Meditation and Stress

Meditation has been around for a very long time. There are many different types of meditation however, the depiction of meditation as a very relaxed, blissful, and wakeful state falls under the category of Transcendental Meditation (1). The idea of calming the mind is well known however; the exact physiological changes that occur are not. Meditation causes many positive changes in the body and may be one of the best weapons humans have to fight stress.

First off, what is stress? The stress response in an organism is loosely characterized by a release of ACTH and cortisol, which causes an increase in heart rate, respiration rate, and increased blood flow to the limbs, to name a small few of the responses.  In the short term, this response is beneficial however; over the long term it is detrimental to someone’s health and causes a whole host of physical and mental problems that lead to a much lower quality of life (1).

Meditation seems to be the answer to all these responses. Research has found that meditation decreases oxygen consumption by 50% and respiration rate by 40% (1). Meditation also affects the heart by increasing cardiac output while reducing renal and hepatic blood flow. (An increase in renal and hepatic (liver) blood flow is characteristic of a stress response). Also, the serum concentration of  phenylalaine, a precursor to L-Dopa, increases, possibly causing the restful, pleasurable feelings, one experiences while meditating. In addition, a decrease in blood lactate is observed. This drop in blood lactose is helpful for causing a decrease in respiration rate. As a whole, meditation causes metabolic and circulatory changes that span many different systems in the body. Other activities, like sleeping or unstylized eyes-closed rest, can decrease these stress-induced changes however; through clever manipulations experimenters have shown that they are reduced most in meditation (1).

Meditation also works at the source to reduce stress, by significantly diminishing the amount of cortisol and ACTH in the blood. This drastically limits the stress response in the body.  In addition, the urinary metabolite of serotonin increases significantly. (A metabolite is a substance produced by metabolism). This indicates that there is more serotonin in the body while meditating, which improves mood (1).

The autonomic nervous system is another big player that gets activated during stress, coincidently, in meditation it primarily gets turned off.  Respiratory rate, red cell metabolism, heart rate, thyroid and adrenocortical hormone secretion all decrease as the muscles in the body relax. This makes it harder to get stressed and also helps the body to recover from stressors at a much faster rate than those that do not meditate (1).

Overall, stress causes many diseases including certain types of cancer, PTSD, and cardiovascular disease, to name a few. It also makes preexisting conditions much worse. It clearly is a large problem that affects everyone and needs to be dealt with. Meditation seems to quite clearly be the antitheses of stress. It reduces the physiologic responses brought on by stress, while helping the body to recover from stress at a faster rate. It is important to note that many of these affects are not readily available however; many of them are obtainable after just six months of practicing meditation. This is a relatively short amount of time to acquire a technique that will benefit you for the rest of your life. Meditation as a whole seems to be one of the best things we can do to fight stress and warrants some serious consideration.

References

(1) Jevning, R., Wallace, R., & Beidebach, M. (1992). The physiology of meditation: a

review. A wakeful hypometabolic integrated response. Neuroscience And Biobehavioral Reviews, 16, 415-424.