Meditation boosts immunity

MEDITATION is known to be good for mental health, but now scientists have shown how it boosts the immune system, too.

Researchers from Florida University in the U.S. tested blood from 106 people before and after an eight-day retreat with ten hours of meditation each day.

Using DNA analysis of the blood samples, they found 220 genes related to the immune system were activated by the practice, 68 of them involved in switching on immune defences.

It is thought meditation alters the way cells behave, including the response to inflammation, reports the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers will now see if shorter periods of meditation also help.