Meditation: It Could Be Good For Your Heart

Posting Date: 03/08/2000

I think we?d all agree that meditation can relax us and reduce anxiety, which is why I?m not surprised to see a study saying that the ritual can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Researchers say African American adults who took part in transcendental meditation for 20 minutes, twice a day for six to nine months showed a significantly lower risk of heart attacks and strokes than a similar group of participants who performed home exercises.

Both groups had high normal blood pressure or slight hypertension and about half of the 138 participants who took part had pre- and post-test measurements of the thickness of their carotid artery, according to the study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

A slight decline in the carotid thickness indicated an 11 percent reduction in the risk of heart attacks and a 7.7 percent to 15 percent drop in stroke risk for the meditation group. The home exercise group, which also took part in an education program about cardiovascular risk factors, actually had a slight mean increase in the carotid thickness measurements.

While I see a few faults in this study, it is an example of how we can use science to investigate the beneficial claims of alternative health practices.

Source: Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, March 2000

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