How meditation could help boost the immune system

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-12-15 14:00

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Intense meditation can enhance immune function in a way that is visible in gene analysis, according to international research. The team took blood samples from 106 volunteers who participated in a Samyama meditation retreat, an intense retreat which involved spending eight days in complete silence with more than 10 hours daily of meditation. The researchers say they found increased expression of 220 genes tied to immunity, suggesting meditation could potentially play a role in managing various conditions that weaken the immune system.

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From: PNAS

Immune system changes tied to meditation

Genomic and bioinformatic analysis on blood samples from 106 volunteers, around 40 years of age, who participated in an intensive Samyama meditation retreat, which included spending 8 days in complete silence with more than 10 hours of meditation each day, revealed increased expression after meditation of 220 genes tied to immunity, including 68 genes tied to interferon signaling, but no change in the expression of inflammatory genes, raising the unverified possibility that meditation might serve as a beneficial component in behavioral interventions for conditions marked by weakened immunity, according to the authors

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Research PNAS, Web page

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conference: PNAS

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Organisation/s: University of Florida, USA

Funder: This work was supported by the Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida. The authors appreciate support provided by the Isha Institute of Inner Sciences, McMinnville, TN, for allowing us to conduct this research on participants of the advanced Inner Engineering meditation retreat program. The authors appreciate support provided by the volunteers of the Isha Institute of Inner Sciences for sample collection. The authors also thank thoughtful review and constructive feedback from Nagarajan Kannan, PhD, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. The authors acknowledge Janelle S. Renschler, DVM, PhD (Department of Anesthesia, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN) for assistance with medical writing funded by Indiana University in accordance with Good Publication Practice guidelines.

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