How Meditation Prevents the Onset of Alzheimer's [Research]

by Mike B. NLP Trainer

The human brain is one of the most complex parts of our body, making it both fascinating and challenging to study. While even schoolchildren can describe the shape and function of the brain, much of what actually goes on on the inside is not widely understood. Thus, treating illnesses of the brain, such as depression or Alzheimer's can prove incredibly difficult.

The Texas Department of State Health Services estimates that, as of 2018, 5.7 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer's, 96% of whom are over the age of 65. However, the causes of the disease are largely unknown. Currently, science's best conjecture is that a series of traumatic changes in the brain related to genetics, aging, or diet and lifestyle can bring on cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's or dementia. And with a growing senior population, there is suddenly a more urgent need to both understand Alzheimer's and mind a way to prevent it.

A 2018 study, conducted at Université de Caen-Normandie by Gaël et al., found that there may be a connection between practicing meditation and mindfulness and a reduction of stress, particularly in the elderly. There is also a positive connection between regulating thoughts and attention and getting higher quality sleep, which in itself has a correlation with reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease.

This study joins several past studies that show a tenuous, but a positive link between meditation activity and a lower chance of Alzheimer's. While many of the existing studies lacked a large enough sample size or full, randomized trials, the initial results are promising and may encourage further studies to form a more solid connection.

Chételat and his colleagues also studied one of the other important questions in linking meditation to Alzheimer's prevention. Because little is known about how various medications and activities affect brain performance, learning why specific tasks are linked with reduced Alzheimer's can be just as important as which tasks they are. Then scientists can leverage the most specific positive activities to develop a prevention regimen.

In this study, Chételat found that many of the initial psycho-affective states and pathological processes that can cause Alzheimer's can be triggered by a higher presence of stress. In fact, many of these risks can be prevented by behavior modification to reduce stress, which includes focused meditation. In fact, they define "meditation" fairly loosely, covering any practice where the participant consciously pays vigilant attention to "one’s own thoughts, actions, emotions, and motivations and directly target attention and emotion regulation ability."

If this study and other preliminary ones to link mindfulness behavior with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's, it would not only be an invaluable link to a potential prevention for Alzheimer's, dementia, and other mental disorders, but it would also serve to advance knowledge about the brain.

Learning what specifically about meditation can help the brain stave off Alzheimer's, as well as what specific brain processes it affects, can give researchers information necessary to study other diseases, such as sleep disorders or anxiety and depression.

Additional Resources

10 Reasons You Need to Meditate, According to Research