April 17, 2025
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In this episode, Wendy speaks with contemplative scientist Melissa Rosenkranz. Melissa’s work examines the mind-body connection with a focus on how inflammation interacts with our brains and emotions, and how meditation might help. This conversation covers many topics, including:
- her interest in the mind-body connection;
- pros and cons of inflammation in the body;
- bidirectional links between inflammation in the body and our emotions;
- how inflammation can lead to hypersensitivity in the brain;
- inflammation and dementia;
- misperceptions around stress causing asthma;
- meditation’s effect on inflammation and our immune response;
- meditation in asthma management (emotional and physical);
- studying whether mindfulness can protect against inflammatory damage to the brain;
- integrating meditation with medication;
- polarization in society and the power of building weak ties;
- increasing the safety signal to our bodies;
- seeing the fuller humanity of the people in our world;
- lovingkindness practice in action;
- links between inflammation in society and in our bodies;
- and a reminder that there’s always a place to start when making change.
Melissa Rosenkranz, PhD, holds the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Neuroscience at the Center for Healthy Minds and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Her research is focused on understanding the biology that underlies the mind-brain-body interactions through which stress, emotion, and the immune system interact. She uses a wide range of brain imaging and biomolecular tools in her work. Contemplative interventions are an important aspect of this work, where the neural processing of stress and emotion are examined as modifiable targets for treatment of chronic inflammation. In recent work, Melissa addresses questions related to the impact of chronic, systemic inflammation on brain health, long-term cognitive function, and risk for the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Resources
University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty page
Center for Healthy Minds (and Publications)
- Paper: Co-Morbid Asthma and Depression as Risk Factors for Neurodegeneration. Biological Psychiatry, (2020).
- Paper: Mind-body interactions in the regulation of airway inflammation in asthma: A PET study of acute and chronic stress. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, (2016).
- Paper (mindfulness and flu vaccine): Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, (2003).