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The Effects of Mind-Body Therapies on the Immune System: Meta-Analysis
Open accessAbstract
IMPORTANCE: Psychological and health-restorative benefits of mind-body therapies have been investigated, but their impact on the immune system remain less defined. OBJECTIVE: To conduct the first comprehensive review of available controlled trial evidence to evaluate the effects of mind-body therapies on the immune system, focusing on markers of inflammation and anti-viral related immune responses. METHODS: Data sources included MEDLINE, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, and PsycINFO through September 1, 2013. Randomized controlled trials published in English evaluating at least four weeks of Tai Chi, Qi Gong, meditation, or Yoga that reported immune outcome measures were selected. Studies were synthesized separately by inflammatory (n = 18), anti-viral related immunity (n = 7), and enumerative (n = 14) outcomes measures. We performed random-effects meta-analyses using standardized mean difference when appropriate. RESULTS: Thirty-four studies published in 39 articles (total 2, 219 participants) met inclusion criteria. For inflammatory measures, after 7 to 16 weeks of mind-body intervention, there was a moderate effect on reduction of C-reactive protein (effect size [ES], 0.58; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.04 to 1.12), a small but not statistically significant reduction of interleukin-6 (ES, 0.35; 95% CI, -0.04 to 0.75), and negligible effect on tumor necrosis factor-α (ES, 0.21; 95% CI, -0.15 to 0.58). For anti-viral related immune and enumerative measures, there were negligible effects on CD4 counts (ES, 0.15; 95% CI, -0.04 to 0.34) and natural killer cell counts (ES, 0.12, 95% CI -0.21 to 0.45). Some evidence indicated mind-body therapies increase immune responses to vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: Mind-body therapies reduce markers of inflammation and influence virus-specific immune responses to vaccination despite minimal evidence suggesting effects on resting anti-viral or enumerative measures. These immunomodulatory effects, albeit incomplete, warrant further methodologically rigorous studies to determine the clinical implications of these findings for inflammatory and infectious disease outcomes.
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“Indeed, mind-body interventions that target stress-response pathways also influence inflammatory dynamics.”
From Sleep health: Reciprocal regulation of sleep and innate immunity (2017) · cites this paper as Morgan et al, 2014
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“Our meta-analyses found that a variety of different approaches including Tai chi, Yoga, and meditation, reduce circulating levels of CRP, for example (Morgan et al, 2014).”
From Sleep health: Reciprocal regulation of sleep and innate immunity (2017) · cites this paper as Morgan et al, 2014
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Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation
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“(DOC)”
Effects of mindfulness on psychological health: A review of empirical studies
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“Previous work has shown that MBTs offer many psychological and health functioning benefits including reductions in disease symptoms, improvements in coping, behavior regulation, quality of life, and well-being [3–22].”
BackgroundStress-induced immune dysfunction: implications for health
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Sleep health: Reciprocal regulation of sleep and innate immunity
Irwin, M. R., & Opp, M. R. (2017) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2016.148 · Cited by 624
Self-citationThe role of inflammation and genetics in periodontal disease
Loos, B. G., & Dyke, T. E. V. (2020) · Periodontology 2000 · doi:10.1111/prd.12297 · Cited by 661
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Irwin, M. R., & Vitiello, M. V. (2019) · The Lancet Neurology · doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(18)30450-2 · Cited by 611
Self-citationMind–body therapies and control of inflammatory biology: A descriptive review
Bower, J. E., & Irwin, M. R. (2016) · Brain, Behavior, and Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2015.06.012 · Cited by 388
“The latter conclusion is supported by meta-analytic results from Morgan et al. (2014) who found that CRP was likely to be reduced following mind–body therapies in populations with disease conditions, but not in healthy persons.”
MethodResultSelf-citationBreath of Life: The Respiratory Vagal Stimulation Model of Contemplative Activity
Gerritsen, R. J. S., & Band, G. P. H. (2018) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2018.00397 · Cited by 342
Metadata
- Authors
- Morgan, N., Irwin, M. R., Chung, M., & Wang, C.
- Affiliations
- Tufts University (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, Chenchen
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-07-02
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- e100903
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4079606
- OpenAlex
- W1971901983
- Cited by
- 294
- References
- 106
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 20.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000124, CTSI UL1TR000124, AG028748)
- National Institute on Aging (R01AG026364, R01AG034588, P30AG028748)
- National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL095799)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA032922)
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA160245, R01CA119159)
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R01AT006367, K24AT007323, R01AT005521)
- Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles
- Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University of California, Los Angeles (UL1TR000124)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Biofield Effects and Biophysics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Keywords
- mind-body interventions, immune system, inflammation, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, TNF-α, antiviral immunity, CD4 count, natural killer cells, Tai Chi, qigong, meditation, yoga, vaccine response, immunomodulation
- MeSH terms
- C-Reactive Protein, Humans, Inflammation, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha, Virus Diseases, Interleukin-6, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, MEDLINE, CD4 Lymphocyte Count, Tai Ji
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