Seven-Day Mind-Body Retreat Triggers Rapid Brain and Blood Shifts

UC San Diego researchers report that a seven-day intensive mind-body retreat, combining meditation with reconceptualization and open-label placebo, produced rapid, multi-system brain and blood changes in 20 healthy adults—lowered default-mode activity, signs of enhanced neuroplasticity, metabolic shifts toward flexible energy use, increased endogenous opioids, and a balanced immune response—patterns that resemble psychedelic brain states and could inform non-drug approaches to pain and stress, though clinical trials are still needed.