Evidence that Transcendental Meditation Helps the Heart

[Bob]

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More evidence that Transcendental Meditation helps the heart
November 18, 2009 | 6:00 am
Transcendental Meditation has been around for many years and is perhaps the most scientifically tested of all forms of meditation. Two studies presented this week add to the evidence that this form of stress reduction benefits people with heart disease and those at high risk for it.

One study, presented on Monday at the American Heart Assn.'s annual meeting, found that heart disease patients who practice TM have almost 50% lower rates of heart attacks, stroke and deaths compared to similar patients who don't practice meditation. The study was funded with a $3.8-million grant from the federal government and was conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin in collaboration with the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, a major center of TM research.

The study followed African American men and women over nine years. The participants were randomly assigned to practice the stress-reducing TM technique or attend traditional health education classes on heart disease prevention.

The results of TM were so striking, it was as if the participants who meditated were taking a new class of medications, the authors said.

"Previous research on Transcendental Meditation has shown reductions in blood pressure, psychological stress, and other risk factors for heart disease, irrespective of ethnicity," the lead author of the study, Dr. Robert Schneider, said 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."

In the second study, published today in the American Journal of Hypertension, researchers found that TM was an effective tool to reduce blood pressure, anxiety, depression and anger among college students at risk for high blood pressure.

Scientists at American University in Washington, D.C., and Maharishi University randomly assigned 298 students to either learn TM techniques or remain on a waiting list for the class. After three months, the students practicing TM had reductions of 6.3 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) in systolic blood pressure and 4.0 mm Hg in diastolic. The reductions translate to a 52% lower risk of developing hypertension in later years. The students also showed improvements in psychological distress and coping.

-- Shari Roan

Photo: The meditation room at UCI Medical Center. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

More in: heart disease, stress

[Bob]

James Randi responds:

I can't believe that the A.H.A. has accepted the data claimed by the TM movement. This is a religion-based agency that regularly publishes "breakthroughs" of this nature, always appealing to the most urgent of peoples needs, and later being revealed - through attempted replications - to be spurious. When will the public - or the A.H.A - learn to beware of papers turned out by devotees of some ancient sect? This is alarming news. The public will be clamoring to sign up for a notion that accompanied ayurvedic "medicine" of 200 years ago... Read the history of TM and learn...

Posted by: James Randi | November 18, 2009 at 12:26 PM

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster ... l#comments

[Darth Rock&Roll]

TM is great for a lot of things.

My parents were hippies and got me and my brother into a TM center
back in the early 70's.

I've been a TM prac for almost 40 years now!!! (38 yrs to be exact)

woot.

p.s my heart feels fine! lol

pps. I have only practiced zazen for about 25 years or so, with the last 15 being the Ch'an version of same.

[qiphlow]

i would think that anything that helps one not be so much of a stress case would be beneficial to one's heart.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

randi can eat a big one on this one. lol

He is implying that you have to be a hindu to practice TM?
read the history? what the fuck is he talking about? lol

debunking bullshit artists is one thing, but wrapping a story around a simple meditation practice is crap.

There is nothing to it. You go to a TM center, they take 5 minutes of your time to teach you the meditation, you give them a piece of cloth, a piece of fruit, light an incense stick and pay attention, they teach you, they give you a mantra to use and off you go, that's it, not another word. the ritual is to trigger remembrance, like any good ritual is designed to do.


I wonder if Randi insists that I have to be a buddhist to practice zen or even shaolin kungfu?

He should stick to magic tricks and fraudulent faith healers.(what he knows). Meditation is great for creating a peaceful state of mind because that is our intent when we meditate. Calming the mind, calms the body.

just saying.

[Chris Fleming]

Sure, I'll believe that TM helps the heart. But so does walking.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

yes! There are many ways to health.