Dr. Susan Lee Smalley says it is possible to cause genetic change through meditation; in fact, she is not the only one who makes a statement about it, but she is one of the most important advocates of this practice because of her knowledge of the field. .
Susan Lee Smalley is an anthropologist and genetic doctor, director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) and one of the first people to talk about genetic change through meditation. This indicates that research shows changes in at least 15 genes in people meditating.
- Smalley argues that neuroplasticity.
- The brain’s ability to change based on experience.
- Also has genetic effects.
- He said the most interesting thing about genetic change through meditation is the fact that it would be a way to self-induce profound changes through voluntary experiences.
“Meditation is the eye of the soul. ” Jacques Benigne Bossuet?
Some time ago it was believed that the genetic information with which each person was born was immutable, experts thought that it was a definitive type of programming, that it was something decisive, over time this has been revalued. Today we know that genetic information has a high level of flexibility and that this applies to all ages of life.
One of the studies that demonstrated this flexibility and then led to the study of genetic change through meditation was conducted by Michael Meaney of McGill University in Montreal, who observed epigenetic changes in rodent brains that did not receive sufficient maternal attention during the first few weeks of life.
This has led animals to show chronic stress from an early age and females who underwent this epigenetic modification also behaved carelessly with their own offspring.
However, if these mothers were replaced by loving foster mothers, young people would grow up normally, demonstrating that genetics was flexible and that mental experiences could lead to gene changes.
A study on meditation conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonha (USA)U. S. ) He yielded impressive results. This is one of the pioneering works on genetic changes through meditation and therefore has great value.
Researchers analyzed changes in the body of a group of people who were meditating, comparing them to changes in another group that also performed quiet activities, but not associated with meditation.
In the end, they found that those who meditated experienced changes in the RIPK2 and COX2 genes, which are linked to inflammatory processes.
The molecules that showed these changes were analyzed at the Institute of Biomedical Research in Barcelona (IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS), and in the end, Perla Kaliman, lead author of the paper, noted that meditation had highlighted an epigenetic change in the genome. In any case, he believes it is too early to draw definitive conclusions.
Chronic stress is one of the factors that has been associated with a large number of chronic diseases and, of course, countless mental and mood disorders, as well as aging, both in the brain and in the body in general. it is precisely one of the most documented effects of meditation.
From the studies carried out, it is now possible to propose the theory that stress causes epigenetic changes and that meditation can reverse them.
Also, Susan Lee Smalley assures that people who get what they call?Mindfulness? cause greater activity in the frontal cortex; this produces a sense of serenity. If this is maintained for a while, genetic stress patterns change.
It is important to note that epigenetic changes are changes who?Silence, a genetic factor. This is said to be the reason why DNA does not determine fate.
For example, a person may be born with a gene that predisposes them to cancer, but can an epigenetic change change this gene?Hence the importance of all these studies and conclusions drawn.