your Mind to Meditate. Here’s the Truth, Backed by Science by Super Age

 Good, because I never could clear my mind. And meditation gives you all these benefits as already described by your competent? doctor, right!

• meditation (65 posts to January 2012)

You Don’t Have to Clear Your Mind to Meditate. Here’s the Truth, Backed by Science

You Don’t Have to Clear Your Mind to Meditate. Here’s the Truth, Backed by Science by Super Age

 I do all mine while forest bathing.

Your doctor has been incompetent for how many years in not prescribing meditation for your recovery? Well over a decade and your doctor hasn't been fired yet?

meditation (64 posts to January 2012)

You Don’t Have to Clear Your Mind to Meditate. Here’s the Truth, Backed by Science

Forget the myth that meditation means stopping your thoughts. Learn how awareness, not emptiness, rewires your brain for focus, calm, and resilience.

In my meditation teacher training recently, a student raised a great question: “What do you say to people who ask, ‘Am I supposed to stop thinking during meditation?’”

My teacher smiled and said, “I tell them: You’re not erasing thought. You’re developing awareness so you can be aware of thinking.”

That shift in framing matters.

Because meditation isn’t about not thinking.
It’s about practicing not getting lost in your thoughts.
It’s about noticing that you’re thinking, planning, worrying, and still being present rather than swept away.

You Can’t “Clear Your Mind.” That’s a Meditation Myth

“Clearing your mind” isn’t about erasing thoughts. 

When you “clear the table” after dinner, you don’t throw everything away. You put things back in their place: The dishes get washed and put in the cabinet. Yes, the garbage gets thrown out, or some of it gets composted. The leftovers get put away in the fridge. “Clearing your mind” isn’t about having a mind filled with nothing. It’s about putting thoughts in their place and creating space around them so they don’t hijack your entire awareness.

You Are What You Practice

In meditation, we get to experience our own awareness. We practice how to be in relationship with whatever is arising, whether it be thoughts, sensations, emotions, without becoming overwhelmed or reactive. And when we do that, we open ourselves up to experiencing more of the world. How wonderful!

My meditation teacher says, we’re always practicing something. And what you practice becomes how you live. Are you practicing stress? Practicing distraction? Or are you practicing calm? Practicing contentment? Practicing open-hearted curiosity?

You are what you practice. 

When stress or uncertainty hits or a trigger surfaces and your body shifts into reaction mode (fight, flight, fawn, or freeze), if you’ve been practicing presence, your nervous system has another path it knows how to find. You become more able to respond to the moment rather than react out of habit. In this way, practicing meditation give you choice.

That’s agency. That’s resilience. That’s freedom.

What Meditation Really Trains You to Do

Here’s how [mahynd-fuhl-nis]nounThe practice of paying attention to the present moment with non-judgmental awareness.LEARN MORE meditation works: You sit. You breathe. You rest your attention on an anchor: your breath, a sound, a sensation, a candle flame. Inevitably, your mind drifts away from that anchor. You start planning dinner, or replaying an argument, or solving a work dilemma. That’s normal. That’s how our brains work. This is also the moment where most people think they’re failing at meditation. But, if you’ve noticed your mind has wandered, then you’re actually meditating! Because you’re aware. Congratulations! That’s one rep. Now, do it again. Find your anchor. Breathe. Keep your attention on your anchor. When you notice your mind has wandered, congratulate yourself for noticing and return to your anchor.

That’s the practice. You don’t shame yourself for drifting off or decide it makes you a “bad meditator.” That single moment of recognition (“">oh, my mind wandered!) is the beginning of neural rep that can strengthen focus, steadiness, and emotional flexibility. Meditation is the practice of returning, and the returning becomes resilience, and the resilience becomes presence. You return to the breath. And begin again.

Meditation is the practice of returning, and the returning becomes resilience, and the resilience becomes presence.”

We spend a lot of our time and energy pushing away things we think we’re doing wrong. Meditation asks us to welcome it all. Notice. Set it aside. Return to an anchor. And begin again. Some people find it helpful to label whatever kinds of thoughts or sensations have swept them away once they notice them. You can simply say, this is planning or this is remembering or this is worrying. And then, gently, you bring your attention back to the breath or whatever anchor you’ve chosen. It’s not about whether you’re planning or thinking. It’s about whether you’re lost in planning or aware in planning.

Discomfort in your body? A sound outside the room? A wave of self-doubt?

Notice. Be with it. Allow it. Then come back.

That’s the rep.
That’s the practice.
That’s training your attention.

And it matters now more than ever. 

A Three-Minute Guided Breath Meditation

Listen:

Wherever you are, take this moment to pause. You can set a timer for three minutes if you’d like.

• Find a comfortable, supported position. You can close your eyes if you’d like, but you don’t have to.
• Take a few deep, cleansing breaths, inhaling through your nose and extending your exhale through your mouth
• Release any tension you feel. Soften your belly, your shoulders, your tongue.
• And relax into your natural breath.
• Notice that your breathing happens without you having to do anything.
• Notice where you feel your breath most. Is it in the rise and fall of your belly? In your nostrils? You chest? Just notice.
• Notice the inbreath, and the outbreath.
• Notice that there’s a pause in between.
• You can say “in” and “out” along with your breath if that helps you.
• Sit in this way, breathing naturally, strong and supported, with your attention on your breath.
• When you notice that your mind has wandered, as it naturally does, bring your attention kindly back to your breath.
• You can do this for just one breath. And then try for another.
• Sit in this way, supported, naturally breathing, returning to the breath when your mind wanders.
• When you’re done, wiggle your toes, open your eyes if they are closed, stretch your arms above your head. Breathe deeply.
• If you’d like, you can place your hand on your heart and offer a moment of thanks for your practice.

That’s it. That’s the practice. You can do that as often as you like. The more you practice, the more you’re rewiring your brain for resilience. May your practice be for the benefit of all beings.

Meditation Matters in the Attention Economy

We live in a world determined to own a share (if not all) of your attention. Marketers call it mindshare. Social platforms call it engagement. Economists and technologists call it the attention economy.

But when you lose control of your attention, you lose the thread of your own life. You get swept into eddies of distraction that can lead to disconnection from your body, your relationships, your purpose. You start living in the surface currents of your mind; spinning, scrolling, reacting, while your deeper self goes uninhabited.

Right here, in this moment, is where your breath is breathing.
Where your heart is beating.
Where your hands are doing their work.
Where your life is happening.

Meditation is how we practice returning to this present moment. It’s not about perfection. It’s about pliability. How stretchable is your attention? How wide can you open the window of your attention without getting blown away by the winds of distraction? When your attention wanders, does it take a search party to bring it back? Or can it return easily, like a well-used muscle?

That’s why we train. That’s why we sit. When we build awareness of our thoughts, emotions, and impulses, we build our capacity, our power. Not power over others, but power to choose how we show up. To pause before reacting. To stay grounded when emotions rise. To be fully here.

You don’t have to stop thinking to meditate. You just have to notice.

You don’t have to be peaceful to practice. You just have to sit with what’s here.

What if just ten minutes of meditation could help build the kind of brain resilience seen in people who age better than anyone else?

Survivors shouldn't need resilience if your competent? doctor and hospital had 100% recovery protocols. But since they HAVE NOTHING you'll need resilience!

 I think my resilience is quite impressive.

 A researcher asked me where my resilience came from a few years ago. I had no answer, but this probably explains it.

Your Mindset Shapes Your Life – For Better or Worse by Debbie Hampton

I haven't been depressed a day in my life, I roll with the punches; stroke, getting fired, divorce, moving to a new state.

I must have a lot of positive affectivity since I haven't been depressed a day in my life even with stroke, getting fired, moving and divorced in a span of 8 years.

 What if just ten minutes of meditation could help build the kind of brain resilience seen in people who age better than anyone else?

What if just ten minutes of meditation could help build the kind of brain resilience seen in people who age better than anyone else? 

[ri-zil-yuhns] noun

The ability to recover quickly from stress or setbacks.

Learn More

A new study from Columbia University suggests it can. Researchers used a unique patient population, epilepsy patients chronically implanted with responsive neurostimulation devices, which allowed them to use intracranial EEG (electrodes implanted deep in the brain) to measure the impact of a short loving-kindness meditation on key regions that support emotional regulation and memory, two of the cognitive superpowers shared by so-called super agers.

Even among beginners, just ten minutes of practice changed activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, regions that help regulate reactivity and preserve memory. These shifts occurred in beta and gamma wave activity, brain rhythms often linked to focus, learning, and mood regulation, and typically disrupted in people with anxiety or depression.

“The possibility of being able to willfully control these brain waves through meditation is pretty amazing,” said Dr. Ignacio Saez, the study’s senior author. While the study was small, this is groundbreaking because it shows, on a cellular level, that even a single meditation session can soothe emotional reactivity and enhance memory-supportive brain networks.

Rewire Your Brain for Focus and Compassion

Super agers are older adults, typically over 80, who show brain function on par with people decades younger. Many exhibit unusually strong memory, emotional resilience, and cognitive flexibility.

This new research offers a clue to how anyone might start building those traits earlier in life. If even a single meditation session can impact deep neural networks, a consistent practice may help cultivate the kind of neurological strength that keeps Super Agers sharp and emotionally agile.

Better yet, this approach is noninvasive, low-cost, and requires no special gear, just your breath and attention.

Try This Short Loving-Kindness Meditation

Loving-kindness practice can feel awkward at first. But the effects are built over time, so go easy on yourself at first and remember that kindness towards yourself helps you bring kindness to others. Here’s a simple meditation adapted from renowned loving-kindness teacher Sharon Salzberg’s A Compassion Practice for Opening the Heart, a similar practice used in the study.

1. Sit Comfortably
Find a relaxed seated position. You can close your eyes or rest them gently with a soft downward gaze.

2. Imagine a Circle of Love
Picture yourself at the center of a circle made up of the most loving beings you can imagine. They could be friends, family, mentors, historical figures, or even mythical beings, anyone who inspires love and care.

3. Imagine Yourself Receiving Their Care
Feel yourself as the recipient of their attention, energy, and goodwill. Silently repeat phrases of loving-kindness like:

• May I be safe.
• May I be happy.
• May I be healthy.
• May I live with ease of heart.

Thoughts and judgments may arise, and when they do, bring your attention back to the phrases. Feel into the sensations the words elicit in your body.

4. Let Emotions Arise Naturally
You might feel gratitude, 

[aw] noun

A powerful emotion of wonder that enhances well-being and connection.

Learn More

awe, shyness, resistance, or even vulnerability. Let whatever arises flow through you, knowing you are surrounded by safety and loving care. Keep returning to the phrases.

5. Open Yourself to Receiving.
Imagine your skin as porous, soaking in this loving energy. Know that you don’t have to do anything special to deserve it, you receive love simply because you exist.

6. Extend Love Outward
When you are ready, and if it’s available to you, allow the love you’re receiving to radiate back out to the circle. And then, if you can, to all beings everywhere.

Now offer those same phrases to others, first your circle, then your broader community, then all beings.

• May all beings be safe.
• May all beings be happy.
• May all beings be healthy.
• May all beings live with ease of heart.

7. Close With Intention
When you feel ready, open your eyes or lift your gaze. Carry that feeling of open-heartedness into your day.

Why Loving-Kindness Meditation Works

This type of meditation taps into emotional and memory centers of the brain that support well-being as we age. By shifting neural rhythms linked to stress and focus, it may help train the brain for greater 

[lon-jev-i-tee] noun

Living a long life; influenced by genetics, environment, and lifestyle.

Learn More

longevity, emotional balance, and mental agility. It expands your capacity for kindness towards yourself and others, like exercising a new muscle. Developing your loving-kindness muscles can set the foundation for thriving in midlife and beyond.

Make it a ritual: Try 10 minutes of loving-kindness before bed or after waking to help reset your nervous system and increase emotional resilience over time.

Meditation May Slow the Aging Process and More

Your competent? doctor completely failed at creating protocols on this, didn't s/he? What were they waiting for? A bolt of lightning to strike some sense into their heads? Everything in stroke is a complete shitshow! So, the only thing to do is NOT HAVE A STROKE!

My meditation is forest bathing, I can't do the sit down method.

meditation (62 posts to January 2012)

 Meditation May Slow the Aging Process and More

Every few months, meditation research unlocks something new—and 2025 is no different. From genetic markers of aging to white matter brain scans, new studies are mapping how and why mindfulness affects the mind and body. This year's findings offer both confirmation of long-standing wisdom and surprising new angles, especially around breathwork, time-of-day habits, and brain aging.

1. Meditation May Slow the Aging Process

A study published in Biomolecules compared long-term Transcendental Meditation (TM) practitioners with non-meditators and found:

• Reduced expression of aging-related genes (including a protein called SOCS3, which helps regulate inflammation and energy use in the body. When it's overactive, it can accelerate aging by disrupting cellular repair and increasing stress responses.)
• Better cognitive performance in areas that typically decline with age
• Healthier regulation of the stress-response system.

Together, these findings suggest TM can reduce allostatic load (the cumulative stress burden on the body and brain). The study also points to a potential metabolic shift during and after meditation that may benefit long-term health.

2. Is There a Best Time to Meditate? 

A large-scale behavioral study in Behavioral Sciences analyzed meditation app usage from over 4,000 people. The findings?

• People who meditated around the same time every day were more likely to stick with the habit long-term.
• But people with inconsistent timing actually meditated more often on average.

This shows habit formation isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some people benefit from routine. Others are driven by emotion-based cues, like meditating when they feel stressed. Motivation and emotional rewards may play just as important a role as timing.

3. Your Breathing Style May Influence Brain Health

In a recent preprint study, daily mindfulness practice with slow breathing significantly reduced plasma amyloid beta (Aβ), a biomarker linked to Alzheimer’s risk. Surprisingly, meditation with normal breathing caused Aβ levels to increase.

This adds to the growing evidence that breathwork is a powerful lever in meditation. Slow breathing may enhance the neuroprotective effects of mindfulness, particularly for aging brains.

4. Meditation Reshapes the Brain’s Emotional Wiring

A PLoS One study found that Sahaja Yoga Meditation practitioners had:

• Stronger white matter connections between the amygdala, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex
• Enhanced interhemispheric connectivity (especially between emotional regulation centers)

These structural changes suggest that regular meditation may rewire the brain to support emotional resilience and top-down control—traits often reported by long-term meditators.

5. Does More Meditation Always Mean Less Stress? Not Exactly.

A Clinical Psychological Science study found mixed results when exploring how meditation app use correlated with psychological distress:

• The impact of meditation on stress varied depending on how researchers measured both dosage and distress
• This suggests we need more nuanced tools to track how and why meditation works

It also reinforces that meditation isn’t a panacea. Its benefits often depend on intention, consistency, technique, and personal context.

Meditation Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All

Meditation is a powerful longevity tool. But the newest science reminds us: how, when, and why you meditate can shape your results. Whether you're looking for emotional clarity, cognitive resilience, or long-term brain health, the key is finding a style that works for you.

Want help getting started? Check out our latest guide: The Best Meditation Apps for Every Kind of Practice

Stress, Meditation, and Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention: Where The Evidence Stands

 9 years and I bet your incompetent doctor still doesn't have a meditation protocol for you post stroke! My definition of competence is keeping up-to-date on all research in your field, which means learning beyond what you got in medical school. What's yours?

Oops, I'm not playing by the polite rules of Dale Carnegie,  'How to Win Friends and Influence People'. 

Telling your supposedly smart doctor they know nothing about stroke is a no-no even if it is true. 

Politeness will never solve anything in stroke. Yes, I'm a bomb thrower and proud of it. Someday a stroke 'leader' will try to ream me out for making them look bad by being truthful, I look forward to that day. 

Send me hate mail on this: oc1dean@gmail.com. I'll print your complete statement with your name and my response in my blog. Or are you afraid to engage with my stroke-addled mind? I would like to know why you haven't created a mediation protocol.

Stress, Meditation, and Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention: Where The Evidence Stands

. 2015 Aug 28;48(1):1–12. doi: 10.3233/JAD-142766

Dharma Singh Khalsa ^a,b,*

Editor: J Wesson Ashford

PMCID: PMC4923750  PMID: 26445019

Abstract

Although meditation is believed to be over five thousand years old, scientific research on it is in its infancy. Mitigating the extensive negative biochemical effects of stress is a superficially discussed target of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention, yet may be critically important. This paper reviews lifestyle and stress as possible factors contributing to AD and meditation’s effects on cognition and well-being for reduction of neurodegeneration and prevention of AD. This review highlights Kirtan Kriya (KK), an easy, cost effective meditation technique requiring only 12 minutes a day, which has been successfully employed to improve memory in studies of people with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, and highly stressed caregivers, all of whom are at increased risk for subsequent development of AD. KK has also been shown to improve sleep, decrease depression, reduce anxiety, down regulate inflammatory genes, upregulate immune system genes, improve insulin and glucose regulatory genes, and increase telomerase by 43%; the largest ever recorded. KK also improves psycho-spiritual well-being or spiritual fitness, important for maintenance of cognitive function and prevention of AD. KK is easy to learn and practice by aging individuals. It is the premise of this review that meditation in general, and KK specifically, along with other modalities such as dietary modification, physical exercise, mental stimulation, and socialization, may be beneficial as part of an AD prevention program.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, lifestyle, meditation, memory loss improvement, prevention, stress, psychospiritual well-being, reduction of risk factors

LIFESTYLE AND ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE PREVENTION

This is a critically important time in the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) prevention. As the search for a drug to prevent and/or cure AD continues to be elusive [1], low cost lifestyle measures that create high levels of brain health, stop ongoing degeneration, repair neuronal damage, and prevent the type of cognitive disability that could lead to AD, are at the forefront of the discussion of AD prevention. Emerging research suggests that lifestyle choices can make a difference, when it comes to AD prevention [2, 3]. In a recent study of lifestyle modification, The Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study To Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (The FINGER Study), the effects of a 2-year multi-domain intervention targeting several lifestyle and vascular risk factors were studied simultaneously. FINGER included 1,260 participants aged 60–77 years. The initial study, which ended in 2014, will continue with an extended 7 year follow up period. FINGER indicated that utilizing nutritional intervention, physical exercise, cognitive training, and social activities together resulted in a significant beneficial effect on overall cognitive performance. The study was the first large randomized controlled trial that suggested that it is possible to prevent cognitive decline and thus delay or prevent AD using an integrative medical program among older, at-risk individuals [4–6].

This review will initially focus on a lifestyle factor common today: chronic stress. Stress, via the cortisol connection, causes neurotoxic damage to cells in the hippocampus and elsewhere in the brain which may increase AD risk. Beyond that, stress has a causative association with multiple risk factors for AD, including inflammation, calcium dysregulation, cardiovascular disease including hypertension, diabetes/insulin resistance, depression, anxiety, physical inactivity, sleep deprivation, and smoking [7, 8]. A recent study of 1,796 elderly people with AD compared to 7,184 without an AD diagnosis highlighted the direct connection between anxiety, insomnia, benzodiazepine use, and AD [9]. Previously, a number of these drugs were shown to turn on AD promoting genes [10].

How meditation acts to reduce stress and cortisol levels and improve multiple aspects of health and cognition will then be reviewed. Beyond the basics of this discussion, this article will discuss research on a simple, twelve-minute, meditation technique called Kirtan Kriya (KK), that positively impacts brain and memory function, cellular health, genetic expression, and well-being. Moreover, KK may reverse memory loss in subjects with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), both of which may progress to dementia [11–13].

STRESS, AGING, AND NEURON DEATH

According to leading stress researcher Robert Sapolsky Ph.D., a stressor can be defined physiologically as any perturbation from the outside world that disrupts homeostasis [14]. Beyond the physical, stress can also be psychological or emotional and the potency and pathogenicity of psychological stress cannot be ignored, as it may increase the risk of developing AD [15].

Modern stress research is considered to havebegun in the last century with the work of Walter B. Cannon [16], and later recognized as the first stage of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome [17]. This work led Sapolsky and others to appreciate that while acute stress actually heightens cognition, these same responses are highly deleterious when activated chronically [14].

Furthermore, aging is a time of decreased ability to handle stress and, untreated, chronic stress accelerates many of the degenerative aspects of aging, including cognitive decline. In contrast, meditation may counter-balance many aspects of the stress response and protect the brain specifically from the ravages of aging combined with stress overload [11, 18, 19].

Stress may injure hippocampal cells via the release of the hormone cortisol from the adrenal gland in response to hypothalamic and pituitary stimulatory signals, such as CRF and ACTH. Such injury could lead to dysfunction and atrophy of that critically important memory and emotional brain structure [20, 21]. Beyond that, hippocampal cellular loss is dramatically exacerbated because of the destruction of the specific neurons that control cortisol secretion from the adrenal gland [14].

This loss of feedback inhibition may lead to a persistent toxic cortisol level, thus causing the further injury or death of hippocampal cells by activating NMDA receptors, which may allow excessive extracellular calcium ion to pass through now open channels, flooding the interior of the cell with markedly excessive calcium ion. This excessive intracellular calcium leads to cytosolic injury, mitochondrial damage, severe oxidative stress, and possibly inflammation, which may ultimately lead to significant cognitive decline [22]. Current research also indicates that chronic stress arousal activates multiple inflammatory mediators, including the NF-κB system, leading to widespread brain inflammation, especially in the hippocampus [8, 23–25]. These disturbances of central inflammation have been shown to be a hallmark of AD [26].

The negative effects of chronic stress are considerable. Beyond cognitive decline and memory loss, stress also affects numerous neurobehavioral phenomena, from anxiety to depression to various abnormal behaviors and unconscious self-defeating compulsive actions. Some of these behaviors may lead to premature cognitive decline and AD [27]. Significantly, Lupien argues that it is not simply isolated episodes of stress that do damage to the brain. Rather, it is the magnitude of cortisol exposure over the lifetime, especially middle age and beyond, that is linked to AD and promotes emotional and cognitive dysfunction, including disruption of hippocampal-dependent selective attention and explicit short term memory loss, SCD, MCI, and AD [18, 28, 29].

Further evidence links decreased memory performance and a greater risk of AD in people reporting higher levels of work-related stress, having stress-prone personalities, enduring early childhood stress such as abuse, trauma, and neglect and/or suffering from midlife stress as well. In a study specific to women, for each additional stressor reported, the risk of later developing AD increased 20% [30–33].

In a study by Wilson, those subjects who scored high in distress proneness (90th percentile) had twice the risk of developing AD than those in low distress proneness (10th percentile) suggesting that an increased vulnerability to psychological distress may be a risk factor for AD.

A randomized, double blind, placebo controlled comparison of two fixed oral doses of cortisol (40 mg/d and 160 mg/d using split doses to approximate circadian rhythm) in volunteers over four days to a matched group of healthy subjects (n = 51) showed reversible impaired verbal, declarative, and short term memory in those subjects receiving the higher or stress dose of cortisol [34]. Additionally, Wang showed that psychological stress in the workplace as manifest by low job control and high job strain was associated with increased risk of AD in late life, independent of other risk factors [35]. Chronic stress is associated with multiple brain anatomic abnormalities, including a decreased size of the anterior cingulate cortex, which leads to impaired hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation and perhaps an increased vulnerability to the effects of chronic stress [36].

Finally, recent stress research by Epel and Blackburn shows that stress has a pronounced negative effect on genetic health, diminishing telomerase levels, the enzyme responsible for maintenance of telomere length, the protective cap of DNA. Shorter telomeres are associated with inflammation, accelerated aging, and AD [37, 38]. Moreover, telomeres are shorter in those with childhood maltreatment [39, 40].

MEDITATION AS ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE PREVENTION MEDICINE

In 1949, Swiss physiologist Walter Hess, PhD, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his description of two centers in the hypothalamus of the cat [41]. One of the points, which he called the ergotrophic center, when stimulated electrically, produced the typical physiological features of the sympathetic stress response: rise in blood pressure, increase in pulse, faster respiratory rate, and an increase in oxygen consumption or MVO2. He broke new ground when he demonstrated anadditional point in the hypothalamus that, when stimulated, caused the exact opposite of the stress response. He called it the trophotrophic center, which was associated with parasympathetic activation, relaxation, sleepiness, and withdrawal from activities. The trophotrophic system protects against stress overload and allows for recovery and regeneration [42]. This dichotomy suggests that there exists an innate, natural way to reduce the deleterious effects of stress.

Approximately twenty years later, Herbert Benson, MD, further elucidated the physiological underpinnings of the trophotrophic center. First he described what he called “The Four States”: awake, sleep, dream, and the fourth state. The difference between the first three states and the fourth state is that the first three happen spontaneously, while specific actions are required to enter into the fourth state or what Benson initially called “eliciting the relaxation response(RR)” [43]:

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Comfort: Sit easily in a chair or on the floor.

Quiet: Be alone in a spot where you will not be disturbed, i.e., no texts, emails, cell phones, etc., while eliciting the relaxation response.

Tool: Focus on a word, thought, breathing, sound, or short prayer.

Attitude: When other thoughts enter your mind, re-focus on your tool to the exclusion of everything else for 10 to 20 minutes twice a day.

Meditation is not blanking out your mind, for that is virtually impossible. Rather, it is a wakeful, hypo-metabolic state that is produced by following these four steps, especially the last one [43, 44]. Recently, Benson modified his original approach to two steps required to elicit the RR: Repetition of a word, sound or movement and the passive disregard of everyday thoughts when they come to mind during the practice of the chosen technique. Through four decades of research, Benson and colleagues have shown that the RR impacts genomic, structural, physical, psychological, and functional outcomes [45–52].

Other meditation techniques that have been studied prominently include the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM) as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which uses a secret, silent, prescribed sound or mantra as its tool, and mindfulness meditation or Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a Buddhist approach with the focus on the breath as its tool.