Susan Lee Smalley And Gene Changes Through Meditation
dr. Susan Lee Smalley has argued that it is possible to achieve gene changes through meditation. She’s not the only one to claim this. However, Smalley is one of the foremost advocates because of her extensive knowledge in this area.
Susan Lee Smalley is an anthropologist with a Ph.D. in medical genetics. She is the director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) and one of the first to talk about gene changes through meditation. She claims that research shows that there are changes in at least 15 genes in people who meditate.
Smalley has argued that neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change as it takes on new experiences, would also have effects at the genetic level.
She stated that the most interesting thing about changing genes through meditation is the fact that it would be a way of making profound changes yourself through a voluntary experience.
A preliminary investigation
Some time ago, scientists believed that the genetic information each person was born with was immutable. They thought it was some sort of definitive programming, established from birth.
Over time, they re-evaluated this. Today we know that genetic information is actually very flexible, and that this applies to all ages.
One of the research projects that proved that flexibility, and later led to the study of changing genes through meditation, was conducted by Michael Meaney of McGill University in Montreal.
He and his team observed epigenetic changes in the brains of rodents that had not received adequate maternal care during their first weeks of life.
This led to chronic stress in the animals at a young age. Females who had undergone this epigenetic modification also behaved carelessly with their own offspring.
However, when replaced by loving foster mothers, the cubs grew normally. This showed that genetics was flexible and also that mental experiences could cause changes in genes.
A revealing study of gene changes through meditation
The University of Wisconsin-Madison conducted a study on meditation and achieved remarkable results. This is one of the pioneering studies in the field of gene alteration through meditation and is of great value.
What the researchers did was analyze the physical changes that occurred in two groups of people. One group meditated, while the other performed silent activities unrelated to meditation.
Finally, they found that those who meditated had experienced changes in the RIPK2 and COX2 genes. These are related to inflammatory processes. The molecules that explained these changes were analyzed at the Institute of Biomedical Research Barcelona (IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS).
Perla Kaliman, the lead author of the paper, pointed out that they had discovered an epigenetic change in the genome as a result of meditation. However, she made it clear that it is still too early to draw definitive conclusions.
Stress and meditation
Chronic stress is one of the factors that experts have linked to many chronic illnesses, in addition to their effect on a number of mood and mental disorders.
It is also associated with aging, both cerebral and general body aging. Reducing stress is one of the most documented effects of meditation.
Based on studies, it is now possible to hypothesize that stress causes epigenetic changes and that meditation can reverse them.
Also, Susan Lee Smalley claims that people who reach the state of so-called “full attention” experience more activity in the frontal cortex, which influences the feeling of stress. If they keep this up for a while, the genetic patterns of stress change.
It is important to note that epigenetic changes are modifications that can ‘silence’ certain genetic factors. Experts conclude that this is why DNA does not determine our ‘fate’.
For example, someone may be born with a gene that predisposes him or her to cancer, but an epigenetic change can “silence” that gene. Hence the importance of all these studies and their possible conclusions.
