Respiratory function in healthy long-term meditators: a systematic review
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SUBMITTER: Karunarathne L
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10759765 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:PurposeRespiratory function is thought to improve with long-term meditation. This study aimed to assess respiratory function in a cohort of healthy long-term meditators and non-meditators in Sri Lanka.MethodsRespiratory function of healthy, skilled long-term meditators (n = 20) practicing Buddhist meditation consistently >3 years, and age-sex matched non-meditators (n = 20) were assessed by assessing resting respiratory rate, spirometry, breath-holding time and six-minute-walk distance. Data were analyzed with SPSS-23 statistical software.ResultsThe long-term meditators; 45% male, mean (SD) total lifetime meditation experience 12.8 (6.5) years, aged 45.8 (8.74) years, BMI 23.68 (2.23) kgm-2, and non-meditators; 45% male, mean (SD) age 45.3 (8.05) years, BMI 23.68 (3.28) kgm-2, were comparable. Long-term meditators had slower resting respiratory rates [mean (SD); 13.35 (1.9) vs. 18.37 (2.31) breaths/minute; p < 0.001], higher peak expiratory flow rates [mean (SD); 9.89 (2.5) vs. 8.22 (2.3) L/s; p = 0.03], and higher inspiratory breath-holding times [mean (SD); 74 (29.84) vs. 53.61 (26.83) seconds, p = 0.038] compared to non-meditators. There was no significant difference in the six-minute-walk distance and estimated maximal oxygen consumption between the two groups.Resting respiratory rate of long-term meditators, showed a significant negative correlation with total lifetime meditation practice in years (r = -0.444, p = 0.049), and the average length of a meditation session per day (r = -0.65, p = 0.002). The long-term meditators with longer duration of retreat participation demonstrated lower resting respiratory rate (r = -0.522, p = 0.018) and higher tidal volumes (r = 0.474, p = 0.04).ConclusionsLong-term meditators had significantly slower resting respiratory rates and longer breath-holding times, with better spirometry parameters than non-meditators. Greater practice duration and retreat experience appear to be associated with improved resting respiratory function in long-term meditators.
| S-EPMC10404977 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In this paper, we examined whether meditation practice influences the epigenetic clock, a strong and reproducible biomarker of biological aging, which is accelerated by cumulative lifetime stress and with age-related chronic diseases. Using the Illumina 450K array platform, we analyzed the DNA methylome from blood cells of long-term meditators and meditation-naïve controls to estimate their Intrinsic Epigenetic Age Acceleration (IEAA), using Horvath's calculator. IEAA was similar in both groups. However, controls showed a different IEAA trajectory with aging than meditators: older controls (age≥52) had significantly higher IEAAs compared with younger controls (age <52), while meditators were protected from this epigenetic aging effect. Notably, in the meditation group, we found a significant negative correlation between IEAA and the number of years of regular meditation practice. From our results, we hypothesize that the cumulative effects of a regular meditation practice may, in the long-term, help to slow the epigenetic clock and could represent a useful preventive strategy for age-related chronic diseases. Longitudinal randomized controlled trials in larger cohorts are warranted to confirm and further characterize these findings.
| S-EPMC5863232 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundExtracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is increasingly employed to support lung function in patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF). However, the long-term outcomes of the approach have not been encouraging when compared to those of conventional mechanical ventilation. Further, the long-term effects of ECMO on lung function and recovery are unclear. For this review, we examined the long-term lung function outcomes of patients with ARF treated with and without ECMO.MethodsWe searched the Embase, CENTRAL, Web of Science, and PubMed sites for studies comparing long-term (≥ 6 months) pulmonary function test results in patients with ARF treated with and without ECMO published until January 2024. We conducted a meta-analysis for percentage predicted values.ResultsWe included five studies. Our meta-analysis showed similar values of forced vital capacity (FVC%) (MD, 0.47; 95% CI, -3.56-4.50) and forced expiratory flow in the first second % (MD, 1.79; 95% CI, -2.17-5.75) in patients with ARF treated with or without ECMO. The FEV1/FVC % values were slightly higher in patients treated with ECMO than in those without ECMO (MD, 2.03; 95% CI, 0.01-4.04; p-value = 0.05). According to the meta-analysis, the values for total lung capacity % (MD, -3.20; 95% CI, -8.83-2.44) and carbon monoxide diffusion capacity % (MD, -0.72; 95% CI, -3.83-2.39) were also similar between patients undergoing ECMO and those without it.ConclusionThe meta-analysis of a small number of studies with significant selection bias indicates that patients with ARF treated with ECMO may have comparable long-term pulmonary function recovery to those treated with conventional strategies. Further investigations including a larger number of patients and focusing on the long-term impact of ECMO are needed to supplement the current evidence.
| S-EPMC11468477 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Practitioners understand "meditation," or mental training, to be a process of familiarization with one's own mental life leading to long-lasting changes in cognition and emotion. Little is known about this process and its impact on the brain. Here we find that long-term Buddhist practitioners self-induce sustained electroencephalographic high-amplitude gamma-band oscillations and phase-synchrony during meditation. These electroencephalogram patterns differ from those of controls, in particular over lateral frontoparietal electrodes. In addition, the ratio of gamma-band activity (25-42 Hz) to slow oscillatory activity (4-13 Hz) is initially higher in the resting baseline before meditation for the practitioners than the controls over medial frontoparietal electrodes. This difference increases sharply during meditation over most of the scalp electrodes and remains higher than the initial baseline in the postmeditation baseline. These data suggest that mental training involves temporal integrative mechanisms and may induce short-term and long-term neural changes.
| S-EPMC526201 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundRespiratory infections among older adults in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) are a major global concern, yet a rigorous systematic synthesis of the literature on the burden of respiratory infections in the LTCF setting is lacking. To address the critical need for evidence regarding the global burden of respiratory infections in LTCFs, we assessed the burden of respiratory infections in LTCFs through a systematic review of the published literature.MethodsWe identified articles published between April 1964 and March 2019 through searches of PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library. Experimental and observational studies published in English that included adults aged ≥60 residing in LTCFs who were unvaccinated (to identify the natural infection burden), and that reported measures of occurrence for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), or pneumonia were included. Disagreements about article inclusion were discussed and articles were included based on consensus. Data on study design, population, and findings were extracted from each article. Findings were synthesized qualitatively.ResultsA total of 1451 articles were screened for eligibility, 345 were selected for full-text review, and 26 were included. Study population mean ages ranged from 70.8 to 90.1 years. Three (12%) studies reported influenza estimates, 7 (27%) RSV, and 16 (62%) pneumonia. Eighteen (69%) studies reported incidence estimates, 7 (27%) prevalence estimates, and 1 (4%) both. Seven (27%) studies reported outbreaks. Respiratory infection incidence estimates ranged from 1.1 to 85.2% and prevalence estimates ranging from 1.4 to 55.8%. Influenza incidences ranged from 5.9 to 85.2%. RSV incidence proportions ranged from 1.1 to 13.5%. Pneumonia prevalence proportions ranged from 1.4 to 55.8% while incidence proportions ranged from 4.8 to 41.2%.ConclusionsThe reported incidence and prevalence estimates of respiratory infections among older LTCF residents varied widely between published studies. The wide range of estimates offers little useful guidance for decision-making to decrease respiratory infection burden. Large, well-designed epidemiologic studies are therefore still necessary to credibly quantify the burden of respiratory infections among older adults in LTCFs, which will ultimately help inform future surveillance and intervention efforts.
| S-EPMC6683564 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Strong conceptual and theoretical connections have been made between meditation practice, mindfulness and lucid dreaming. However, only a handful of empirical studies have evaluated the relationship between lucid dreaming and meditation, and conclusions remain tempered by methodological limitations. Here we evaluate the relationship between meditation, mindfulness and lucid dream frequency using several complementary methods. First, using a cross-sectional design, we evaluate differences in lucid dream frequency between long-term meditators and meditation naïve individuals. Second, we evaluate the relationship between lucid dream frequency and specific facets of trait mindfulness in both meditators and non-meditators. Third, using a blinded randomized-controlled design, we evaluate the impact of an 8-week mindfulness course on lucid dreaming frequency. Our results show that lucid dreaming is more frequent in long-term meditators compared to meditation naïve individuals. Additionally, lucid dream frequency in meditation-naïve individuals was associated with a capacity to verbalize experience, while lucid dream frequency in long-term meditators was associated with observational and decentering facets of trait mindfulness. However, an 8-week mindfulness course did not increase the frequency of lucid dreams. Together these results support a continuity between increased awareness of waking and sleeping states, provide a novel form of evidence linking meditation training to meta-awareness, and support an association between meditation practice and lucid dreaming, but leave open the specific nature of this connection.
| S-EPMC6490164 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC10982879 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent advances in environmental psychology highlighted the beneficial role of greenspace exposure on cognition. We conducted a systematic review of the available studies on the association of long-term exposure to greenspace and cognitive functions across the lifespan. PRISMA guidelines and the PECOs method were applied to screen for eligible studies. Twenty-five studies from Scopus, PubMed, and PsycINFO met the inclusion criteria. Six studies were longitudinal and nineteen cross-sectional. Fifteen studies focused on schoolchildren, six studies on adults, and four on the elderly. Twenty studies used the NDVI to assess greenspace exposure and the remaining used other indexes. Eight studies employed academic achievement as the outcome, eight studies global cognition, six studies attention/executive functions, and three studies memory. The evidence was inconsistent but suggestive for a beneficial role of greenspace exposure on cognitive functions. Further studies are required, especially among adults and older people, by adopting longitudinal designs.
| S-EPMC9517665 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Objective: To systematically review the available literature on the long-term effects of sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) on male reproductive functions. Methods: A PubMed search was conducted on 3 January 2021, and as a result, 952 articles were retrieved. Exclusion of irrelevant articles resulted in 36 articles, dating from 1998 to 2020, which were analysed. Results: Only 52.8% of these articles described original research, while the rest were reviews. The majority (26) of the articles dealt with bacterial infections, of which 20 described Chlamydia trachomatis. There were 11 articles that described research on viruses, with five on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The analysis of the articles showed further that not much new knowledge on the long-term effects on male reproductive functions has been added. The existing knowledge that ascending infections can cause epididymo-orchitis, prostatitis or urethritis was confirmed. Due to epithelial inflammatory responses these infections can result in scarring with resulting infertility due to obstruction. These effects were described for Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Mycoplasma genitalium or Treponema pallidum, as well as for the Zika and SARS-CoV-2 viruses. Even trichomoniasis can lead to long-term compromised male fertility if not treated. Conclusion: In conclusion, problem awareness needs to be raised and more research on this important topic needs to be conducted.
| S-EPMC8451632 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a functionally heterogeneous brain region contributing to mental processes relating to meditation practices. The OFC has been reported to decline in volume with increasing age and differs in volume between meditation practitioners and non-practitioners. We hypothesized that the age-related decline of the OFC is diminished in meditation practitioners. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 50 long-term meditators and 50 matched controls by correlating chronological age with regional gray matter volumes of the left and right OFC, as well as in seven left and right cytoarchitectonically defined subregions of the OFC (Fo1-Fo7). In both meditators and controls, we observed a negative relationship between age and OFC (sub)volumes, indicating that older participants have smaller OFC volumes. However, in meditators, the age-related decline was less steep compared to controls. These age-related differences reached significance for left and right Fo2, Fo3, Fo4, and Fo7, as well as left Fo5 and right Fo6. Since different subregions of the OFC are associated with distinct brain functions, further investigations are required to explore the functional implications of these findings in the context of meditation and the aging brain.
| S-EPMC10741700 | biostudies-literature