Transcendental meditation (TM), a form of meditation introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1960s, has been widely researched. Previous studies suggest that TM decreases stress and lowers blood pressure. Now for the first time, a study reports that TM can lower the risk of heart attack and death by 50% in patients with heart disease.
The study, presented during the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, examined the effects of TM on the risk of heart attack. Researchers at the Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention in Fairfield, Iowa and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee randomly assigned African American patients with heart disease (a high risk group) either to a group including TM and high blood pressure prescription drugs or a group with high blood pressure prescription drugs only. TM was practiced for 15 to 20 minutes a day for 5 to 9 years.
The researchers found that the TM group experienced a 47 percent reduction in heart attack and death rates, as compared to the other group. The findings also revealed that the TM group had a significant reduction in blood pressure and psychological stress.
“Previous research on Transcendental Meditation has shown reductions in blood pressure, psychological stress, and other risk factors for heart disease, irrespective of ethnicity,” says Dr. Robert Schneider, author and director of the Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention, in a news release. “But this is the first controlled clinical trial to show that long-term practice of this particular stress reduction program reduces the incidence of clinical cardiovascular events, that is heart attacks, strokes and mortality.”
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