Intense Meditation Over A Time Period Can Improve The Immune System
Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : December 28, 2021In a recent study, it has been found that intense meditation can significantly boost the immune system. And the best part is that it will not have any harmful side effects.
Intense Meditation Over A Time Period Can Improve The Immune System
The results were found after genetic snapshots were obtained pre and post-meditation from a sample of over 100 men and women.
The study proved a direct link between meditation and a network of core genes that benefited the human immune system.
The results affirmed that intense meditation levels provided a boost to the activities of hundreds of genes that directly regulated immune responses.
However, the researchers said that the study involved a 10-hour marathon meditation on a daily basis for 8 days straight. This would be hard to replicate in a real-world scenario.
Nevertheless, the author of the study Vijayendran Chandran said that meditation can have an important role in the treatment of diseases that affect the immune system.
Chandran, the assistant professor of pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, affirmed that this would be an intense retreat. He also said that his team did not test the possibility of less-intense meditation.
The assistant professor had previously completed his own 48-day program that involved a 20-minute session at home.
That experiment led to Chandran feeling more focused, which was later transcribed into this research.
The study focused on the molecular mechanism behind meditation that showed a direct relationship between human well-being and meditation.
The study was conducted at Isha Institute of Inner Sciences at Tenn, with a sample size involving 106 men and women at an average age of 40 years.
The research was conducted by 10 scientists from different universities in the US and a yoga and meditation center was also involved. They conducted a study to directly establish a relation between the ancient Indian practice and the biological processes involved in disease development.
The research followed a series of studies conducted to discover the efficacies of traditional Indian practices on the physical well-being of humans. Recent research also concluded that regular yoga could lower creatinine levels in the human body.
These were recent positive signs that non-medical interventions like meditation and yoga could positively influence the immune system without activation of inflammatory reactions.
Research methodology
The research methodology included 106 people who practiced meditation while being completely silent for eight days. Meditation was practiced 8 hours a day while the individuals followed a strictly vegan diet.
The blood samples of the participants were previously collected before the retreat and subsequently after the retreat as well. The result was the alteration of cellular pathways after the meditation retreat.
A key result found that there were alterations in the immune system; it did activate any inflammatory response.
Another important outcome of the study was that meditation could also reduce oxidative stress, which has been central for treating numerous diseases, including cancer. Oxidative stress can lead to chronic illnesses, neurodegenerative diseases, and diabetes.
The team of researchers also found an uptick in the number of interferon signals that cause the immune cells to respond to cancer cells and other viruses in the body.
The researchers added that hyper-meditation triggered a network of genes and regulators that resulted in a positive effect on the human immune system.
The research and its findings have been published in the National Academy of Sciences Proceedings.
Another interesting finding was that the core network connects a number of immune signaling pathways, which is dysfunctional in cases of multiple Sclerosis and acute Covid-19, the research showed.
If further studies could reveal the mechanism behind these effects of meditation, it could have large-scale beneficial impacts in preventing diseases and improving mental health.
With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.