Episode #36 Can Meditation Practice Improve The Health and Athletic Performance of Your Entire Family?

In today’s episode, I discuss the various scientific studies that quantify the positive effects of a regular meditation practice.

Remember meditation helps to balance out the nervous system response- in study speak, it induces the Relaxation Response (RR). In my own language, it down regulates the stress response (sympathetic nervous system or fight or flight response) and up regulates the rest and relaxation response (parasympathetic nervous system response or healing, digesting, and rebuilding response). See episode #35 on mindfulness which has a similar but not as powerful response as meditation. (http://therolfworkshop.com/blog/podcast/episode-35-is-mindfulness-bogus-new-age-science-2/)

Meditation has been shown in studies to improve everything from digestion to sports performance, to healing and athletic recovery (by lowering inflammation response)  to recovery from serious diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Additionally, meditation has been shown (in studies) to actually change gene expression and epigenetic gene expression (which passes down through your progeny for up to 4 generations).

Study: PLOS One: Relaxation Response Induces Temporal Transcriptome Changes in Energy Metabolism, Insulin Secretion and Inflammatory Pathways

Link: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0062817

Study reveals gene expression changes with meditation

Link: http://www.news.wisc.edu/22370

Meditation: Healing more than just minds? Mindfulness intervention for people with diabetes, coronary heart disease

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140529142313.htm

SCIENCE SAYS MEDITATION IMPROVES BOTH HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE

Link: http://breakingmuscle.com/mind-body/science-says-meditation-improves-both-health-and-performance

Can Meditation Soothe Your Stomach?

Link: http://www.everydayhealth.com/digestive-health/can-meditation-soothe-your-stomach.aspx

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers- Robert Sapolsky: http://www.amazon.com/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Third/dp/0805073698/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424287203&sr=8-1&keywords=why+zebras+don%27t+have+ulcers