by rantywoman

This is interesting to me because although I feel my autoimmune condition simmering beneath the surface, my daily kundalini yoga and meditation practice seems to keep it at bay:

Now, researchers at UCLA reveal that a straightforward meditation program, lasting only 8 weeks, decreased loneliness in seniors. Additionally, understanding that being lonely is linked to a rise in the activity of inflammation-related genes that can stimulate a range of different diseases, the team analyzed gene expression and discovered that this same type of meditation considerably decreased expression of inflammatory genes.

In the study, published online in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, Steve Cole, a UCLA professor of medicine and psychiatry and a member of the Norman Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA, and team reveal that the eight-week program of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which teaches the mind to simply be attentive to the present and not dwell in the past or project into the future, effectively decreased the feelings of loneliness.