Spiritual Retreats May Ward Off Aging
A scientific study of Buddhist spiritual retreats suggests that eastern relaxation techniques can protect our chromosomes from the degenerating affects of aging. Visitors to the Shambhala Mountain Centre high in the mountains of northern Colorado meditate in silence for up to 10 hours every day, emulating the lifestyle that monks have chosen for centuries in mountain refuges from India to Japan.
For a period of 6 months in 2007, scientists set up a lab in the basement here that included brain and hart monitors, video cameras and centrifuges as part of an effort to scientifically document exactly what happens to people when they meditate. The data from the so-called Shamatha project is now starting to me made public, and so far the research has shown that there are significant improvements in perception and well-being from meditation. It also shows that meditation can protect caps on the end of chromosomes called telomeres, and this can delay the process of aging.