Can Meditation Delay Aging?

by Brad and Nina 

Gaudi Ceiling by Brad Gibson

Since the early days of Yoga for Healthy Aging, we’ve been blogging about the research of Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, who studies the effects of stress on cellular aging (see Stress, Telomeres and Aging). Dr. Blackburn is so convinced that chronic stress affects aging on a cellular level that she is studying the effects of meditation and yoga on aging, thinking that these practices might actually slow aging and lengthen life.

In particular, Dr. Blackburn has been studying the affects of meditation and yoga on telomere length. Throughout your life, your cells may reproduce many times to repair and strengthen their host organs, to grow or to fight disease, and the telomere at the end shrinks each time the cell divides and duplicates itself. A chemical called telomerase helps restore a portion of the telomere with each division, but after 10 to 50 divisions or so (the number varies by tissue type and health, and biologists still do not understand the system well), the telomere gets so short that the cell is no longer able to replicate. Because some cells or tissues in our body (skin, blood cells, etc.) continue to replicate and be replaced as we age, or to be repaired after injury, if the progenitor cells needed for these processes cannot replicate due to telomere shortening, this can contribute to the aging process and increase our susceptibility to disease.

Dr. Blackburn’s research has demonstrated that chronic stress actually accelerates telomere shortening and that anti-stress practices such as meditation and yoga can in turn slow the process by “boosting” telomeres. A recent BBC article Can Meditation Delay Aging?  gives a good overview of Dr. Blackburn’s current research. Here’s an excerpt that explains why meditation and yoga might boost telomeres.

Theories differ as to how meditation might boost telomeres and telomerase, but most likely it reduces stress. The practice involves slow, regular breathing, which may relax us physically by calming the fight-or-flight response. It probably has a psychological stress-busting effect too. Being able to step back from negative or stressful thoughts may allow us to realise that these are not necessarily accurate reflections of reality but passing, ephemeral events. It also helps us to appreciate the present instead of continually worrying about the past or planning for the future.

But while telomeres are still getting a lot of buzz these days, I for one know that this is only one of many theories of aging out there (see What is Aging, Anyway?). So I turned to Brad for his take on the article (and the issue of telomeres in general). 

—Nina

Overall, this a reasonable, well-written and—for the most part—balanced article. I think when it gets into how the established medical profession and scientists are reluctant to get into this area, it is largely correct. However, there is so much confusion and outright snake oil sales in the “anti aging” field right now that it’s no big mystery why people (and scientists) are cautious. In addition, it is important to keep in mind that the role of telomeres in aging is still very controversial. This statement late in the article is a bit problematic:

"Conventional medical tests give us our risk of particular conditions - high cholesterol warns of impending heart disease, for example, while high blood sugar predicts diabetes. Telomere length, by contrast, gives an overall reading of how healthy we are: our biological age. And although we already know that we should exercise, eat well and reduce stress, many of us fall short of these goals."

For one, the role of cholesterol levels is (surprise!) being hotly debated again. And some of the longstanding wisdom about what levels are good or bad—especially for women—may be wrong.  The idea that telomere length is a read-out of our “biological age” is simply not supportable by solid scientific evidence. It is telling us something, but it’s not exactly clear what that is precisely. There are some big efforts going on right now to identify new “biomarkers” of aging, and I'm under the impression that telomere length is no longer being considered as major player in these efforts.

—Brad

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