How meditation slows the effects of ageing

In 2000 I spent five wonderful years working for a South African anti-ageing skincare brand headed by the renowned plastic surgeon and skin cancer specialist Dr. Des Fernandes.

I attended many of his lectures, listening eagerly as he explained about telomeres, which are the end caps of our DNA – similar to the plastic cuffs on shoe laces.  Telomeres prevent DNA from unravelling, so prolonging cell life; their length is an accurate indicator of our individual biology.

So where does meditation come into all this? Scientist have compared the telomere length of people who practise the Buddhist loving kindness meditation (Maitri) to those who did not meditate. The results showed that the telomere length reduced in the control group of non-meditators but not in the group that practised the Maitri meditation.

Maitri is a meditation where we cultivate a sense of loving kindness and compassion for ourselves and others.  It produces positive feelings and slows down ageing at a genetic level.

There is a free Maitri meditation recording on my website if you would like to give it a try – www.gaildonnan.com