Impact of Meditation-Based Lifestyle Practices on Mindfulness, Wellbeing, and Plasma Telomerase Levels: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Meditation involves psychophysical training which can result in a range of benefits including creating a calm mind and increasing self-awareness, relaxation, and tranquility. Increasing evidence, mostly based on short-term focused interventions, suggests that meditation-based activities may also have favorable effects on physical wellbeing including cellular aging. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate if continued practice of meditation benefited quality of life, state of mindfulness, and plasma telomerase level in healthy adults. 30 long-term and skilled meditators were recruited from meditation centers in different parts of the island following a two-tier screening process of 70 eligible participants and 30 age- and gender-matched healthy non-meditators were recruited from the community. Mindfulness level and the quality of life were measured using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and Quality of Life Questionnaire, respectively, while the levels of plasma telomerase enzyme were measured using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Skilled meditators had a better mindfulness level (p < 0.001) and quality of life (QOL; p < 0.001) than those in the comparison group. Similarly, higher plasma telomerase levels were observed in skilled meditators compared to non-meditators (p = 0.002). Trait mindfulness level and plasma telomerase level showed a significant relationship with the duration of meditation practice (p = 0.046 and p = 0.011, respectively). Regression analysis indicated that trait mindfulness level (p < 0.001) significantly predicts the plasma telomerase level. The findings of this comparative study add to the evidence on sustained benefits of meditation on wellbeing and healthy aging and supports incorporating meditation-based activities into lifestyle practices.

Mindfulness Meditation Interventions for Long COVID: Biobehavioral Gene Expression and Neuroimmune Functioning

“…In a meta-analysis, Schutte and Malouff 104 found the effect size across all telomere studies including both novice and long-term meditators to be 0.46. Research by Dasanayaka et al 105 with long-term meditators found telomerase changes, and comparable results with meditation on telomeres length, also with strong effect sizes (0.66-0.88) for relatively small sample sizes (n < 20). 106,107 A few epigenetic studies have been conducted with meditators involving DNA methylation.…”

“…In Schutte et al's 104 meditation study, changes in telomere length also had a promising, moderate effect size (0.40). In a meditation review by Dasanayaka et al, 105 DNA methylation research found telomere length had a moderate effect size (0.40) for novice meditators (0.40). These findings outperformed the majority of reviewed biomedical interventions.…”

Telomere dynamics in healthy expert meditators: a case control study

“…Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the relative telomere length, and hTERT and hTR gene expressions in long-term meditators compared to non-meditators. Using this same study cohort, we previously reported that long-term meditators had significantly higher plasma telomerase levels compared to non-meditators (22) and we also build up on our previously published data to investigate the variability of the expression of hTERT and hTR genes in relation to plasma telomerase levels.…”

“…Table 1 summarizes the baseline characteristics of the study population which have been described before (22). Briefly, nineteen individuals in each group of 30 participants (63.34%) were male with an average age of 43 years.…”

“…Most of the previous studies on the effects of meditation on telomeres have been conducted in patients with cancer (11,12), infertility (13), depression (14) and Alzheimer's disease (15), with only a few investigating the effects of meditation on telomere dynamics in healthy subjects (16)(17)(18)(19). Recent studies have shown varied results, for instance, expert meditators have shown significantly longer relative telomere lengths (16,20), greater telomerase activity (21,22) and up regulated expression of hTR and hTERT genes that encode telomerase enzyme (23) compared to control groups, while some other studies reported that no change occurs in aforementioned telomere characteristics (17,24,25). It is noteworthy that these positive effects have mostly been found in independent populations with no exploration of multiple traits and outcomes within the same study group.…”