Meditation: A Polypill for Comprehensive Management of Glaucoma Patients

Abstract

Meditation is an ancient behavioral intervention, however, its benefits for achieving holistic health have been highlighted in recent times with rigorous scientific studies revealing its benefits in many chronic diseases. It has been specially found useful in neurodegenerative diseases and recent evidence points to the positive effects of meditation in preserving gray and white matter in the adult brain. It is also a potential therapy to downregulate processes implicated in brain aging and confer “neuroprotection”—something we all look forward to for our glaucoma patients. In the current review, we evaluate the benefits of meditation practice for the glaucoma patient and support for its candidature as adjunctive therapy for glaucoma patients. It has multiple potential benefits for normal-pressure and high-pressure glaucoma patients including a reduction in intraocular pressure, increasing cerebral blood flow and oxygenation, and decreasing action of the sympathetic nervous system with a corresponding increase in parasympathetic nervous system activity. Meditation leads to a “relaxation response” mediated by nitric oxide with decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, increase in neurotrophins and mitochondrial energy production, and improves the overall quality of life of glaucoma patients. It can also benefit caregivers of glaucoma patients and health care providers. It appears that meditation can function as a multifaceted management approach for glaucoma using the natural potential of the human body and target not only the eye but the patient behind the eye to ameliorate this “sick eye in a sick body” condition.