Meditation Exercises Can Reduce Loneliness, Studies Reveal

Jan. 1, 2013 - PRLog -- A lot of old people tend to become sad because most of them are spending the remaining days of their lives alone. Spouses pass away and their children tend to scatter as they form their own set of families. However, loneliness is more than just an empty house and absence of companions. It can actually eat up the psyche of a certain person and will eventually affect his or her physical aspect.

Studies show that loneliness is usually linked to increased risk of having heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and even death. It’s important to secure some treatments to decrease the level of loneliness in some adults but the older efforts proved to be useless.

Recently, researchers at UCLA reported that joining a meditation program that lasts about eight weeks can reduce loneliness in some older adults. More than that, since loneliness can be linked to inflammation-related genes which lead to certain diseases, researchers found out that meditation made a significant decrease in the inflammatory genes.

In the journal named Brain where this study has been posted, Steve Cole, the senior study author and a UCLA professor of medicine and psychiatry and his colleagues reported that a 2 month meditation program of mindfulness based stress reduction can be of great help. This particular program teaches one to be attentive to the present and not to dwell in the past or project into the future. This particular method was very successful in reducing the feelings of loneliness among the older adults.

Another good thing about this method is that it also deals with factors that can lead to some disorders. "Our work presents the first evidence showing that a psychological intervention that decreases loneliness also reduces pro-inflammatory gene expression," says Cole. "If this is borne out by further research, MBSR could be a valuable tool to improve the quality of life for many elderly."

The study was done by gathering 40 adults between the ages 55 and 85 were assigned to either mindfulness meditation group or a control group that did not have meditation activities. They were placed in random order. Every participant was assessed before and after the study to get the loneliness scale. Also, blood samples were collected before and after the study to get the gene expression and inflammation levels.

The participants doing the meditation programs attended a two-hour meeting learning the techniques of mindfulness, including awareness and breathing techniques. Also, they did mindfulness meditation for about 30 minutes on a daily basis at home and attended some retreats.

The meditation participants reported by themselves that they had reduced their loneliness and blood test showed that there is a significant decrease in the inflammation-related genes. "While this was a small sample, the results were very encouraging," says Dr. Michael Irwin, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "It adds to a growing body of research that is showing the positive benefits of a variety of meditative techniques, including tai chi and yoga."

“This is where science and spiritualism meet,” says Hamilton Souther the founder of the http://www.bluemorphotours.com/. “It’s really important to give a break at times and allow healing to happen in silence.”

"These studies begin to move us beyond simply connecting the mind and genome, and identify simple practices that an individual can harness to improve human health," Irwin also said.