When people with lots of meditation experience go for an intense, one-day retreat…—Perla Kaliman et al., “Rapid changes in histone deacetylases and inflammatory gene expression in expert meditators,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 40 (2014): 96-107.
For now, the authors of a 2016 review published in the prestigious Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences…—David S. Black and George M. Slavich, “Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1373 (2016): 13-24.
“We still see and hear the water, but we are out of the torrent.” —Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (New York: Hyperion Books, 2005), 94.
Studies confirm that greater levels of mindfulness correlate to greater satisfaction in romantic relationships. —Johan C. Karremans, Melanie P. J. Schellekens and Gesa Kappen, “Bridging the Sciences of Mindfulness and Romantic Relationships: A Theoretical Model and Research Agenda,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 21 (2017): 29-49.
…eight-week-long mindfulness programs can increase relationship satisfaction. —James W. Carson et al., “Mindfulness-Based Relationship Enhancement,” Behavior Therapy 35 (2004): 471-494.
Some psychologists suggest that meditation may work only for committed relationships…—Johan C. Karremans, Melanie P. J. Schellekens and Gesa Kappen, “Bridging the Sciences of Mindfulness and Romantic Relationships: A Theoretical Model and Research Agenda,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 21 (2017): 29-49.
“When I enter her room now, I can feel myself soften.” —James W. Carson et al., “Loving-Kindness Meditation for Chronic Low Back Pain,” Journal of Holistic Nursing 23 (2005): 287-304.
After two weeks of loving-kindness meditation, people are willing to donate almost twice as much money…—Helen Y. Weng et al., “Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to suffering,” Psychological Science 24 (2013): 1171-1180.
They did indeed conclude that students who, for two and a half months, wrote down five things per week they could be thankful for…—Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, “Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84 (2003): 377-389.
A 2017 review of thirty-eight studies concluded that…—Leah R. Dickens, “Using Gratitude to Promote Positive Change: A Series of Meta-Analyses Investigating the Effectiveness of Gratitude Interventions,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 39 (2017): 193-208.
The review concluded that “yoga interventions appear to be equal or superior to exercise in nearly every outcome measured except those involving physical fitness.” —Alyson Ross and Sue Thomas, “The Health Benefits of Yoga and Exercise: A Review of Comparison Studies,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 16 (2010): 3-12.
…for patients with fibromyalgia, yoga can bring greater relief of symptoms than FDA-recommended drug therapies. —James W. Carson et al., “A pilot randomized controlled trial of the Yoga of Awareness program in the management of fibromyalgia,” Pain 151 (2010): 530-539.
A curious series of experiments involving albino rats…—Donald J. Noble et al., “Slow Breathing Can Be Operantly Conditioned in the Rat and May Reduce Sensitivity to Experimental Stressors,” Frontiers in Physiology (2017).
While at rest, long-term practitioners of mindful meditation inhale and exhale fewer times per minute than your typical human. —Joseph Wielgosz et al., “Long-term mindfulness training is associated with reliable differences in resting respiration rate,” Scientific Reports 6 (2016).
They also blink less and in a different pattern. —Ayla Kruis et al., “Effects of Meditation Practice on Spontaneous Eye Blink Rate,” Psychophysiology 53 (2016): 749-758.
Even though the activity of the enzyme that protects the tips of chromosomes, telomerase, can increase after just a few weeks…—Cecile A. Lengacher et al., “Influence of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Telomerase Activity in Women With Breast Cancer (BC),” Biological Research for Nursing 16 (2014): 438-447.
Kabat-Zinn once wrote, “Five minutes of formal practice can be as profound or more so than forty-five minutes…” —Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (New York: Hyperion Books, 2005).
One such comparison based on over three hundred trials, which included an astounding fifty-three yoga types…—Holger Cramer et al., “Is one yoga style better than another? A systematic review of associations of yoga style and conclusions in randomized yoga trials,” Complementary Therapies in Medicine 25 (2016): 178-187.
If you want to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, for instance, transcendental meditation may be a particularly good idea. —Robert H. Schneider, Jeremy Z. Fields and John Salerno, “Editorial commentary on AHA scientiflc statement on meditation and cardiovascular risk reduction,” Journal of the American Society of Hypertension (2018): 1-2.
…tai chi has been linked to the reduction of severity of fibromyalgia…—Chenchen Wang et al., “A Randomized Trial of Tai Chi for Fibromyalgia,” New England Journal of Medicine 363 (2010): 743-754.
…qigong may help with fatigue and boost the activity of telomerase. —Rainbow T. H. Ho et al., “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Qigong Exercise on Fatigue Symptoms, Functioning, and Telomerase Activity in Persons with Chronic Fatigue or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,” Annals of Behavioral Medicine 44 (2012): 160-170.
CHAPTER 11: LONGEVITY LESSONS FROM JAPAN
Among Japanese men age forty-five to fifty-four, over 70 percent have some form of checkup at least once per year. —Nayu Ikeda et al., “What has made the population of Japan healthy? “ The Lancet 378 (2011): 1094-1105.
Carriers of the ApoE4 allele, many of whom are of Scandinavian decent, are at about 40 percent higher risk of a heart disease…—Caleb E. Finch, “Evolution of the Human Lifespan and Diseases of Aging: Roles of Infection, Inflammation, and Nutrition,” PNAS 107 (2010): 1718-1724.
For example, generally shortish Greeks and Italians who move to Australia tend to outlive the taller locals by about four years. —Thomas T. Samaras and Harold Elrick, “Height, body size, and longevity: is smaller better for the human body?” Western Journal of Medicine 176 (2002): 206-208.
When the Japanese relocate to California, rates of heart disease among them double. —M.G. Marmot et al., “Epidemiologic studies of coronary heart disease and stroke in Japanese men living in Japan, Hawaii and California: prevalence of coronary and hypertensive heart disease and associated risk factors,” American Journal of Epidemiology 102 (1975).
…they down 27 percent more greens than does an average Yamada Tarō. —“Asian Parliamentarians’ Study Visit on Population and Development: Aging in Japan—Tokyo and Nagano,” The Asian Population and Development Association, accessed August 10, 2019, http://www.apda.jp/pdf/p02_report/2015_Meeting_Minutes-Study_Visit-Aging_in_Japan_en.pdf
As De Tocqueville once said, “Such folk owe no man anything and hardly expect anything from anybody.” —de Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
Some researchers believe that Japan’s collectivism may have its roots in the way rice is grown. —Shiro Horiuchi, “Major Causes of the Rapid Longevity Extension in Postwar Japan,” The Japanese Journal of Population 9 (2011).
According to one study, going to such a centre even once a week lowers the risk of developing dementia by 40 percent. —Hui-Xin Wang, Anita Karp, Bengt Winblad, and Laura Fratiglioni, “Late-life engagement in social and leisure activities is associated with a decreased risk of dementia: A longitudinal study from the Kungsholmen project,” American Journal of Epidemiology 155 (2002): 1081–108.
If each and every older adult in Canada picked up one social activity…—Sheila Novek et al., “Exploring the I
mpacts of Senior Centres on Older Adults,” The Centre on Aging, University of Manitoba, accessed August 10, 2019, https://www.gov.mb.ca/seniors/publications/docs/senior_centre_report.pdf
…so much so that by the 1990s, over 90 percent of the people here considered themselves to be middle class. —Nayu Ikeda et al., “What has made the population of Japan healthy?” The Lancet 378 (2011): 1094-1105.
One meta-analysis of studies conducted in eleven countries including Japan, Canada, and the US…—Naoki Kondo et al., “Income inequality, mortality, and self rated health: meta-analysis of multilevel studies,” BMJ 339 (2009).
In one longitudinal survey, those seventy-five-year-olds who worked a paid job over a hundred hours a year in 1998…—Ming-Ching Luoh and A. Regula Herzog, “Individual Consequences of Volunteer and Paid Work in Old Age: Health and Mortality,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 43 (2002): 490-509.
Japan scored the highest in terms of the percentage of people who answered “very much” to these claims…—Yoosung Park et al., “Sense of “ikigai” (reason for living) and social support in the Asia-Pacific region,” Behaviormetrika 42 (2015): 191-208.
In a study that followed over forty thousand Japanese for seven years, among people who had ikigai at day one…—Toshimasa Sona, “Sense of Life Worth Living (Ikigai) and Mortality in Japan: Ohsaki Study,” Psychosomatic Medicine 70 (2008): 709-715.
“After studying to be a Zen teacher for many years, Teno went to visit Nan-in, an old Zen master. —Reps, Paul and Nyogen Senzaki, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings (North Clarendon: Tuttle Publishing, 1957), cited in: Steve John Powell, “The Japanese skill copied by the world,” BBC, accessed August 11, 2019, http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170504-the-japanese-skill-copied-by-the-world
…Zen meditation experts have longer telomeres than those who don’t follow the practice. —Marta Alda et al., “Zen meditation, Length of Telomeres, and the Role of Experiential Avoidance and Compassion,” Mindfulness 7 (2016): 651-659.
Zen meditation also increases heart rate variability and helps with pain. —Caroline Peressutti et al., “Heart rate dynamics in different levels of Zen meditation,” International Journal of Cardiology 145 (2010): 142-146 AND Joshua A. Grant, Jérôme Courtemanche and Pierre Rainville, “A non-elaborative mental stance and decoupling of executive and pain-related cortices predicts low pain sensitivity in Zen meditators,” Pain 152 (2011): 150-156.
EPILOGUE
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants…” —Pollan, Michael, “Unhappy Meals,” The New York Times, accessed October 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html
More notes and resources can be found at www.GrowingYoungTheBook.com
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