The Rundown

Meditation & Microbiomes. Researchers have been examining the impact of meditation on health for years and now, a new study has them hitting the road to investigate the microbiomes of monks at three remote temples in Tibet.

Keeping in mind recent studies that explore how our gut-brain axis might influence inflammation, metabolism and mood, the team recruited 37 Buddhist monks to supply fecal samples for microbiome analysis. Each monk meditated for about two hours a day, for up to 30 years.

To isolate microbiome differences that might be related to meditation, the researchers collected samples from a control group of residents who live near the temples. They matched the diet, age and health of 19 neighboring residents to the monks, noting that the small size of the control group was due to the sparse population of the area.

The team found two species of bacteria (Prevotella and Bacteroides) were significantly enriched in the meditation group compared to the control group. These bacteria species have previously been associated with positive mental health and low rates of depression and anxiety.

While the results should be interpreted with caution, the paper is the first to look at the long-term effects of meditation on the gut microbiome and opens new investigative paths for future researchers to explore.

Not So Fast(ing). A new paper is challenging intermittent fasting as a weight loss strategy. The study found that changes in weight are most affected by the size and frequency of meals rather than the interval between meals.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine tracked daily meal sizes and times of more than 500 people and correlated this data with weight loss patterns over a six-year period. The subjects used their phones to record sleep, wake and meal times over several week-long periods. This allowed the team to track the time from first to last meal, the time from wake-up to first meal and the time from last meal to sleep.

They found no link between the time of a person’s daily eating window and changes in weight over the six-year follow-up. What did make a difference to weight was the total number of medium and large meals a person ate throughout the day. The researchers write, "Importantly, we found an association between the eating of more frequent and larger meals per day and weight increase, indicating that total overall caloric intake is the major driver of weight gain.”

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