Inflammation can temporarily boost the immune system, and can be protective against infection and injury. But in today’s society, in which stress is primarily psychological, the body’s inflammatory response can become chronic and can impair both physical and mental health. In a new scientific review, researchers found that yoga and meditation can actually reverse stress-related changes in genes linked to poor health and depression. Although this is a relatively new field of research, the findings so far suggest that when practiced regularly, the genes involved in inflammation decrease significantly in activity.