After eight weeks of daily mindfulness meditation, participants were again assessed… study authors reported not only that loneliness was reduced among the meditation group, but that their genes showed positive effects from meditation by reduced inflammation. “Our work presents the first evidence showing that a psychological intervention that decreases loneliness also reduces pro-inflammatory gene expression,” said Steve Cole, senior study author and professor of medicine and psychiatry at UCLA. This article summary was reblogged at mindfuluniverse.com.

It’s nice to see this, but it seems that science always comes around to “proving” what many of us understand intuitively–and somehow intuitive knowledge always has to be proved before it can be believed.

On the other hand, studies like these provide evidence of the benefits of mindfulness meditation to those who need it, making it possible for mindfulness meditation to be used in all kinds of settings, even the most conservative, because it’s evidence-based.