Meditation Boosts Mood, Immune System

Meditation May Put a Positive Spin on Emotion, Immune System

WebMD Medical News

Aug. 18, 2003 -- Boosting your immune system may be as simple as putting mind over matter.

A new study shows that meditation can help produce antibodies against illness and also lift your spirits.

Researchers say biological effects seen in the study are long lasting -- up to four months after the end of meditation training. Previous research has focused only on more immediate effects. The new study appears in the latest issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Researchers measured brain electrical activity in 48 people at several points in the study. At each measurement, the volunteers wrote about one of three of the most positive and negative experiences in their life.

To measure immune response, researchers took blood samples twice after the volunteers got a flu shot. This allowed them to examine how many antibodies the volunteers produced in response to the vaccine.

Additionally, half of the volunteers took a meditation class that met once a week for two to three hours. Researchers also assigned formal and informal meditation practices that they were supposed to do at home one hour a day, six days a week -- with the help of guided audiotapes.

Meditation Helps

Meditation helped on two fronts. People who meditated had the most brain activity in the part of the brain linked to positive emotion and they had higher levels of antibodies than those who didn't meditate. Researchers also say that the increase brain activity was directly linked to the antibody increase among people who meditated.

Researchers say more studies are needed in this area, calling the results "informative but saying little about changes that are more enduring."