News
July 2019
French Ministry of Health invites project to meeting on mindfulness meditation
Silver Santé Study Coordinator, Dr Gaël Chételat, was invited to take part in a conference on mindfulness meditation organised by the French Ministry of Health and Public Health France in Paris.
The event, which took place on 20th June at the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, focused on the development of health and well-being interventions based on mindfulness and brought together experts from a variety of fields to discuss and question how mindfulness can be applied in society.
Dr Chételat presented the scope and aims of the Silver Santé Study as part of a roundtable session on the application of mindfulness interventions in different environments, which included ageing, justice, education, health and work.
“I was very pleased to take part in the meeting,” says Dr Chételat. “I think it helped dispel some of the misconceptions that exist about mindfulness meditation and made clear that it is a secular activity that is accessible to all in society.
“It also explored the potential for meditation to be used in a variety of environments – whether it’s at work, in education or in healthy ageing so the Silver Santé Study’s work investigating the impact of mental training techniques, like meditation and language-learning, was highly relevant.”
Dr Chételat was one of a number of scientists invited to speak at the meeting including Professor Jean-Gérard Bloch of the University of Strasbourg and Judson Brewer, Director of Research and the Mindfulness Centre at Brown University, US. The meeting, facilitated by health journalist Elisabeth Marshall, was opened by the Director General of the French health department, Jerome Salomon.
For further information about the event visit the French Ministry of Health website here.
Caption: Dr Gaël Chételat (centre) taking part in a panel discussion with health journalist, Elisabeth Marshall (left), and Dominique Steiler, Chair of “Economic Peace, Mindfulness and Well-being at Work” at Grenoble Ecole de Management.
June 2019
Silver Santé Study expert and volunteers give evidence at UK Houses of Parliament
One of the Silver Santé Study’s expert researchers and two participants from its SCD Well trial gave evidence to a committee at the UK Houses of Parliament on May 14.
Dr Antoine Lutz, of Inserm, who leads the Study’s meditation work package, presented the latest evidence in relation to meditation and its impact on healthy ageing to the Mindfulness All Party Parliamentary Group’s inquiry into ‘Mindfulness, Ageing Well and Older People’.
He was joined by two of the Study’s participants – Jack Forsey, of Buckhurst Hill in Essex, and Jenney Cleary, of Loughton, Essex – who talked about their own personal experiences of taking part in a mindfulness group as part of the Study’s SCD Well clinical trial.
Dr Lutz, a Research Director based in Lyon, France, said: “It was a privilege to be able to share the latest evidence on meditation and healthy ageing with the Mindfulness All Party Parliamentary Group at the House of Commons today.
“A pilot study published in 2017 showed potential for improving brain structure and function in later life – which is associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer’s – in a small group of expert meditators. If these results can be replicated in clinical trials with much larger cohorts it could be hugely beneficial to society in terms of improving mental health in later life.
“However, only a longitudinal clinical study in which participants are assessed before and after the intervention, such as the Silver Santé Study, will demonstrate that it is indeed the meditation intervention that is responsible for a positive impact on the brain.”
The Silver Santé Study, which began in January 2016, is running two clinical trials investigating mental health and well-being in later life, including Alzheimer’s disease and its mechanisms. The Study’s first trial, called SCD-Well, is assessing the effects of short-term meditation and health education interventions on behavioural measures. It includes 147 participants with some level of subjective cognitive decline who were recruited from memory clinics in France, Germany, Spain and the UK, with blood tests and questionnaires used to assess the impact of the interventions on cognition and well-being. The results of this trial, which is led by Dr Natalie Marchant of University College London (UCL), are currently being analysed and are due to be released later this year.
In the second trial, Age-Well, 137 healthy older adults aged 65+ in the Caen region of France have been randomly assigned to one of three groups – meditation, English learning or a control group in which participants have made no changes to their lifestyles. The 18 month interventions are the longest ever for meditation and language learning and the effects are being assessed through both behavioural and biological measures. These include blood sample analyses, questionnaires, cognitive tests, sleep assessment, neuroimaging data and lifestyle factors. Changes are measured between baseline readings and those at 18 and 21 months. A group of senior expert meditators has also been included in the study. The results of the Age-Well trial, led by the project’s Coordinator, Dr Gaël Chételat, are expected in 2020.
Dr Lutz was joined at today’s meeting by Harriet Demnitz-King, a Phd student working on the SCD-Well trial at UCL under the supervision of Dr Natalie Marchant, and Dr Thorsten Barnhofer, of the University of Exeter, who helped develop the Study’s meditation interventions.
Dr Lutz added: “I am grateful to the Mindfulness All Party Parliamentary Group for giving the Silver Santé Study the opportunity to take part in their inquiry and we look forward to seeing the Group’s policy recommendations in due course.”
For further information about the Mindfulness APPG and to listen to an audio recording of the event visit https://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org/news/mappg-mindfulness-ageing-well-and-older-people
Dr Antoine Lutz, of Inserm, presents details of the Silver Santé Study at the Mindfulness APPG meeting on Ageing Well.
March 2019
Follow-up tests added to Age-Well
Scientific papers added to website
February 2019
Join us at the ‘Brain health across the lifespan’ public conference
January 2019
Interested in joining the Silver Santé team?
December 2018
Age Well language volunteers go on field trip to Jersey
SCD Well clinical trial team prepares to analyse data
October 2018
Project partners get a taste of meditation intervention techniques
July 2018
‘Magical’ Silver Santé workshop attracts great interest at high-profile international science forum
June 2018
Silver Santé to host session at Europe’s biggest interdisciplinary science event
Major French TV documentary features Silver Santé research
March 2018
Silver Santé Study features on French national TV programme
New video showcases Silver Santé Study work and team
Clinical trials on course for success
December 2017
Partners gather for annual consortium meeting in Barcelona
October 2017
Pilot study shows meditation may help cut Alzheimer’s risk
Play a vital role in improving mental health, urge Silver Santé team
Memory clinic patients recruited for next phase of four-centre clinical trial
June 2017
Volunteers help attract new recruits for Caen clinical trial
Trial investigating benefits of mental training techniques on memory clinic patients well underway
March 2017
Silver Sante Study nominated for SilverEco 2017 Award
Trial groups announced to Caen volunteers
December 2016
Hundreds volunteer to take part in Age-Well Study
Silver Santé Study partners gather for General Assembly in Bonn
Memory clinic patient trials due to begin in March 2017
September 2016
Silver Santé researchers meet with Dalai Lama
Volunteers in Caen, France, invited to local meetings
Preparations for further trials on course
June 2016
Huge turnout for 1st Public Conference
May 2016
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