LOS ANGELES (KABC) --

Making meditation easy and accessible is at the heart of what Diana Winston teaches her students. She started her practice 25 years ago.

"I feel a youthfulness, a happiness, from a meditating mind," Winston said.

Could meditation be behind her younger outlook?

Researchers with the UCLA Brain Mapping Center scanned the brains of people who have been meditating for years as well as those who haven't meditated at all.

After about the mid-20s, our brain tissue begins to wither. This may be one reason why we become more forgetful.

"Less brain matter in some regions is associated with less cognitive functioning," said Dr. Florian Kurth.

Kurth and his colleagues found that in the brains of people who meditated, the shrinkage of gray matter was less.

"What was kind of surprising about this was we found this effect throughout the whole brain, basically," Kurth said.

How meditation protects the brain is going to be the subject of further study, but Kurth theorizes it might be a two-pronged approach. First, meditation reduces stress and protects the brain. Second, it can help build up certain parts of the brain.

See the article here:
Can meditation keep your brain youthful?