The idea that sitting quietly could strengthen your immune system sounds like wishful thinking. But two decades of research — including randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews — says otherwise. The evidence isn't perfect, but it's surprisingly strong.
What We Know
Meditation increases antibody production. The foundational study by Davidson and Kabat-Zinn (2003) found that people who completed an 8-week mindfulness programme produced significantly more antibodies after a flu vaccine than the control group. This study has been replicated multiple times.
Natural killer cell activity goes up. NK cells are your first responders against viruses and cancer cells. Multiple studies show meditation increases both the number and activity of these cells. A 2024 University of Florida review confirmed these findings across 18 studies.
Inflammatory markers go down. Chronic inflammation suppresses adaptive immunity. Meditation consistently reduces CRP, IL-6, and TNF-alpha — markers of the chronic, low-grade inflammation that weakens immune defences over time.
Telomeres get longer. Telomeres are the protective caps on your chromosomes. Shorter telomeres are associated with immune aging. A 2018 meta-analysis found that meditation was associated with increased telomerase activity — the enzyme that maintains telomere length.
What We Don't Know (Yet)
The research has limitations. Sample sizes are often small. It's hard to blind participants (you know if you're meditating). And we don't know the exact dose — how many minutes, for how many weeks, to produce reliable immune changes.
What we can say is that the direction of evidence is consistently positive, across different research groups, different populations, and different immune markers.
The Practical Takeaway
Meditation won't make you invincible. But it removes one of the biggest obstacles to healthy immune function: chronic stress. Stress hormones directly suppress immune activity. Meditation reduces stress hormones. The immune system does the rest.
The most studied protocols use 20-45 minutes of daily mindfulness for 8 weeks. But even shorter practices — 10-15 minutes — show benefits when done consistently.
If you're recovering from illness, going through flu season, or simply want your body's defences working optimally, meditation is one of the easiest, cheapest interventions available.
Read the full guide: Meditation and the Immune System: What Science Reveals.
