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Comment by asmala | Hacker News Reader

Hmm, interesting. I can definitely see how age-related changes in the endocrine system could cause certain improvements that are similar to the effects of meditation. And being as it is that I'm still 29, that could be a factor.

But if I'm reading you correctly, you seem to imply that all the benefits mentioned could be explained away by age-related hormonal changes. I find that hard to believe based on the strong correlation I experience between active meditation practice and greatly increased mental ability. It is particularly noteworthy that I'm able to observe a clear decline in my capability to stay equanimous and focused whenever I have had longer periods away from practice, which should not be the case if we were dealing with mere age-related endocrine changes.

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Long time effects like better anger control could be explained by age related endocrine changes.

Short time effects like "staying focused" could or could not be explained by that. I think I have just too little data to explain them at all. All I can do is to speculate.

So I begin speculating.

Let's say that by meditation you try to calm your mind. You lower your stress hormone, cortisol. By doing that you elevate your testosterone level.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5162836_effects-cortisol-testoster...

Does that mechanics explain meditation effects?

Myself, I prefer to walk a forty minutes or longer to boost my mind next day and to lift (pretty heavy - 160+ kg) weights for testosterone.

Both activities are scientifically proven to help mind. Aerobic exercise provides brain boosting: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=aerobic+exe... Weight lifting increases self control: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/health/research/26exer.htm...

I think I should write a presentation about all that.

Your reasoning makes sense. There's a fair amount of recent research (see "meditation" via Google Scholar) indicating that meditation does indeed reduce cortisol levels and hence that could be one pathway for its effects.

That said, mounting scientific evidence indicates that meditation also changes our brain structure in ways that have AFAIK not been observed with exercise.

For me my own experience would seem to confirm this. The benefits I observe from meditation are both qualitatively and quantitatively different from what I gain from exercise (both aerobic and heavy weights).

There's the question: are those meditation-induced changes in the brain structure beneficial?

Experienced meditation practicioners can fire almost all neurons in their brains. In MRT it looks like epileptical seizure.

So I stay on the "don't meditate, you'll be safer" side.

Interesting and provocative question. I suppose that there's no way of objectively knowing if the changes are beneficial or even safe. (Come to think of it, how would we even define beneficial?)

That said, I find your caution perhaps unwarranted. Many other circumstances are known to cause changes in brain-structure, e.g. growing up bilingual, but I think it would be rather unwarranted to warn against childhood language learning on the basis of this.

Personally I am content with the proof of my own experience; the changes I see in my own psyche and mental performance are entirely positive.

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