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'The big picture' - reduced mortality: American Heart Association report on Transcendental Meditation for treatment of hypertension

Transcendental Meditation News - UK    Translate This Article
3 July 2013

The recent American Heart Association report* recommending Transcendental Meditation as the only meditation practice shown by scientific research to lower blood pressure also noted that the technique is associated with substantially reduced rates of death, heart attack, and stroke.

Please see Part I of this article: American Heart Association says yes to Transcendental Meditation.

The big picture—reduced mortality

The authors of the report referred to a study by Schneider, Grim, and Rainforth** published last year in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. It found that African-Americans with heart disease who practised Transcendental Meditation regularly were 48% less likely to have a heart attack or stroke, or to die, than those who attended a health education class. Among the meditation group there were 20 such occurrences, compared with 32 in the control group. The study, which ran for more than five years, involved about 200 people.

Lead author Robert Schneider, MD, FACC, Director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management, points out that this is the big picture—the overall outcome for a person's health and longevity is what is most significant. Clinical trials of this nature are not available for other alternative therapies.

A massive public health recommendation

The AHA report concluded: ''It is the consensus of the writing group that it is reasonable for all individuals with blood pressure levels greater than 120/80 mm Hg to consider trials of alternative approaches as adjuvant methods to help lower blood pressure when clinically appropriate.''

''That's a very big statement . . . a massive public health recommendation,'' comments Dr Schneider. He explains that an estimated 30% of the population, at least in the USA and the rest of the Western world, has mild high blood pressure (or pre-hypertension which falls between 120 and 140) while another 30% has more severe hypertension above this level.

Thus, says Dr Schneider, the AHA is recommending that 60% of the population should consider alternative treatments—among them Transcendental Meditation—to help in the treatment of high blood pressure.

Global Good News will continue to feature this report published in Transcendental Meditation News in the UK, about the new AHA statement on Transcendental Meditation.

* Brook RD, et al., Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure. A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association. Hypertension, 61(6), 2013.

** Schneider RH, Grim CE, Rainforth MV, et al., Stress reduction in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 5:750-758,2012

Source: Transcendental Meditation News, Britain's national Transcendental Meditation magazine.

Copyright © 2013 Maharishi Foundation UK



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