Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jun;1373(1):13-24.
doi: 10.1111/nyas.12998. Epub 2016 Jan 21.

Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

David S Black  1 , George M Slavich  2
Affiliations

Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

David S Black et al. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Mindfulness meditation represents a mental training framework for cultivating the state of mindful awareness in daily life. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in how mindfulness meditation improves human health and well-being. Although studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can improve self-reported measures of disease symptomatology, the effect that mindfulness meditation has on biological mechanisms underlying human aging and disease is less clear. To address this issue, we conducted the first comprehensive review of randomized controlled trials examining the effects of mindfulness meditation on immune system parameters, with a specific focus on five outcomes: (1) circulating and stimulated inflammatory proteins, (2) cellular transcription factors and gene expression, (3) immune cell count, (4) immune cell aging, and (5) antibody response. This analysis revealed substantial heterogeneity across studies with respect to patient population, study design, and assay procedures. The findings suggest possible effects of mindfulness meditation on specific markers of inflammation, cell-mediated immunity, and biological aging, but these results are tentative and require further replication. On the basis of this analysis, we describe the limitations of existing work and suggest possible avenues for future research. Mindfulness meditation may be salutogenic for immune system dynamics, but additional work is needed to examine these effects.

Keywords: aging; biology; cytokines; disease; health; immune system; inflammation; intervention; meditation; mindfulness.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mindfulness meditation and immune system biomarkers. This systematic review of 20 randomized controlled trials, comprising more than 1600 participants, revealed replicated, yet tentative, evidence that mindfulness mediation is associated with changes in select immune system processes involved in inflammation, immunity, and biological aging. Nuclear factor-κB, NF-κB; C-reactive protein, CRP.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kabat-Zinn J. Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology-Science and Practice. 2003;10(2):144–156.
    1. Black DS. Mindfulness-based interventions: an antidote to suffering in the context of substance use, misuse, and addiction. Subst Use Misuse. 2014;49(5):487–491. - PubMed
    1. Rapgay L, Bystrisky A. Classical mindfulness: an introduction to its theory and practice for clinical application. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2009;1172:148–162. - PubMed
    1. Buchholz L. Exploring the Promise of Mindfulness as Medicine. JAMA. 2015;314(13):1327–1329. - PubMed
    1. Goyal M, Singh S, Sibinga EM, et al. Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA internal medicine. 2014;174(3):357–368. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types