"Make me one with everything"
Puhlmann et al. investigated the effect of regular contemplative
mental training on endocrine and psychological indices of long-term stress.
“Rising
prevalence of stress-related mental and physical disorders has led to the
recognition of chronic stress as one of the 21st century’s major health risks,”
said senior author Professor Tania Singer from the Social Neuroscience Lab at
the Max Planck Society and colleagues.
“The
health outcomes of exposure to psychosocial stress are mediated by prolonged
activation of our main neuroendocrine stress systems, the
sympathetic-adrenal-medullary and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axes.”
“Both systems exert complex effects on immune and metabolic processes and are causally involved in the development of cardiovascular, metabolic, and autoimmune disorders, among others.”
“In
striving to reduce stress and promote health and well-being, secular
meditation-based mental training interventions, such as the mindfulness-based
stress reduction program, have gained popularity.”
“We
aimed to investigate whether contemplative mental training affects patterns of
long-term cortisol secretion as a potential mediator of downstream health
benefits in 227 healthy adults,” they added.
The
authors examined whether up to 9-month-long training of different types of
contemplative mental practice affects physiological indices of chronic stress.
Instead
of acute or diurnal cortisol secretion, they assessed hair cortisol and
cortisone levels as indices of long-term physiological stress load.
“The
training program consisted of three 3-month sessions, each designed to train a
specific skill area using Western and Far Eastern mental exercises,” the
researchers said.
“The
focus was either on the factors of attention and mindfulness, on
socio-affective skills such as compassion and gratitude, or on so-called
socio-cognitive skills, in particular the ability to take perspective on one’s
own and others’ thoughts.”
“Three
groups of about 80 participants each completed the training modules in
different order. The training lasted up to nine months, 30 minutes a day, six
days a week.”
“After
six months of training, the amount of cortisol in the subjects’ hair had
decreased significantly, on average by 25%,” they said.
“In
the first three months, slight effects were seen at first, which increased over
the following three months. In the last third, the concentration remained at a
low level.”
The
scientists concluded that it is worth to practice more and to carry on mental
practice beyond the typical 8-week training period of mindfulness-based stress
reduction programs currently offered in Western societies.
“We
assume that different training aspects are particularly helpful for different
forms of stress,” said co-author Dr. Veronika Engert, a researcher at the Max
Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences.
“There
are many diseases worldwide, including depression, that are directly or indirectly
related to long-term stress,” added first author Lara Puhlmann, a doctoral
student at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences.
“We
need to work on counteracting the effects of chronic stress in a preventive
way. Our study uses physiological measurements to prove that meditation-based
training interventions can alleviate general stress levels even in healthy
individuals.”
The team’s paper appears in the October 2021 issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine._____
Lara
M.C. Puhlmann et al. 2021. Contemplative Mental Training Reduces
Hair Glucocorticoid Levels in a Randomized Clinical Trial. Psychosomatic
Medicine 83 (8): 894-905; doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000970