Meditation to Strengthen immunity system

By ANN LAPIENSKI
Southcoasttoday.com
February 18, 2010 12:00 AM
Long-term, unrelieved stress can be hazardous to your immune system, says Dr. Christa Johnson, a former emergency room doctor of 20 years who is now a meditation lecturer and teacher for the Center for Mind Body Health at the Southcoast Wellness Center in Dartmouth.
Persistent stress causes high levels of cortisol (often called the stress hormone) to remain in the body instead of returning to normal levels, and that's bad for the immune system. "Our bodies stop producing immune cells and the ones that we already have don't function very well," Johnson says.
A suppressed immune system can't provide the "functional and plentiful T cells to help us fight off infections like the flu," says Johnson. And while long-term stress might not cause the flu, in Johnson's view, it makes people a much easier target for the flu "by wiping out our immune systems" and making them "defenseless against infections."
How can we de-stress to protect our immune system? Johnson says meditation allows people to "access a place in yourself which is calm and peaceful."
She described meditation as a "way of stopping conscious thought patterns," quieting the left brain — busy with logical thinking, analysis and such — so that people can access the right brain's intuitive specialties — creativity and emotions.
Once someone begins to meditate, can they expect to be more resistant to catching the flu and other infections? "Absolutely, no question," Johnson says. "Studies have shown that 20 minutes (of meditation) two times a day will effectively turn around the effects of stress for 24 hours," though she adds, "I say people can get a great effect out of a little bit (of meditation) here or there throughout the course of the day."