Investigating the effect of meditation on stress through both the measurement of hair-based glucocorticoid assays, and from questionnaire data, the October 2021 RCT study (1) concluded that:
Our results show that daily mental training for 3 to 6 months can buffer the long-term systemic stress load of healthy adults. This was reflected in a reduction of cortisol (HC) and cortisone (HE) accumulation in hair, while levels of self-reported chronic stress were less consistently decreased.
How scientists measure stress is discussed here.
The study also found that the reduction of cortisol (HC) and cortisone (HE) accumulation in hair were independent of specific training content, (table below), positively associated with practice frequency for HC, and reached a ceiling after 6 months of training.
Equally, it took 6 months until significant differences to the baseline were achieved in all training cohorts, suggesting that reliable long-term benefits emerge only after a relatively long period of intense training.
| The study used a range of meditation techniques |
| 1) Attention/Interoceptive Awareness |
| The Core Exercises: |
| Breathing Meditation |
| Body Scan |
| 2) Care, Compassion, Gratitude/Prosocial Motivation/Dealing with Difficult emotions |
| The Core Exercises |
| Loving-kindness Meditation |
| Affect Dyad |
| 3) Meta-cognition/Perspective-taking on Self/Perspective-taking on Others |
| The Core Exercises |
| Observing-thought Meditation |
| Perspective Dyad |
For much more on meditation and wellness, please see our book, available on Amazon:
Wellness and Meditation, Perspectives from Japan. The scientific underpinnings and practical problems of building mental resiliency.
References:
- Contemplative Mental Training Reduces Hair Glucocorticoid Levels in a Randomized Clinical Trial, by Puhlmann, Lara M.C.; Vrticka, Pascal; Linz, Roman; Stalder, Tobias; Kirschbaum, Clemens; Engert, Veronika; Singer, Tania, in Psychosomatic Medicine, October 2021
