Loving-kindness meditation slows biological aging in novices 

Notes:

• There is a rapidly growing pile of objective, quantitative evidence that proves the immense power of the mind-body connection. This particular study demonstrates the fact that the thoughts you think can affect your body at a cellular level.

• It looked at the effect that the implementation of a loving kindness meditation routine had on telomere length. Loving kindness meditation is a form of meditation in which the meditator directs loving thoughts towards others or themselves. A common form of loving kindness meditation involves visualizing another person, and thinking thoughts such as: “may you be happy, may you strong, may you be healthy.”

• Biological aging is often measured be observing telomere length. Telomeres are caps that exist on the ends of chromosomes, and which shorten as we age. Longer telomeres are associated with good health.

Excerpts:

• “Midlife adults (N = 142) were randomized to be in a waitlist control condition or to learn either MM (Mindfulness Meditation) or LKM (Loving Kindness Meditation) in a 6-week workshop. Telomere length was assessed 2 weeks before the start of the workshops and 3 weeks after their termination. After controlling for appropriate demographic covariates and baseline TL, we found TL decreased significantly in the MM group and the control group, but not in the LKM group. There was also significantly less TL attrition in the LKM group than the control group.”

Further notes:

• As mentioned previously, telomeres shorten as we age, and telomere shortening is one of the drivers of biological aging. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that loving kindness meditation may help to slow the aging process. To learn more about telomeres, check out the video below. (If you try to, it’ll say it’s unavailable, but if you click “watch this video on youtube,” you should be able to see it just fine.)

 

Does Donating Blood Help to Prevent Heart Disease and or Cancer? 

Notes:

• Short answer: Donating blood doesn’t seem to have any effect on a person’s chances of having heart related health issues. But the evidence strongly suggests that donating blood makes it less likely that the donor will develop cancer. And if a blood donor does develop cancer, they will be less likely to die from it than someone who has not donated before. This is obviously pretty darn amazing. If you’d like to learn more about this phenomenon, check out the video.

Excerpts:

• “They started to see cancer reduction benefits within six months of giving blood once.”

 

Music Recommendation

 

Journal Excerpts

Just about every comedian that I’ve heard interviewed, even the very best, usually mentions the fact that they have bombed spectacularly on numerous occasions.

What incentives are present? What incentives are affecting the behavior of this person, group, and or organization?

Some people love listening to music, but struggle to read. Some people love reading, but are virtually unmoved by music. Some people love going to art museums, but would never be caught at a sports game. Some people love going to sports games, but would never be caught at an art museum. What are you closed off to? What are you receptive to? 

If you struggle to pay attention in class, you can take a pill to help you focus. But before you do so, you might want to consider the possibility that you’re simply taking the wrong class.

Throughout history, there have been a large number of geniuses who displayed profound deficiencies. Beethoven was terrible at just about everything aside from composing and playing music. Isaac Newton was incredibly anti-social. In his younger years Richard Branson could barely read. So much of life is about finding your niche. 

 

Curing disease. Preventing disease.

Solving problems. Avoiding problems. 

Thinking about how to win games. Considering which games are worth winning.