meditation and immune system

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http://www.eurekalert.org/bysubject/medicine.php

 

UW study reports sustained changes in brain and immune function after

meditation

 

MADISON -- In a small but highly provocative study, a University of

Wisconsin-Madison research team has found, for the first time, that a

short program in "mindfulness meditation" produced lasting positive

changes in both the brain and the function of the immune system.

The findings suggest that meditation, long promoted as a technique to

reduce anxiety and stress, might produce important biological effects

that improve a person's resiliency.

 

Richard Davidson, Ph.D., Vilas Professor of psychology and psychiatry

at UW-Madison, led the research team. The study, conducted at the

biotechnology company Promega near Madison, will appear in an upcoming

issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

 

"Mindfulness meditation," often recommended as an antidote to the

stress and pain of chronic disease, is a practice designed to focus

one's attention intensely on the moment, noting thoughts and feelings

as they occur but refraining from judging or acting on those thoughts

and feelings. The intent is to deepen awareness of the present,

develop skills of focused attention, and cultivate positive emotions

such as compassion.

 

In the UW study, participants were randomly assigned to one of two

groups. The experimental group, with 25 subjects, received training in

mindfulness meditation from one of its most noted adherents, Jon

Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. (Kabat-Zinn, a popular author of books on stress

reduction, developed the mindfulness-based stress reduction program at

the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.) This group attended a

weekly class and one seven-hour retreat during the study; they also

were assigned home practice for an hour a day, six days a week. The 16

members of the control group did not receive meditation training until

after the study was completed.

 

For each group, in addition to asking the participants to assess how

they felt, the research team measured electrical activity in the

frontal part of the brain, an area specialized for certain kinds of

emotion. Earlier research has shown that, in people who are generally

positive and optimistic and during times of positive emotion, the left

side of this frontal area becomes more active than the right side

does.

 

The findings confirmed the researchers' hypothesis: the meditation

group showed an increase of activation in the left-side part of the

frontal region. This suggests that the meditation itself produced more

activity in this region of the brain. This activity is associated with

lower anxiety and a more positive emotional state.

 

The research team also tested whether the meditation group had better

immune function than the control group did. All the study participants

got a flu vaccine at the end of the eight-week meditation group. Then,

at four and eight weeks after vaccine administration, both groups had

blood tests to measure the level of antibodies they had produced

against the flu vaccine. While both groups (as expected) had developed

increased antibodies, the meditation group had a significantly larger

increase than the controls, at both four and eight weeks after

receiving the vaccine.

 

"Although our study is preliminary and more research clearly is

warranted," said Davidson, "we are very encouraged by these results.

The Promega employees who took part have given us a wonderful

opportunity to demonstrate a real biological impact of this ancient

practice."

 

Davidson, who is integrally involved with the HealthEmotions Research

Institute at UW, plans further research on the impact of meditation.

He is currently studying a group of people who have been using

meditation for more than 30 years. His research team is also planning

to study the impact of mindfulness meditation on patients with

particular illnesses.