Researchers Find Meditation Activates Robust Immune System and Anti-Cancer Response

Meditation goes back thousands of years.

From age-old Chinese medicine to ancient Indian yogic practices, meditation has been a key part of contributing towards health and happiness in millions of people’s lives.

Anybody who meditates on a regular basis can feel its benefits:

More peace, relaxation, less stress, more energy, better mood, more clarity, more happiness, stronger vitality, and better sleep: to name a few.

But why does it work so well?

And why do so many people avoid it?

The simple answer of why meditation works so well is because it calms down your nervous system, activating a parasympathetic response, which leads to a positive hormonal cascade of immune-system activating “feel-good” hormones like dopamine.

One study including 8 experienced meditation teachers found a 65% increase in dopamine production after meditating for 1 hour.(1)

Dopamine is a key hormone that assists in the activation of the immune system. (2)

And the immune system is essential in fighting off chronic diseases like cancer by producing T-Cells and Natural Killer Cells.(3)

Another study from the University of Florida found that Eight days of intense meditation causes robust activation of the immune system.(4)

“Blood samples from retreat participants were collected five to eight weeks in advance, then just before and after the retreat as well as three months later.

The genomic analysis ultimately found several immune-related and other cellular pathways were altered after the meditation retreat. Strikingly, they found increased post-retreat activity in 220 genes directly related to the immune response. That included heightened activity in 68 genes associated with interferon signaling, a key part of the body’s anti-virus and anti-cancer responses.

They also established that the enhanced immune system after the retreat is primarily due to meditation and not diet, sleep patterns or gender differences.”

We also know that stress is directly responsible for down-regulating, or “turning off” the immune system. It activates the sympathetic nervous system – a fight, flight or freeze response.

And when you experience chronic stress on a daily basis, you may be accelerating cancer growth in your body.

A daily meditation practice helps you get your stress under control and keep your nervous system balanced, helping fight cancer and chronic disease at the same time.

But if it works so well, then why do so many people avoid it?

3 reasons:

  1. They don’t understand it’s deeper benefits
  2. They don’t know how to do it, or have misconceptions about it
  3. They struggle with making it a priority

So maybe you understand and are excited about meditation’s benefits…

…But maybe you don’t understand how to meditate, or maybe you have misconceptions about it.

We’re often told that we need to quiet our mind, and stop thinking.

But then you sit down and try to stop your thinking, and you realize that’s impossible!

So you give up.

But the truth is, there’s thousands of ways to meditate.

And the best ways I’ve found are actually guided meditation practices.

Guided meditation practices can be done with voice, music, or just by listening to sounds from nature.

All of these practices can be helpful, and I recommend you experiment with ALL of them.

And the misconception that you have to stop your thoughts to meditate is actually not accurate.

A better way to look at it is not to stop your thinking, but to calm your nervous system, and enter into a relaxation state, so you can reduce stress and activate your immune system.

Once you shift your goal from stopping your thoughts, to instead, relaxing to activate your immune system, now you’ve got a whole new approach that actually supports a powerful meditation practice.

So where do you get high quality guided meditation practices?

And how do you know that you’re actually getting the benefits of meditation?

That’s where Muse comes in.

Muse has hundreds of guided meditations you can listen to and choose from.

Everything from reducing stress and anxiety to improving sleep.

They have meditations for athletes, for busy parents, for entrepreneurs, for enhanced health, and more.

And the thing I love about Muse the most is that with the patented EEG tracking device, you actually get to see your brain activity in real time, see how many times you kept your focus during meditation, and see how long you stay in a deep meditative state.

It’s the best way to see for yourself if your meditation is working, and if it’s improving over time.

So now that you have the knowledge of meditation and its benefits and you have the best guided and tracking device on the planet, now you just have to make a commitment.

Simply pick a time of day, any time of day, start with 10-20 minutes each day, put on your Muse device, choose your guided meditation, sit back, relax, and let your meditation practice begin.

For a 20% discount on Muse, simply go to this page and use code PANACEA at checkout.

I’ve been using Muse for my meditations and I think you’ll love it too.

Here’s to a fruitful meditation practice!

Yours in health,

Nathan Crane

  1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11958969/
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2856781/
  3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6169832/
  4. https://ufhealth.org/news/2021/meditation-brings-robust-immune-system-activation-uf-health-researchers-find

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