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Meditation can lower risk of heart attack and stroke - TIME magazine reports
by Global Good News staff writer

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27 November 2012

The latest of many published studies on Transcendental Meditation and cardiovascular disease was quickly picked up by major news and media outlets around the world.

The study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health – National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, was published in November in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association. The study found that heart disease patients who practised Transcendental Meditation twice daily reduced their risk for heart attack, stroke, and death by 48 per cent.

Said lead researcher Robert Schneider, MD, FACC, there has always been strong evidence linking Transcendental Meditation with heart health, but this is the most convincing and rigorous yet.

The editors of TIME magazine evidently drew a similar conclusion about the research. The magazine published an article written by Laura Blue, titled 'Strongest Study Yet Shows Meditation Can Lower Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke'.

The article noted the study's particulars:

'After roughly five years of follow-up, the researchers found a 48% reduction in the overall risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from any cause among members of the meditation group compared to those from the health education [control] group.'

This major finding was also supported by an average drop of 4.9 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure compared to the control group, and also less reported stress and anger.

'It's like discovering a whole new class of medications,' the TIME article quoted Dr Schneider as saying, regarding the power of meditation in improving patients' health.

The article also described the 'great lengths to which the researchers of the Circulation study went to make their trial scientifically rigorous'. These included:

'The scientists adjusted for the effects of weight, smoking behavior, and diet, all of which can influence heart attack, stroke, and early heart death rates. And while the participants in both groups exercised more and cut back on alcohol during the study, they did so at similar rates, making these changes unlikely to be responsible for the differences in health outcomes either.'

See previous articles in this series:
∙ NIH-sponsored study finds Transcendental Meditation dramatically reduces death in heart disease patients
∙ Substantial support for research on Transcendental Meditation and heart disease: Maharishi University of Management
∙ What is heart disease and how can we reverse it? Lead author of new meditation study explains
∙ Rigorous methods characterize new study on Transcendental Meditation and heart disease
∙ Meditation reduces heart attack by almost 50%, study published in American Heart Association journal finds

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