Buddhist Mindfulness and Anti-Inflammatory Medication in Stress-Related Inflammation

Abstract

This qualitative documentary study compares Buddhist mindfulness practice and anti-inflammatory medication regarding stress-related inflammation. It addresses three objectives: (1) to analyze the reported outcomes and proposed mechanisms of Buddhist mindfulness practice; (2) to examine the outcomes, mechanisms, and limitations of major anti-inflammatory drug classes; and (3) to compare the two modalities within a psychoneuroimmunological framework. Primary Buddhist sources were examined alongside peer-reviewed biomedical and mindfulness literature, with recent empirical studies prioritized and foundational sources retained where necessary.
The review suggests that mindfulness-based interventions may influence stress-related inflammatory processes by changing attention, emotional regulation, autonomic activity, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function. Evidence suggests possible reductions in selected markers such as cortisol, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, although findings are heterogeneous and depend on population, intervention, and study design. Anti-inflammatory medications act more directly on inflammatory pathways and remain essential for clinically indicated inflammatory conditions, but their benefits and risks vary substantially by drug class, dose, duration, and patient characteristics. Therefore, the comparison does not support simple equivalence between mindfulness and pharmacotherapy. Instead, mindfulness is best understood as a potentially useful complementary strategy for stress regulation, whereas medication should be prescribed according to established clinical indications. The proposed integrative framework is conceptual and requires direct empirical testing before it can guide clinical treatment.