Can meditation slow your biological clock?

None of the available studies show that meditation directly slows the biological clock. The most robust evidence comes from a randomised trial involving 585 older adults (aged 65-84) with memory complaints: 18 months of daily meditation improved neither memory nor cognitive ability, and brain volume and cortical thickness also remained unchanged.

Small-scale pilot studies in older adults point to some improvement in attention control and emotion regulation, but larger, well-designed studies to confirm this do not yet exist. The idea that meditation builds cognitive reserve lacks any direct evidence: a systematic review of lifestyle factors and cognitive reserve found not a single study that specifically examined meditation.

Yoga, which combines meditation with movement and breathing, shows favourable signals for oxidative stress and inflammation in review studies. The strength of evidence is limited, however: methods vary considerably and there are almost no comparisons with other forms of exercise. Whether it was the meditation or the physical activity that made the difference cannot be determined.

An intensive lifestyle programme - including, alongside meditation, exercise, a plant-based diet and social support - showed improvements in cognition and a more favourable protein profile in the blood among 51 people with early Alzheimer's disease. However, this was a small phase-2 study, and the contribution of meditation to that outcome is unknown. This result cannot be extrapolated to meditation alone.

The idea that the brain patterns of long-term meditators are structurally different has been explored in exploratory research. That is biologically interesting, but says nothing yet about whether you actually age more slowly.