Research: (small study) Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress
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From: zumone2002 on 2 Jul 2008 20:19 http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113735.php Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress 02 Jul 2008 Research from the US suggests that mind body techniques like yoga and meditation that put the body in a state of deep rest known as the relaxation response, are capable of changing how genes behave in response to stress. The study is the work of researchers at Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Genomics Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and is published online in the open-access journal PLoS One. Mind-body practices that produce a relaxation response have been used by people across cultures for thousands of years to prevent and treat disease, wrote the authors in their background to the study. The relaxation response is characterized by reduction in oxygen intake, increase in exhalation of nitric oxide, and lower psychological distress. Many experts see it as the counterpart to the "flight or fight" stress response that has already been shown by a number of studies to have a distinct pattern of physiological and gene expression changes (called "transcriptional profile"). The researchers for this study wanted to test the idea that the relaxation response also produces changes in gene expression. The researchers recruited three groups of people. In the first group (called the M group) there were 19 long term practitioners who had been practising various ways of producing the relaxation response every day for a long time (for instance with daily yoga, repeated prayer or meditation practice). In the second group were another 19 people who they called the "healthy controls" (group N1), who were not daily practitioners, and the third group was like the healthy controls group, except these 20 people completed 8 weeks of relaxation response training (this group was N2). The researchers assessed transcriptional profiles of the people in all three groups from blood samples. They found the expressions of a total of 2,209 genes were significantly different between groups M and N1, and a total of 1,561 genes were similarly significantly different between groups N2 and N1. More importantly, however, was the fact 433 of the genes were common to both sets of comparisons: the same ones were different between M and N1 and between M and N2, so even short term practise of the relaxation response appeared to produce changes in these 433 gene expressions. .... Libermann said they used "cutting edge" genomic analysis and the "latest bioinformatics tools to identify potential gene functions, generating hypotheses that can then be tested in laboratory or clinical studies." "There are a lot of differences in gene expression between one healthy person and another, so it is challenging to analyze the kinds of subtle changes we are seeing and identify what changes are significant and what are just background noise," explained Libermann. -- Luke
From: Mark Mandell on 2 Jul 2008 20:36
There might be "some" validity to this research study, however, it would be much more accurate if they determined whether or not the IBD related genes were ALSO affected by the relaxation techniques. My experience(having both CD AND being a long term meditation practitioner)is that it does NOT prevent CD flares though I will concede that the flares are less violent(which shows the mind/body connection is more complex than I once believed through the field of psychoneuroimmunology). So one may need a regimen of BOTH meditation AND medication. Mark Mandell "zumone2002" <zumone2002(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message news:56be5142-3008-4a42-be49-879b2feb7a1b(a)l64g2000hse.googlegroups.com... > http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113735.php > > Yoga And Meditation Change Gene Response To Stress > 02 Jul 2008 > > Research from the US suggests that mind body techniques like yoga and > meditation that put the body in a state of deep rest known as the > relaxation response, are capable of changing how genes behave in > response to stress. > > The study is the work of researchers at Benson-Henry Institute for > Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the > Genomics Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and is > published online in the open-access journal PLoS One. > > Mind-body practices that produce a relaxation response have been used > by people across cultures for thousands of years to prevent and treat > disease, wrote the authors in their background to the study. > > The relaxation response is characterized by reduction in oxygen > intake, increase in exhalation of nitric oxide, and lower > psychological distress. Many experts see it as the counterpart to the > "flight or fight" stress response that has already been shown by a > number of studies to have a distinct pattern of physiological and gene > expression changes (called "transcriptional profile"). > > The researchers for this study wanted to test the idea that the > relaxation response also produces changes in gene expression. > > The researchers recruited three groups of people. In the first group > (called the M group) there were 19 long term practitioners who had > been practising various ways of producing the relaxation response > every day for a long time (for instance with daily yoga, repeated > prayer or meditation practice). > > In the second group were another 19 people who they called the > "healthy controls" (group N1), who were not daily practitioners, and > the third group was like the healthy controls group, except these 20 > people completed 8 weeks of relaxation response training (this group > was N2). > > The researchers assessed transcriptional profiles of the people in all > three groups from blood samples. > > They found the expressions of a total of 2,209 genes were > significantly different between groups M and N1, and a total of 1,561 > genes were similarly significantly different between groups N2 and N1. > > More importantly, however, was the fact 433 of the genes were common > to both sets of comparisons: the same ones were different between M > and N1 and between M and N2, so even short term practise of the > relaxation response appeared to produce changes in these 433 gene > expressions. > ... > Libermann said they used "cutting edge" genomic analysis and the > "latest bioinformatics tools to identify potential gene functions, > generating hypotheses that can then be tested in laboratory or > clinical studies." > > "There are a lot of differences in gene expression between one healthy > person and another, so it is challenging to analyze the kinds of > subtle changes we are seeing and identify what changes are significant > and what are just background noise," explained Libermann. > -- > > Luke |