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I have heard that health, exercise and meditation have a connection. How do these three factors interact towards having a better or more relaxing life?

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Apart from the mental benefits of meditation, there is some evidence for organic/physical benefits as well.

Dean Ornish, the well known cardiologist who helped former U.S. President Clinton with his diet - and the creator of the only FDA approved prescribed and reimbursed diet for cardiac disease, also has done studies on meditation and health.

He found that telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that slowly get eroded away with aging, actually regrow with meditation. He reported these findings at the Exponential Medicine Conference in San Diego in 2014.

Telomere shortening is believed to be one of the foundational causes of aging.

It is unclear whether his work has been duplicated elsewhere, but it is a striking and considered highly significant physical finding with implications for health and longevity. It is one of the few actual cellular changes that have been found related to meditation.

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    Supporting references are required here.
    – Carey Gregory
    Commented Apr 23, 2018 at 21:34
  • Can you explain it in more depth? Commented Apr 24, 2018 at 3:23
  • @ErandaPeiris You might want to slow down before accepting an answer. This answer doesn't meet site standards and is likely to be deleted unless the author adds supporting references.
    – Carey Gregory
    Commented Apr 24, 2018 at 4:18
  • You should clarify that the paper on regrowing telomeres is not specifically on meditation, but lifestyle change in general. The abstract only mentions changes to diet, activity, stress management, and social support. Do you have access to the full text to verify that this actually included meditation?
    – bluenote10
    Commented Dec 29, 2018 at 12:32

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