Research Shows Gratitude Practices Lower Inflammation
Researchers have uncovered the potential of a daily gratitude practice to heal the body and mind.
While research in the field of positive psychology has shown the clear benefits of positive attributes such as compassion and empathy, new studies suggest that gratitude may have the biggest effect of all.
Dr. Paul Mills has been studying the effects of gratitude as a professor at the University of California San Diego and as Director of Research at the Chopra Foundation.
“The way I define gratitude is, it’s a way of seeing the world with a sense of heartfulness; a sense of embracing-ness; a sense of appreciation for all that is being experienced. Typically people differentiate gratitude from thankfulness — it’s a response in exchange for something. Gratitude really, at its foundation, it’s more of a dispositional set where we walk around with gratitude for everything that’s going, just really the gift of life.”
Over the last several years, scientific studies into the psychological and physiological benefits of gratitude have grown exponentially.
“I think one of the main reasons that research on gratitude has taken off more than other areas that we typically could call positive psychology, is because the findings, the significance, in all the studies is so high and impactful. So many of the studies that have been looking at gratitude find more and more significant effects related to health and wellbeing.”
Some of the more recent studies on gratitude have focused on the physiological benefits to the heart.
“I’ve done a lot of research, with cardiac patients for example, and it was quite significant what we’ve been able to show that those patients who have more of a state of dispositional gratitude and sometimes it’s called ‘carrying around an attitude of gratitude,’ where we feel grateful for pretty much anything and everything going on — despite what it might be to other people’s eyes — that has a profound effect on these patients, they sleep better (and) they have more energy. And we found that those patients who had been doing gratitude journaling had a significant reduction in inflammatory markers in the blood. It was approximately a 23 percent reduction in five different biomarkers of reduction over a two-month period. This is a striking and amazing finding. You would never anticipate anything like that even with medication.”
Other recent studies have shown the important role gratitude plays in mental health.
“When we were studying people who have what’s called ‘Persistent Mental Disorder’ and specifically it was through their recovery process of getting better when they have a kind of acute breakdown. This included people who have depression, major anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, and what we found is that gratitude as well as compassion, as well as a sense of connectedness in the world, very much supported their recovery through this process of getting over their disease and getting back to a stable state.”
Just how does gratitude exert this powerful effect?
“It provides for us a sense of connection with not only ourselves but the world around us. And when we have more of a sense of connection, we feel more at home, we feel less stressed, we feel less depressed. There have been several EEG studies looking at the frequencies of the brainwaves, and there have been some fMRI studies looking at the structure of the brain — just the functional activity of the brain — and it’s very interesting, these studies have been showing, again and again, there are differences. So, gratitude does change the behavior and activity of parts of our brain, and structurally there’s evidence for that too.”
Mills suggests gratitude journaling as a great way to build a regular practice.
“The easiest route would be (to) buy yourself a journal and begin to spend some time every day just writing down things you’re grateful for. Overtime maybe you don’t get to your journal, but maybe just stop and reflect, and have that in your mind, ‘[W]hat am I grateful for?’ That will begin to change your life, I’m convinced of it. The evidence has again and again been shown, and in my own life it’s been very transformative.”
Does Your Heart Have a Mind of Its Own?
Until recently, modern science perceived the heart as merely a pump to regulate the flow of blood throughout our bodies. But across numerous cultures, the heart has historically been thought to have a much greater function that corresponds with our thoughts, emotions, and spirit.
When we speak or share feelings from a place of deep meaning or passion, we say we’re speaking from the heart or we’re trying to convey something that is heartfelt. This is no longer just an archaic maxim, but instead, one with factual backing. And science is now realizing that the heart and brain have more of a corollary, interactive relationship than previously thought … a relationship that has residual consequences on our bodies, and possibly even humanity as a whole.
Connecting Two Major Organs
The brain has typically been thought to be the control center for the body, sending directions through the nervous system to different organs, telling them how to behave. This is done through voluntary or involuntary action, like telling the heart to pump blood. But in reality, the heart sends more signals to the brain than the brain does to the heart, influencing emotions, memories, problem-solving, and high-level cognitive functions.
In fact, the heart has its own network of neurons. This network is so sensitive that our heart rhythms become highly ordered when we experience positive emotions, love, and joy. On the contrary, negative emotions and psychological activity cause erratic and jerky heart function, leading to inefficiency, lack of energy, and poor reasoning.
While massive fluctuations can shake up our energy and emotional levels, our heart rates already fluctuate very regularly, sometimes even every beat. Although these fluctuations are minute it shows just how sensitive our hearts are and how susceptible they are to change. These oscillations in our heart rate are called Heart Rate Variability or HRV. HRV essentially measures the change in our heart rate with each beat. It is an effective way of being able to maintain and effect psychophysiological coherence or heart-brain coherence.
