Can meditation do anything about ageing at the cellular level?

Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of your chromosomes, similar to the plastic tips on shoelaces. As cells divide, they grow shorter, and shorter telomeres are associated with accelerated ageing and more health problems. A meta-analysis of 11 studies found that people who meditated had, on average, longer telomeres than non-meditators. The effect was small to moderate, and people who had meditated for more hours showed a larger effect. The researchers themselves describe this as 'preliminary evidence', not established fact.

More striking than absolute growth is the idea that meditation slows wear and tear. In a three-month study, telomere length shrank measurably in the non-meditating control group, while it remained stable in the meditators. That is not the same as reversing ageing, but it may mean that cells deteriorate less quickly. A word of caution: this was not a randomly assigned experiment, so you cannot rule out that the two groups already differed from each other at the outset.

An intensive one-month meditation retreat showed improvements in participants in both telomere length and in the activity of genes that drive the telomere-maintenance machinery. People with a greater tendency to ruminate benefited the most. This is, however, one specific study involving one specific, already-motivated group, so how much it tells us about ordinary meditation practice is unclear.

Are the results therefore clear-cut? No. A systematic review in healthy adults counted five studies, of which only two found a statistically convincing positive effect. The remaining three showed a positive trend but no certainty. In cancer patients, mindfulness programmes showed more positive signals, but that group cannot simply be compared with healthy people. And research into religiosity, which also encompasses meditative practices, produced such variable results that even a combined analysis was not possible.

In short: there are cautious indications that regular meditation may slow telomere shortening, but the evidence is still too limited and too inconsistent for firm conclusions. No single study demonstrates that meditation actually reverses cellular ageing. If you already meditate for your wellbeing or stress reduction, there is no reason to stop; if you would be doing it purely for cellular rejuvenation, expectations have yet to be fulfilled.