Benefits of meditation and breathing exercises in vision loss patients

Vision impairment could have debilitating effects on patients’ mental, physical, and emotional health. Our study aims to understand the role of meditation and breathing exercises in the management of vision loss and its effects on patient’s disease progression. This study is designed as a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eligible studies were retrieved from MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases and gray literature. Covidence software was used to conduct the systematic review. Duplicate records were removed, and two independent reviewers screened records for relevance. After the screening, a risk-of-bias assessment was carried out. Data were extracted, and a meta-analysis was performed using STATA 14.0. Fixed-effect and random-effect models were computed based on heterogeneity. Our results indicate that meditation and breathing exercises significantly reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) (ES = −1.76, 95% CI = [−2.69, −0.83]) in glaucoma patients, mean deviation of Humphrey visual field testing (ES = −0.20, 95% CI = [−0.37, −0.03]), and biomarkers such as cortisol (ES = −0.73, 95% CI = [−0.25, −2.22]) and reactive oxygen species (ES = −2.45, 95% CI = [−4.20, −0.71]). In addition, our results demonstrated significant increases in beta-endorphins (ES = 28.60, 95% CI = [25.61, 31.59]) following breathing and meditation exercises. Furthermore, our study demonstrated that these exercises were associated with non-significant decreases in inflammatory markers, such as interleukin-6 levels (ES = −1.25, 95% CI = [−2.75, −0.24]), retinal nerve layer fiber thickness (ES = −0.20, 95% CI = [−0.53, −0.14]), and non-significant increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (ES = 28.24, 95% CI = [−25.24, 81.71]). Our systematic review also found improvements in quality of life, physical fitness, and mood for vision loss patients. Meditation and breathing exercises offer a range of benefits to patients with vision loss, including improvements in IOP, biomarkers, quality of life, physical fitness, and mood. Further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying their effects and the means to apply them in practice.