Meditation & Support Groups Benefit Cancer Survivors in Cellular Levels

Lisa Franchi November 06, 2014

Practicing mindfulness meditation or being involved in a support group has a positive physical impact at the cellular level in breast cancer survivors – according to new research.

Investigators from the Alberta Health Services’ Tom Baker Cancer Centre discovered that telomeres — protein complexes at the end of chromosomes — maintain their length in breast cancer survivors who practice meditation or are involved in support groups.

For the study, researchers followed a total of 88 breast cancer survivors who had completed their treatments for at least three months. The average age was 55 and most participants had ended treatment two years prior. To be eligible, they also had to be experiencing significant levels of emotional distress.

Although the disease-regulating properties of telomeres aren’t fully understood, shortened telomeres are associated with several disease states, as well as cell aging. Longer telomeres are thought to be protective against disease.

In the Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery group, participants attended eight weekly, 90-minute group sessions that provided instruction on mindfulness meditation and gentle hatha yoga, with the goal of cultivating non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. Participants were also asked to practice meditation and yoga at home for 45 minutes daily.

The finding is in contrast to what was demonstrated in a comparison group (without intervention) where the telomeres shortened.

“We already know that psychosocial interventions like mindfulness meditation will help you feel better mentally, but now for the first time we have evidence that they can also influence key aspects of your biology,” says Dr Linda E. Carlson, Ph.D., principal investigator and director of research.

“It was surprising that we could see any difference in telomere length at all over the three-month period studied,” Carlson said.

“Further research is needed to better quantify these potential health benefits, but this is an exciting discovery that provides encouraging news.”

In the Supportive Expressive Therapy group, participants met for 90 minutes weekly for 12 weeks and were encouraged to talk openly about their concerns and their feelings. The objectives were to build mutual support and to guide women in expressing a wide range of both difficult and positive emotions, rather than suppressing or repressing them.

Control group participants were randomly selected and attended one, six-hour stress management seminar. All study participants had their blood analysed and telomere length measured before and after the interventions.

While scientists have shown the interventions provide a short-term effect on telomere length compared to a control group, it’s not known if the effects are lasting.

Future research will address this gap as studies are planned to see if the psychosocial interventions have a positive impact beyond the three months studied.

The new findings were published in the journal Cancer.

Source of this article: Meditation, Support Groups Shown to Impact Cell Biology in Cancer Survivors