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Wagamaga OP t1_irrxlul wrote

Meditation may protect older people against Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, according to new research.

The ancient relaxation technique boosts brainpower among people over 65 years-old, scientists in France say. It can boost attention, awareness, and emotional health – faculties that decline with dementia.

Meditation was superior to non-native language training on changing a global composite score and two of its subscores reflecting attention regulation and socio-emotional capacities,” says corresponding author Dr. Gael Chetelat from Caen-Normandy University in a statement, according to SWNS. French participants assigned to an 18-month course did better than those given English lessons instead to keep their brains busy. They have been linked to well-being, suggesting meditation improves mental health and “human flourishing.”

“The attention regulation subscore increased after meditation only,” Dr. Chetelat tells SWNS. “In the context of meditation practices, this capacity allows a heightened awareness and monitoring of the contents of experience without becoming absorbed by them. Socio-emotional capacities decreased substantially after non-native language training, suggesting the difference observed may be due to maintenance of skills by meditation.”

https://studyfinds.org/meditation-protect-alzheimers/

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witofatwit t1_irtto5u wrote

I'm having a hard time finding from where the title draws it's implied conclusion. The study associated with the headline found showed no positive correlation between decreased dementia and meditation.

Instead it found that..."Results indicate that the 18-month meditation-based intervention did not significantly modify the volume of the ACC and insula in older adults compared with a passive or active control, respectively; the between-group differences did not reach statistical significance for perfusion either. Regarding the main secondary outcomes, there were significant effects of meditation compared with non-native language training on the global composite score reflecting attention regulation, socioemotional, and self-knowledge capacities and two-thirds of its constituent subscores"

Are the secondary outcomes associated the lowered dementia risk?

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