Meditation, Stress, and Cognitive Impairment

A pilot study described in the November 2013 Neuroscience Letters showed that mindfulness meditation, as taught and practiced in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and now widely used and studied, may slow the progression to Alzheimer's disease. The researchers studied people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It is known that high levels of stress is a major risk factor for MCI and also causes a shrinking of the hippocampus, the area in brain central to working memory. Meditation slowed the shrinkage of the hippocampus, and improved the connectivity in the brain in regions affecting executive function.