Scientists:Vedic Meditation is Healthy

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"In a 16-week trial featuring heart disease patients averaging 68

years old, those who were taught the principles of transcendental

meditation from the ancient Vedic tradition in India experienced

several health benefits, the study said."

 

Effects of a Randomized Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation

on Components of the Metabolic Syndrome in Subjects With Coronary

Heart Disease

 

Maura Paul-Labrador, MPH; Donna Polk, MD, MPH; James H. Dwyer,

PhD{dagger}; Ivan Velasquez, MD; Sanford Nidich, PhD; Maxwell

Rainforth, PhD; Robert Schneider, MD; C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD

 

Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:1218-1224.

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/166/11/1218

Background The metabolic syndrome is thought to be a contributor to

coronary heart disease (CHD), and components of the syndrome have been

identified as possible therapeutic targets. Previous data implicate

neurohumoral activation related to psychosocial stress as a

contributor to the metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study was to

evaluate the efficacy of transcendental meditation on components

of the metabolic syndrome and CHD.

 

Methods We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial

of 16 weeks of TM or active control treatment (health education),

matched for frequency and time, at an academic medical center in a

total of 103 subjects with stable CHD. Main outcome measures included

blood pressure, lipoprotein profile, and insulin resistance determined

by homeostasis model assessment (calculated as follows: [(fasting

plasma glucose level [in milligrams per deciliter] x fasting plasma

insulin level [in microunits per milliliter]) x 0.0552]/22.5);

endothelial function measured by brachial artery reactivity testing;

and cardiac autonomic system activity measured by heart rate variability.

 

Results The TM group had beneficial changes (measured as mean ± SD)

in adjusted systolic blood pressure (–3.4 ± 2.0 vs 2.8 ± 2.1 mm Hg; P

= .04), insulin resistance (–0.75 ± 2.04 vs 0.52 ± 2.84; P = .01), and

heart rate variability (0.10 ± 0.17 vs –0.50 ± 0.17 high-frequency

power; P = .07) compared with the health education group,

respectively. There was no effect of brachial artery reactivity testing.

 

Conclusions Use of TM for 16 weeks in CHD patients improved blood

pressure and insulin resistance components of the metabolic syndrome

as well as cardiac autonomic nervous system tone compared with a

control group receiving health education. These results suggest that

TM may modulate the physiological response to stress and improve CHD

risk factors, which may be a novel therapeutic target for the

treatment of CHD.

 

 

 

Author Affiliations: Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine,

Cedars-Sinai Research Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Ms

Paul-Labrador and Drs Polk, Velasquez, and Merz), and Department of

Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California Keck School of

Medicine (Dr Dwyer), Los Angeles; and the Institute for Natural

Medicine and Prevention, Maharishi University of Management, Maharishi

Vedic City, Iowa (Drs Nidich, Rainforth, and Schneider).

{dagger}Deceased, October 26, 2005.

 

Transcendental meditation good for stress

Mon Jun 12, 2006 9:12 PM BST172

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - Practicing transcendental medicine not only

mellows the mind but may also calm the body's damaging responses to

stress that leads to heart disease and diabetes, researchers said on

Monday.

 

In a 16-week trial featuring heart disease patients averaging 68 years

old, those who were taught the principles of transcendental meditation

from the ancient Vedic tradition in India experienced several health

benefits, the study said.

 

Meditation has been previously shown to lower blood pressure, but

researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, found it also

decreased heart rate variability and insulin sensitivity.

 

The heartbeat is controlled by the body's autonomic nervous system

that can be adversely affected by stress, and variability can damage

the cardiovascular system, said the report published in the Archives

of Internal Medicine.

 

Insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, occurs as the body

becomes less and less capable of using insulin produced by the

pancreas to convert sugar into blood glucose for energy.

 

Chronic stress may be the common denominator upsetting the body's

automatic functions, study author Maura Paul-Labrador said.

 

"Such stress causes the release of cortisol and other hormones and

neurotransmitters, which over time damage the cardiovascular system

.... transcendental meditation may modulate response to stress rather

than alter the stress itself, similar to the physiological impact of

exercise conditioning," she wrote

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-06-12T201211Z_01_N12192969_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-MEDITATION-DC.XML