Loving-Kindness Meditation practice associated with longer telomeres in women

Hoge, Elizabeth A.; Chen, Maxine M.; Orr, Esther H.; Metcalf, Christina A.; Fischer, Laura E.; Pollack, Mark H.; Vivo, Immaculata De; Simon, Naomi M.

doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2013.04.005

Cited by 95 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Given the increasingly well-documented association between TL and cancer initiation 46 and survival, 47 this finding adds to the literature supporting the potential for stress-reducing interventions to impact important disease-regulating processes and ultimately disease outcome. 48 Inconsistent with other findings, 23,28 we did not observe any associations between changes in stress or mood scores over the course of the interventions and concomitant changes in TL. This could be due to the short time span of the interventions, and the use of different measures of stress and mood than previous researchers, in a different population (patients with breast cancer vs cervical cancer 23 and healthy individuals 28 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…48 Inconsistent with other findings, 23,28 we did not observe any associations between changes in stress or mood scores over the course of the interventions and concomitant changes in TL. This could be due to the short time span of the interventions, and the use of different measures of stress and mood than previous researchers, in a different population (patients with breast cancer vs cervical cancer 23 and healthy individuals 28 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…27 One study also measured TL in healthy meditators. 28 Although each of these trials demonstrated promising results, they had small sample sizes (ranging from 37-60 participants) and only postassessment measurements, 25 and the one study that measured TL (as opposed to telomerase) 28 lacked randomization. Assessing TL before and after psychosocial interventions would allow for the development of an understanding of the potential short-term effects of psychosocial support and mind-body practices on TL.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mindfulness‐based cancer recovery and supportive‐expressive therapy maintain telomere length relative to controls in distressed breast cancer survivors

Carlson

Beattie

Giese‐Davis

et al. 2014

Cancer

135

109

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BACKGROUND: Group psychosocial interventions including mindfulness-based cancer recovery (MBCR) and supportive-expressive group therapy (SET) can help breast cancer survivors decrease distress and influence cortisol levels. Although telomere length (TL) has been associated with breast cancer prognosis, the impact of these two interventions on TL has not been studied to date. METHODS: The objective of the current study was to compare the effects of MBCR and SET with a minimal intervention control condition (a 1-day stress management seminar) on TL in distressed breast cancer survivors in a randomized controlled trial. MBCR focused on training in mindfulness meditation and gentle Hatha yoga whereas SET focused on emotional expression and group support. The primary outcome measure was relative TL, the telomere/single-copy gene ratio, assessed before and after each intervention. Secondary outcomes were self-reported mood and stress symptoms. RESULTS: Eighty-eight distressed breast cancer survivors with a diagnosis of stage I to III cancer (using the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM staging system) who had completed treatment at least 3 months prior participated. Using analyses of covariance on a per-protocol sample, there were no differences noted between the MBCR and SET groups with regard to the telomere/single-copy gene ratio, but a trend effect was observed between the combined intervention group and controls (F [1,84], 3.82; P 5 .054; h 2 5 .043); TL in the intervention group was maintained whereas it was found to decrease for control participants. There were no associations noted between changes in TL and changes in mood or stress scores over time. CONCLUSIONS: Psychosocial interventions providing stress reduction and emotional support resulted in trends toward TL maintenance in distressed breast cancer survivors, compared with decreases in usual care. Cancer 2015;121:476-84.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Mindfulness‐based cancer recovery and supportive‐expressive therapy maintain telomere length relative to controls in distressed breast cancer survivors

Carlson

Beattie

Giese‐Davis

et al. 2014

Cancer

135

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…There is a growing need and desire for a more compassionate workplace that includes a greater feeling of social connection [15,36,37]. Studies support the positive benefits of meditation and compassion interventions on a number of health and well-being outcomes including burnout [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45], and a recent review of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) concludes that loving-kindness meditation (LKM) may be the most effective practice for increasing compassion [46]. Unfortunately, the duration of these interventions-often 8 to 15 weeks long-directly conflict with the limited time available to medical practitioners [45,[47][48][49].…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Loving-kindness meditation: a tool to improve healthcare provider compassion, resilience, and patient care

Seppälä

Hutcherson

Nguyen

et al. 2014

J of Compassionate Health Care

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Background: Stress is a critical problem facing many healthcare institutions. The consequences of stress include increased provider burnout and decreased quality of care for patients. Ironically, a key factor that may help buffer the impact of stress on provider well-being and patient health outcomes-compassion-is low in healthcare settings and declines under stress. This gives rise to an urgent question: what practical steps can be taken to increase compassion, thereby benefitting both provider well-being and patient care? Methods: We investigated the relative effectiveness of a short, 10-minute session of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) to increase compassion and positive affect. We compared LKM to a non-compassion positive affect induction (PAI) and a neutral visualization (NEU) condition. Self-and other-focused affect, self-reported measures of social connection, and semi-implicit measures of self-focus were measured pre-and post-meditation using repeated measures ANOVAs and via paired sample t-tests for follow-up comparisons. Results: Findings show that LKM improves well-being and feelings of connection over and above other positive-affect inductions, at both explicit and implicit levels, while decreasing self-focus in under 10 minutes and in novice meditators. Conclusions: These findings suggest that LKM may be a viable, practical, and time-effective solution for preventing burnout and promoting resilience in healthcare providers and for improving quality of care in patients.

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“…Compassionate care could be improving health outcomes through epigenetic mechanisms. One piece of evidence is the positive correlation described between meditation forms that promote compassion and longer telomeres (which is an indirect measure of slower ageing) [27]. Similar associations have been found using telomerase activity [28].…”

Section: Compassion In Illness and Healthmentioning

confidence: 64%

Integrating compassion to clinical care: a review of an emerging ‘Science’

Jayasinghe

2017

Cey. J. Med. Sci.

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Sympathy, empathy and compassion are a family of connected mental states or emotions that relate to understanding and responding to another"s feelings. Compassion can be defined as a feeling that arises when witnessing another"s suffering, and motivates a desire to help. It differs from empathy, which is experiencing another"s feelings, and sympathy (a feeling of sorrow and concern to another"s pain or suffering).

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Loving-Kindness Meditation practice associated with longer telomeres in women

Cited by 95 publications

References 44 publications

Mindfulness‐based cancer recovery and supportive‐expressive therapy maintain telomere length relative to controls in distressed breast cancer survivors

Mindfulness‐based cancer recovery and supportive‐expressive therapy maintain telomere length relative to controls in distressed breast cancer survivors

Loving-kindness meditation: a tool to improve healthcare provider compassion, resilience, and patient care

Integrating compassion to clinical care: a review of an emerging ‘Science’

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