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2025: Proven: Meditation cleans the brain of toxins, its effect is comparable to sleep
Meditation is able to free the brain from toxins. This was announced in December 2025 by a group of scientists who published a corresponding article in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the authors of the study, the practice of meditation stimulates the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which washes the brain and removes harmful metabolic products. Scientists emphasize that this effect is comparable to the processes that occur during sleep.
The scientific work was carried out by a team led by Manus Donahue, Professor of Neurology, Deputy Head of the Department for Scientific Work at Vanderbilt University. The experiment applied new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques developed by Donahue's laboratory to analyze CSF movement in participants in a state of meditation and mind wandering, as well as when breathing changes, but without meditation.
According to the press service of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the effective flow of CSF is critical for the elimination of toxic proteins from the brain, the accumulation of which is associated with the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's. With age, the effectiveness of this purification system decreases, but increases during sleep. During meditation, CSF movement becomes more intense, the study found.
A researcher in psychiatry and co-author of the study, David Wago, added that the observed effects were specifically associated with the meditative state, and not just with slowing breathing. Vago sums up: because aging and brain pathologies often disrupt CSF movement, meditation practice can become an affordable non-invasive tool to maintain long-term brain health by strengthening its own cleansing mechanisms.[1]
2022: A visitor to a Moscow fitness club meditated in a pool and fell into a coma
Muscovite fell into a coma after meditation under water in the pool. According to the newspaper Izvestia, this happened in the capital's fitness club "Clouds" on June 30, 2022.
According to the newspaper, the employees of the sports complex made comments to the man that he should not dive under water for a long time, but he did not listen to them. He was taken to a medical facility with pulmonary edema. By July 1, 2022, doctors in intensive care are fighting for his life, the publication says. According to RIA Novosti, citing its own source, the victim is in a coma.
Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) writes that the victim's wife noted that her husband drank hard on the eve of the incident. Perhaps this was the cause of the accident. In relation to the management of the fitness club, a check has begun.
According to the newspaper, the incident happened in the pool on Pilot Babushkin Street. A 36-year-old man came to buy a subscription on May 10, 2022. The man visited the pool at least twice a week. In the afternoon of June 30, 2022, a man came to swim and drowned. According to the fitness club, there were two instructors in the aquazone that day. But the trainers noticed the man under water late: by that time he had already lost consciousness.
According to MK, the fitness club denied the version of the emergency during meditation. The administration of the sports club said that the man was just swimming.[2]
2019: What happens in the brain during meditations
According to data obtained in 2019, there is primarily increased activity of the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for our memory and cognitive functions. And in the amygdala of the brain, associated with experiences, anxiety and fear, activity, on the contrary, decreases.
Neuroscientists also noted that during meditations, a tomograph records an increase in activity in a part of the cerebral cortex called the "Isle of Reil." This island is associated with our positive emotions, empathy and manifestation of love.
Meditations also help restore sleep and manage depression. In terms of effectiveness, meditative practices are comparable to standard methods of antidepressant therapy and have no side effects.
Eight weeks of regular exercise increases the gray matter density of those areas of the brain that are responsible for learning and memory.
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