Monday, February 24, 2014

How Mindfulness Changes the Brain

Much recent research has discovered that practicing mindfulness meditation is associated with greater psychological wellbeing. The biological mechanism through which this happens is under current investigation. In a recent study, participants took a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course. Both before the course and after, participants had their brains scanned and they filled out questionnaires measuring their psychological wellbeing. Results indicated that participants reported greater psychological wellbeing after the course, and the brain scans revealed that participants also experienced a growth and strengthening of neural connections in certain areas of the brainstem. Further, there was a positive correlation between participants’ psychological wellbeing scores and their increased neural connectivity.

The brainstem is a very old part of the brain, and is central for regulating some of our most basic functions, like sleep, fear, arousal, and eating. The first region of the brainstem whose growth was associated with greater psychological wellbeing is one that is concentrated in serotinergic neurons (neurons that release serotonin). Serotonin has been found to effect sleep, mood, appetite, and conditioned fear, and drugs that change the levels of serotonin in the brain are currently used as treatment for many mood and anxiety disorders.

The second brain region whose growth was most correlated with increases in psychological wellbeing is one responsible for the synthesis and release of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. One of norepinephrine’s major roles is to regulate our body’s stress response. This part of the brain is also a focal area of anti-depressant drugs.

Overall, this study reveals that mindfulness causes physical changes in the brain, which in turn help give us the ability to cope with life’s challenges, and help us experience less anxiety and depression and greater happiness.

Keryn Breiterman-Loader

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Hold on to your chromosomes!

Every time our body makes a new cell, we have to make a new copy of our DNA for that cell. With each copy made, we lose some of the nucleotides at the end. Though this slow damage to our chromosomes is part of our body’s natural aging process, it is counteracted by telomerase, which is an enzyme that works hard to add a nice little protective cap (a telomere) to the ends of our chromosomes.

Research has discovered, however, that there are other factors that can speed up or slow down this chromosome damage. For example, stress is one factor that speeds up the wear and tear. Mindfulness and meditation, on the other hand have been found to protect our telomeres and chromosomes. A recent randomized, controlled study found that mindfulnessmeditation leads to increased telomerase activity in blood cells. So cancel your facelift appointment – mindfulness meditation may be a key to successful aging!

Keryn Breiterman-Loader

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Burnout and Mindfulness

Going to work day after day is a centerpiece of most American adult lives. How to stay engaged, refreshed, and find meaning in our work is an important question for workers, and how to keep employees engaged and working effectively is an important question for employers.

A recent study investigated the relationship between burnout, mindfulness, social support, and job satisfaction. The study was conducted on a sample of employees working in a financial corporate environment in Johannesburg, South Africa. Participants completed questionnaires measuring burnout, mindfulness, social support and job satisfaction. Results indicated that all three constructs (mindfulness, social support and job satisfaction) were negatively associated with burnout. Upon further analysis of the data, researchers discovered that each construct was predictive of less burnout independent of the others. The strongest predictor was job satisfaction, followed by mindfulness, and then by social support.

Keryn Bteriterman-Loader