Growing body of research shows reduced medical care usage in people practising Transcendental Meditation
by Linda Egenes

Transcendental Meditation Magazine    Translate This Article
25 May 2014



Research by David Orme-Johnson, Ph.D., published in Psychosomatic Medicine 1987; 49: 493-507, found a 50 percent reduction in inpatient and outpatient medical visits in the group practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique as compared to controls.

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Part 5 of a recent interview. Having discussed his research showing unprecedented decreases in health care usage among 'high-cost' patients practising Transcendental Meditation, Dr. Robert Herron* also described other published studies demonstrating reduced healthcare utilization through the TM technique.

Linda Egenes: Are there any other studies that indicate the Transcendental Meditation technique can create a decrease in healthcare utilization over a long period of time?

Dr. Robert Herron: Yes, several other studies also suggest this. For instance, a study by Dr. David Orme-Johnson, published in Psychosomatic Medicine in 1987, examined five years of health insurance data to assess the medical usage of 2,000 TM practitioners compared with controls. When compared with norms (everyone else in the health insurance plan of the same age and gender) and other groups of similar profession, the TM subjects had 50 percent lower inpatient and outpatient medical visits.

This trend held across all age groups and disease categories. According to the clinically significant findings, there was 87 percent less hospitalization than norms for heart disease, and 55 percent less hospitalization than norms for cancer.

This study and others demonstrating reduced healthcare utilization through the TM technique were published in peer-reviewed journals, and over 242 additional studies have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals showing that the TM technique improves a wide range of mental and physical health disorders. Many of these studies were randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses.

Several randomized clinical trials funded by the (U.S.) National Institutes of Health found that the TM technique decreases high blood pressure, improves heart function, reduces cardiovascular mortality, and decreases all-cause death rates.

The body of research is strong. To me, it implies that we should make policy changes at all levels of the healthcare system to make this life-saving methodology of the TM technique available to everyone. Then we could begin to halt the epidemic of stress-related diseases that are causing unnecessary suffering and driving healthcare costs higher.

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Global Good News will feature the conclusion of the interview by Linda Egenes with Dr. Herron in which he comments on what it would take to get a preventive program such as the Transcendental Meditation technique widely adopted.

See related articles:
∙ An affordable solution to healthcare
∙ Can Transcendental Meditation help lower healthcare costs?
∙ Transcendental Meditation reduces stress, improves health, decreases costs
∙ 'The impossible has become the common experience' of people who practise Transcendental Meditation regularly

* Robert E. Herron, Ph.D., is an independent researcher, writer, speaker, and consultant in medical cost reduction and economic policy, and director of the Center for Holistic Systems Analysis in Fairfield, Iowa, USA.

Linda Egenes is the author of five books, including Super Healthy Kids: A Parent's Guide to Maharishi Ayurveda, co-authored with Kumuda Reddy, M.D.

Copyright © 2014 Maharishi Foundation USA



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