Spiritual and Non-spiritual Genes.

English: The human genome, categorized by function of each gene product, given both as number of genes and as percentage of all genes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"What they found is that different types of happiness have surprisingly different effects on the human genome. People who have high levels of what is known as eudaimonic well-being - the kind of happiness that comes from having a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life (think Mother Teresa) - showed very favourable gene-expression profiles in their immune cells. They had low levels of inflammatory gene expression and strong expression of antiviral and antibody genes. However, people who had relatively high levels of hedonic well-being -­ the type of happiness that comes from consummatory self-gratification (think most celebrities) - actually showed just the opposite. They had an adverse expression profile involving high inflammation and low antiviral and antibody gene expression. The report appears in the current on-line Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For the last ten years, Steven Cole, a UCLA Professor of Medicine and a member of the UCLA Cousins Center, and his colleagues, including first author Barbara L. Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina, have been examining how the human genome responds to stress, misery, fear, and all kinds of negative psychology."

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