Effect of a Web-Based Heartfulness Program on the Mental Well-Being, Biomarkers, and Gene Expression Profile of Health Care Students: Randomized Controlled Trial
Thimmapuram J, Patel KD, Bhatt D, Chauhan A, Madhusudhan D, Bhatt KK, Deshpande S, Budhbhatti U, Joshi C. · JMIR bioinformatics and biotechnology · 2024 · Randomized controlled trial; blinding not reported
Original publication · Original publication · Original publication
Recorded summary
At 12 weeks, RNA sequencing identified 292 upregulated and 1,180 downregulated genes in the meditation group relative to controls. Reported stress and distress improved. IL-6 protein fell in both groups, with a larger reduction in controls.
Recorded limitations
An exploratory trial with an inactive comparator and exclusion of participants missing follow-up. Enrichment analysis does not establish changes in every gene belonging to a pathway.
Evidence and provenance
Chapter Trust Factor uses a minimum of three distinct qualifying studies. Publication records retain their own evidence and assessment.
Study design and assessment
- design
- Randomized controlled trial; blinding not reported
- assessment
- basis
- The article and ISRCTN record describe random allocation but do not report blinding. Blinding is not established by these sources.
- sources
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506 · https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN82860715
- assessed At
- 2026-10-23
- registered Masking Basis
- false
- category
- peer-reviewed
- peer Reviewed
- true
- trust Factor
- score
- 2
- scope
- Paper
- status
- assessed
- randomized Controlled Trial
- true
- blinding
- not-confirmed
- peer Reviewed
- true
- basis
- The article and ISRCTN record describe random allocation but do not report blinding. Blinding is not established by these sources.
- sources
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506 · https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN82860715
- review Scope
- Existing publication-specific assessments and bibliographic indexing; no blanket full-text appraisal.
- assessed At
- 2026-10-27
- jadad
- status
- unassessed
- score
- Not recorded
- evidence
- intervention
- Web-based Heartfulness meditation
- comparator
- Usual routine
- sample
- 78 health-care students randomized; completer analysis
- measurement
- Whole blood; mRNA sequencing; circulating IL-6 and DHEA-S
- timing
- 12 weeks
- trial Id
- ISRCTN82860715
- measured Genes
- None recorded
- pathways
Serotonergic signalling · Circadian entrainment · IL-17 signalling
- evidence Type
- RNA expression
- source URLs
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506
- checked At
- 2026-10-23
- review Scope
- Publication abstract and selected full-text methods; Jadad assessment pending
Topics and recorded topic scores
- key
- language:mindfulness-rna
- title
- Mindfulness interventions and gene expression
- collection
- language
- trust Score
- 2
Citation snapshot and identifiers
- id
- pmid-39680432
- doi
- 10.2196/65506
- pmid
- 39680432
- citation Snapshot
- count
- 4
- source
- Crossref
- retrieved At
- 2026-10-23
- url
- https://api.crossref.org/works/10.2196/65506
- citations By Collection
- language
- 4
Complete approved library record
- id
- pmid-39680432
- publication Key
- Not recorded
- aliases
- None recorded
- title
- Effect of a Web-Based Heartfulness Program on the Mental Well-Being, Biomarkers, and Gene Expression Profile of Health Care Students: Randomized Controlled Trial
- journal
- JMIR bioinformatics and biotechnology
- neurotransmitters
- None recorded
- year
- 2024
- authors
- Thimmapuram J, Patel KD, Bhatt D, Chauhan A, Madhusudhan D, Bhatt KK, Deshpande S, Budhbhatti U, Joshi C.
- design
- Randomized controlled trial; blinding not reported
- kind
- Journal article
- identity Conflict
- Not recorded
- doi
- 10.2196/65506
- pmid
- 39680432
- urls
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506
- collections
language
- categories
Gene expression
- targets
- None recorded
- priority
- 0
- quotes
- None recorded
- summary
- At 12 weeks, RNA sequencing identified 292 upregulated and 1,180 downregulated genes in the meditation group relative to controls. Reported stress and distress improved. IL-6 protein fell in both groups, with a larger reduction in controls.
- limitation
- An exploratory trial with an inactive comparator and exclusion of participants missing follow-up. Enrichment analysis does not establish changes in every gene belonging to a pathway.
- citation Count
- 4
- citation Snapshot
- count
- 4
- source
- Crossref
- retrieved At
- 2026-10-23
- url
- https://api.crossref.org/works/10.2196/65506
- study Design Assessment
- basis
- The article and ISRCTN record describe random allocation but do not report blinding. Blinding is not established by these sources.
- sources
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506 · https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN82860715
- assessed At
- 2026-10-23
- registered Masking Basis
- false
- category
- peer-reviewed
- peer Reviewed
- true
- paper Trust Assessment
- score
- 2
- scope
- Paper
- status
- assessed
- randomized Controlled Trial
- true
- blinding
- not-confirmed
- peer Reviewed
- true
- basis
- The article and ISRCTN record describe random allocation but do not report blinding. Blinding is not established by these sources.
- sources
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506 · https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN82860715
- review Scope
- Existing publication-specific assessments and bibliographic indexing; no blanket full-text appraisal.
- assessed At
- 2026-10-27
- citations By Collection
- language
- 4
- topics
- key
- language:mindfulness-rna
- title
- Mindfulness interventions and gene expression
- collection
- language
- trust Score
- 2
- journal Key
- jmirbioinformaticsandbiotechnology
- journal Label
- JMIR bioinformatics and biotechnology
- chapter Entries
- id
- language-mindfulness-rna-pmid-39680432
- record Id
- pmid-39680432
- title
- Effect of a Web-Based Heartfulness Program on the Mental Well-Being, Biomarkers, and Gene Expression Profile of Health Care Students: Randomized Controlled Trial
- journal
- JMIR bioinformatics and biotechnology
- year
- 2024
- authors
- Thimmapuram J, Patel KD, Bhatt D, Chauhan A, Madhusudhan D, Bhatt KK, Deshpande S, Budhbhatti U, Joshi C.
- design
- Randomized controlled trial; blinding not reported
- urls
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506
- quotes
- None recorded
- summary
- At 12 weeks, RNA sequencing identified 292 upregulated and 1,180 downregulated genes in the meditation group relative to controls. Reported stress and distress improved. IL-6 protein fell in both groups, with a larger reduction in controls.
- limitation
- An exploratory trial with an inactive comparator and exclusion of participants missing follow-up. Enrichment analysis does not establish changes in every gene belonging to a pathway.
- citation Count
- 4
- citation Snapshot
- count
- 4
- source
- Crossref
- retrieved At
- 2026-10-23
- url
- https://api.crossref.org/works/10.2196/65506
- study Design Assessment
- basis
- The article and ISRCTN record describe random allocation but do not report blinding. Blinding is not established by these sources.
- sources
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506 · https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN82860715
- assessed At
- 2026-10-23
- registered Masking Basis
- false
- category
- peer-reviewed
- peer Reviewed
- true
- source Pages
- None recorded
- targets
- None recorded
- categories
Gene expression
- doi
- 10.2196/65506
- pmid
- 39680432
- evidence
- intervention
- Web-based Heartfulness meditation
- comparator
- Usual routine
- sample
- 78 health-care students randomized; completer analysis
- measurement
- Whole blood; mRNA sequencing; circulating IL-6 and DHEA-S
- timing
- 12 weeks
- trial Id
- ISRCTN82860715
- measured Genes
- None recorded
- pathways
Serotonergic signalling · Circadian entrainment · IL-17 signalling
- evidence Type
- RNA expression
- source URLs
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506
- checked At
- 2026-10-23
- review Scope
- Publication abstract and selected full-text methods; Jadad assessment pending
- paper Trust Assessment
- score
- 2
- scope
- Paper
- status
- assessed
- randomized Controlled Trial
- true
- blinding
- not-confirmed
- peer Reviewed
- true
- basis
- The article and ISRCTN record describe random allocation but do not report blinding. Blinding is not established by these sources.
- sources
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506 · https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN82860715
- review Scope
- Existing publication-specific assessments and bibliographic indexing; no blanket full-text appraisal.
- assessed At
- 2026-10-27
- collection
- language
- chapter Number
- 4
- topic Id
- mindfulness-rna
- topic Title
- Mindfulness interventions and gene expression
- trust Score
- 2
- evidence
- intervention
- Web-based Heartfulness meditation
- comparator
- Usual routine
- sample
- 78 health-care students randomized; completer analysis
- measurement
- Whole blood; mRNA sequencing; circulating IL-6 and DHEA-S
- timing
- 12 weeks
- trial Id
- ISRCTN82860715
- measured Genes
- None recorded
- pathways
Serotonergic signalling · Circadian entrainment · IL-17 signalling
- evidence Type
- RNA expression
- source URLs
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11686021/ · https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39680432/ · https://doi.org/10.2196/65506
- checked At
- 2026-10-23
- review Scope
- Publication abstract and selected full-text methods; Jadad assessment pending
- jadad
- status
- unassessed
- score
- Not recorded
- condition Evidence
- None recorded
- conditions
- None recorded
- topic Trust Scores
2
- full Text
- status
- open-license
- retrieval Available
- true
- url
- https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC11686021/fullTextXML
- pmcid
- PMC11686021
- rights
- license
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- statement
©Jayaram Thimmapuram, Kamlesh D Patel, Deepti Bhatt, Ajay Chauhan, Divya Madhusudhan, Kashyap K Bhatt, Snehal Deshpande, Urvi Budhbhatti, Chaitanya Joshi. Originally published in JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (https://bioinform.jmir.org), 16.12.2024. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://bioinform.jmir.org/ , as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
- sha256
- ceff6e014ba10f04ef3610e539a9a0b459fba329e4cdb352d8da77b0eb44c7ab
- checked At
- 2026-10-24