Relax and Improve Your Genes
Reported July 04, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) The connection between the mind and body has been studied for years, but now new research takes a closer look at how Eastern medicine can activate patterns of genes associated with the bodys response to stress.
For hundreds of years Western medicine has looked at mind and body as totally separate entities, to the point where saying something is all in your head implied that it was imaginary, says Herbert Benson, MD, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute and co-senior author. Now weve found how changing the activity of the mind can alter the way basic genetic instructions are implemented.
The study was designed to look at the changes in gene expression and whether specific stress genes were changed during deep relaxation. It was conducted in two phases and included a variety of relaxation techniques such as yoga, prayer and meditation. The first phase compared gene expression pattern of 19 long-term practitioners of different relaxation techniques and compared them to 19 individuals who had never trained in these techniques. For the second phase, the latter group went through an 8-week training session for relaxation to investigate whether initiating relaxation response practice would change gene expression over time.
Study authors report both phases of the study indicated the relaxation response alters the expression of genes involved with processes such as inflammation, programmed cell death and how the body handles free radicals. Researchers say this is the first study to show how the mind can affect gene expression in healthy individuals. They say they need to see if the same changes happen in those with stress-related disorders. Those studies are underway now.
SOURCE: Published online in PLoS One on July 1, 2008