You can use your mind to reduce inflammation.

Inflammation is a risk factor for all chronic diseases, and inflammation will also increase any pain you may have. Wouldn’t it be great if you could reduce inflammation by just using your mind? The good news is that you can!  

The reviewed research investigated this(Black DS, et al. 2013). 39 dementia caregivers either meditated for 12 minutes daily for 8 weeks or listened to relaxing music. In the participants who meditated, 68 genes were found to be expressed differently, 19 were up-regulated and 49 were down-regulated.

Up-regulated genes included immunoglobulin-related transcripts and the ones which were down- regulated were pro-inflammatory cytokines.

What this means is that meditation may reverse a pattern of increased NF-kappaB driven inflammation and also reduce IRF1-related transcription of innate antiviral response genes which has been observed in healthy individuals confronting a significant life stressor.

This was accomplished by spending only 12 minutes per day of this special type of meditation.