Transcendental Meditation Reduces Blood Pressure - UK Case Studies Available

Main Category: Hypertension
Article Date: 24 Nov 2009 - 0:00 PST

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New studies show Transcendental Meditation™ reduces blood pressure in students and almost halves heart attacks - UK case studies available

The first randomised controlled trial to demonstrate that a mental technique can reduce blood pressure in at-risk university students - through improving psychological health - was published on Wednesday in the American Journal of Hypertension (A Randomized Controlled Trial on Effects of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Blood Pressure, Psychological Distress, and Coping in Young Adults. Am J Hypertens 2009 Dec.) See . See also summary below.

Earlier this week, another paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association revealed that Transcendental Meditation as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi helped heart disease patients lower risks of heart attack, stroke, and death by nearly 50 percent: ; and it was announced that the US National Institutes of Health are awarding another US$1m for research on Transcendental Meditation and cardiovascular disease.

These three recent press releases follow strong endorsements by John Hopkins University of the benefit of this mental technique for cardiovascular health .

Case studies are available from the UK:

To bring a national angle to this story we can help you to get in touch with people in the UK who can give first hand testimonials about the benefits of Transcendental Meditation in the context of heart disease and its risk factors.

Jessica, 54, London PR, discovered she had high blood pressure when she applied for health insurance. She was determined to reduce it and tried everything, but it did not significantly go down until she started practising Transcendental Meditation regularly. Her case exemplifies strong evidence showing a reduction in blood pressure among those who already have hypertension and take up Transcendental Meditation.

Ranjit, 55, from Oxford, had a heart attack in 1979, followed by frequent episodes of angina. He learned Transcendental Meditation after his GP recommended it. The angina slowly subsided, then stopped altogether. His GP stopped his medication, and he has had no angina for 30 years. "Although I started Transcendental Meditation for medical reasons, I have carried on regularly for over 30 years because of the peace and harmony it brings to my life. The medical benefits are a bonus."

Walter, 75, learned Transcendental Meditation after a quadruple bypass, and found it key to recovering quickly and living a full and active life since. A professor of business, he is not the first person one might expect to learn meditation, but he feels that this is also a key tool for business people to avoid stress and use more of their full potential.

Also available for interview:

Dr Roger Chalmers, registered General Practitioner, expert on scientific research on Transcendental Meditation and co-editor of Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers.
Summary of newly published study
See first two paragraphs above for short summaries of the two above mentioned studies. Below is a detailed summary of the latest study.

"A Randomized Controlled Trial on Effects of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Blood Pressure, Psychological Distress, and Coping in Young Adults."

Published on Wednesday in the December issue of the American Journal of Hypertension, this first randomised controlled trial to demonstrate that a mental technique can reduce blood pressure in university students, through improving psychological health.

Among 159 students with a higher risk of developing high blood pressure, three month's daily practice of Transcendental Meditation reduced systolic blood pressure by 6.3 points and diastolic by 4.0 points, relative to randomly assigned controls. This size of reduction is associated with a 52% lower risk for onset of hypertension over a 4-year period. In addition, the study found significant improvements with Transcendental Meditation, compared to no treatment, in standardised measures of psychological distress and the ability to cope, both in this high-risk group and, to a lesser degree, in 93 other students with a lower risk of developing hypertension.

Lead author Sandy Nidich PhD comments: "This is the first randomised controlled trial to demonstrate that a selected mind��"body intervention, Transcendental Meditation, decreases blood pressure, in association with decreased psychological distress and increased coping, in young adults at risk of hypertension; and may also reduce the risk of future development of hypertension."

These findings support previous randomised controlled trials showing that Transcendental Meditation both lowers high blood pressure and effectively reduces stress. John Hopkins University, "America's first research university", on 5 November issued health alerts explaining: "While the evidence is not definitive, it appears that chronic stress causes long-term elevations in blood pressure … The relaxation technique that has been studied most widely - and has been shown to be effective for reducing blood pressure - is a type of meditation called transcendental meditation." It goes on to summarise research findings published in the American Journal of Hypertension and the American Journal of Cardiology indicating that practice of Transcendental Meditation can lower elevated blood pressure by 3/6 mm Hg, reduce reliance on medication, and decrease cardiovascular mortality risk by 30%. See and .

In the current study, a significant positive correlation was observed between improvements in the psychological measures and the improvements in blood pressure, reinforcing the conclusion that psychological distress is a major contributory factor in the chronic elevation of blood pressure.

The study was funded jointly by the US National Institutes of Health and the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. Student volunteers were drawn from American University, Washington , D.C., where the study was conducted, as well as from other local colleges.

In total, 298 students participated in the study and control subjects were permitted to learn Transcendental Meditation after its completion. Randomisation was stratified to ensure equivalent proportions of males and females in each group, and researchers were blind to group allocation. Volunteers with a history of hypertension, hypoglycaemia, chronic fainting, cardiovascular disease, or existing abnormal blood pressure were excluded. Results could not be accounted for by initial differences between groups or by differential attrition rates over the course of the study.

Psychological distress was measured with the total mood disturbance main scale and tension/anxiety, depression/dejection, and anger/hostility subscales of the Profile of Mood States inventory. These scales have been associated with blood pressure. Coping was measured using the Constructive Thinking Inventory, which gauges the constructive and destructive thinking patterns that underlie coping ability.

Background Information

Other health benefits associated with Transcendental Meditation

Transcendental Meditation is the form of meditation most thoroughly validated by scientific research. In addition to its effects on blood pressure and related conditions, there is a wide range of other benefits associated with Transcendental Meditation, which are comprehensively documented in the scientific literature. These include reduced stress, increased longevity, improved mental health, less addictive and antisocial behaviour, and greater productivity. Comparative studies indicate that these benefits are not produced to the same extent by other forms of meditation and relaxation.

Research findings on Transcendental Meditation include:

- Reduced ill health: Practitioners of Transcendental Meditation require less than half the medical care than matched controls. Applied to the NHS, these figures suggest potential annual savings of over £9 billion, or £500 per family.

- Transcendental Meditation improves all three major risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cigarette smoking. It also enhances protective factors such as job satisfaction.

- Transcendental Meditation has been shown to reduce use of alcohol and drugs

- Transcendental Meditation decreases the degenerative effects of ageing.

- Elderly Transcendental Meditation practitioners enjoy significant improvements in age-related measures and greatly reduced all-cause and cardiovascular mortality rates.

- Transcendental Meditation is twice as effective as other meditation and relaxation techniques in reducing anxiety.

Key facts about Transcendental Meditation

- Transcendental Meditation, as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is an effortless technique practised for 20 minutes twice a day sitting comfortably with eyes closed.

- Transcendental Meditation is not a religion or philosophy and does not involve any belief or change in lifestyle.

- More than 300 independently published research studies and reviews of research on Transcendental Meditation confirm a range of benefits for mind, body, and behaviour. For a printable research review, and a bibliography of 340 papers from independent peer-reviewed journals and other edited scientific publications, see http://www.t-m.org.uk/research.shtml.

- Several studies have compared the effects of different meditation practices and found that Transcendental Meditation provides deeper relaxation and is more effective at reducing anxiety, high blood pressure, smoking, alcohol consumption, and drug abuse, and improving cognitive performance and overall psychological health and well-being than other forms of meditation and relaxation. In addition, no other meditation practice shows the widespread coherence throughout all areas the brain that is seen with Transcendental Meditation.

Further Information

- A range of medical specialists answer common questions about Transcendental Meditation on the website and describe research findings and clinical results relating to a wide spectrum of medical conditions.

Source
Transcendental Meditation