We’ve known for a long time that meditation is good for mental health, but what about gut health? According to a new comparative study published in General PsychiatryRegular deep meditation can help regulate the gut microbiome, which includes bacteria, fungi and viruses that live in the digestive tract.
In the study, researchers analyzed blood and stool samples from nearly 40 Tibetan Buddhist monks from three temples and compared them with samples from 19 secular residents in neighboring areas.
Research shows that the monk’s gut microbe is very different from its neighbors and that these microbes are linked to the risk of anxiety, depression and cardiovascular disease because of the connection between the digestive tract and the central nervous system, or the gut-brain axis. The monks in this study had practiced Tibetan Buddhist meditation for at least two hours a day for three to 30 years.
“Collectively, some bacteria were enriched in the meditation group [have been] is associated with a reduction in mental illness, suggesting that meditation may affect certain bacteria that may play a role in mental health,” the researchers wrote in a press release about the study.
Meditation has long been associated with a number of health benefits including better sleep, reduced stress and anxiety, and lower blood pressure. And while meditation has been used to treat mental health disorders, it’s unclear whether it can change the makeup of the gut microbiome. Because the study was small, all the participants were male and lived in high altitudes, the researchers could not draw definite conclusions, but believe that meditation can help prevent or treat psychosomatic diseases, further research.
“These results show that long-term deep meditation can have a beneficial effect on the gut microbiota, allowing the body to maintain optimal health,” the researchers concluded.
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