Remember reading about the man with PD who was a long-term meditator whose symptoms went away? Maybe it had to do with repairing the gut microbiome. This preliminary study compares Buddhist Monks’ Microbiome to matched non-meditators. They then look at mental health and not PD. But it would be interesting to see a study designed to track the gut Microbiome and symptoms of non-meditators with PD as they take up a meditation practice, compared to a control group.
Meditation May Change the Gut Microbiome, Study of Buddhist Monks Suggests | Technology Networks
That doesn't surprise me really. Calmness is definitely really good for you just like stress is really bad. Meditation is calming. I know that when I meditate, my tremor stops. It amazes me every time 😀
Here is the entire paper: Alteration of faecal microbiota balance related to long-term deep meditation gpsych.bmj.com/content/36/1...
"Background Advancements in research have confirmed that gut microbiota can influence health through the microbiota–gut–brain axis. Meditation, as an inner mental exercise, can positively impact the regulation of an individual’s physical and mental health. However, few studies have comprehensively investigated faecal microbiota following long-term (several years) deep meditation. Therefore, we propose that long-term meditation may regulate gut microbiota homeostasis and, in turn, affect physical and mental health.
Aims To investigate the effects of long-term deep meditation on the gut microbiome structure.
Methods To examine the intestinal flora, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed on faecal samples of 56 Tibetan Buddhist monks and neighbouring residents. Based on the sequencing data, linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) was employed to identify differential intestinal microbial communities between the two groups. Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis was used to predict the function of faecal microbiota. In addition, we evaluated biochemical indices in the plasma.
Results The α-diversity indices of the meditation and control groups differed significantly. At the genus level, Prevotella and Bacteroides were significantly enriched in the meditation group. According to the LEfSe analysis, two beneficial bacterial genera (Megamonas and Faecalibacterium) were significantly enriched in the meditation group. Functional predictive analysis further showed that several pathways—including glycan biosynthesis, metabolism and lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis—were significantly enriched in the meditation group. Moreover, plasma levels of clinical risk factors were significantly decreased in the meditation group, including total cholesterol and apolipoprotein B.
Conclusions Long-term traditional Tibetan Buddhist meditation may positively impact physical and mental health. We confirmed that the gut microbiota composition differed between the monks and control subjects. The microbiota enriched in monks was associated with a reduced risk of anxiety, depression and cardiovascular disease and could enhance immune function. Overall, these results suggest that meditation plays a positive role in psychosomatic conditions and well-being."
So... I am all for meditation. There is other evidence that meditation is good for PD. But this study seems to be a tiny bit weak. They compared the feces of monks with that of other neighboring residents. Besides meditating, I think Tibetan Buddhist monks have their own diet: Tibetan Monk Food: Digging into the Diet of a Tibetan Monk tibettravel.org/tibetan-foo....
Interestingly, Tibetan Monks generally don't eat meat, but "those who opt to eat meat will only consume cloven-hoofed animals (read: deer, antelopes, goats, sheep, cattle, and gazelles), and will only do so when they can purchase them directly from the market". I think this is a Ruminant meat diet. That is the only meat I eat now (pretty much beef).
So I think this study shows correlation, not causation, but it is probably worth looking for the causation of what they have uncovered.
makes perfect sense, really. Routine meditation/prayer stimulates the parasympathetic response (rest&digest), which in turn improves digestion, supports immune function, reduces anxiety, the list of benefits goes on & on...
Some years ago when I was studying neuropsychology, we had a guest lecturer talking about a new area of research "The Microbiome" he shared his belief that bacteria try and leave the body of a host that is highly stressed, like rats leaving a sinking ship. I didn't know how factual it was but his preliminary studies showed a clear link with stress/anxiety and poor gut health. The analogy has always stuck with me.
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