Meditation may work as an anti-aging mantra

By Leslie Miller USA TODAY

Looking for the fountain of youth? Consider meditation.

A new study suggests people who meditate regularly have levels of an age-related hormone "comparable to non-meditators five to 10 years younger," says Dr. Jay Glaser, Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Center, Lancaster, Mass.

The study, in the current Journal of Behavioral Medicine, was done with researchers from the Orentreich Foundation for the Advancement of Science, Cold Spring-on-Hudson, N.Y., and City University of New York.

It focuses on transcendental meditation, or TM, the most widely practiced type in the U.S., Glaser says. TM involves sitting with eyes closed, thinking of "a meaningless sound" (mantra) for 20 minutes a day. The aim: a state of "restful alertness devoid of thoughts, emotions and perceptions."

Researchers measured 1evels of the hormone DHEA-S, which peaks in the early 2Os, then declines. Men with high levels have been shown to have less cardiovascular and heart disease and lower mortality rates; women, less breast cancer and osteoporosis, he says.

The study compared DHEA-S levels in the blood of 423 meditators and 1,252 normal, healthy non-meditators from 20 to 81 by five-year age ranges. Effects of diet obesity and exercise were ruled out.

Meditator's approach life with more calmness, more tolerance, less physiological reaction to stress," Glaser says. "If they go through the day in a more effortless way, they take on less stress. And what is aging but accumulated stress?"

Copyright 1992, USA TODAY. Reprinted with permission.