| Maharishi University of Management |
NEWS RELEASE
Transcendental Meditation Technique
Reduces
Stress-Related Hormones
Study shows the Transcendental Meditation (TM)
technique reduces
hypertension, obesity, and other risk factors for heart
disease
FAIRFIELD, IA: One quarter of the U.S. population suffers from hypertension, according to estimates published by the American Heart Association. This fact is alarming as hypertension has been found to contribute to serious cardiovascular diseases and early death.
A researcher at Maharishi University of Management, formerly Maharishi International University, Dr. Kenneth Walton, has published a study in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (Vol. 1,#3, Fall, 1995) which suggests that the Transcendental Meditation technique could help reduce or prevent hypertension.
The study involved comparison of two groups of students matched for age and their area of study--one group of healthy students not practicing any systematic technique for reducing stress and one group of students who had been practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique for 8.5 years. The tests showed the group that had been practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique had lower levels of biochemical measures that relate to chronic levels of stress.
"The cortisal levels that normally increase with chronic stress were lower in the students practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique," says Dr. Walton.
"We also measured metabolites of three neurotransmitters associated with stress and with the effects of stress, serotonin, adrenaline, and noradrenoline. All the changes found can be related to hypertension, and all of them were in the appropriate direction for explaining a reduction in blood pressure," says Dr. Walton. Also, results from Mood States tests and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory administered showed that the meditating group had fewer of the negative emotions associated with hypertension, like anger, tension-anxiety, and depression.
Other studies have shown that the Transcendental Meditation technique lowers blood pressure in people with hypertension. One study--published in the November issue of the American Heart Association's journal, Hypertension,--found that the Transcendental Meditation technique produced blood pressure reductions equal to those commonly found with medication. The biochemical changes in Walton's study indicate the mechanism by which the Transcendental Meditation technique can have a beneficial effect on the normalization of blood pressure.
"The results of this study along with previous studies suggest that people who practice the Transcendental Meditation technique, even though they live in a high-stress industrialized country, do not show increased blood pressure with age normally seen by many people in such societies," states Dr. Walton.
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American Heart Association press release on the TM Program and Hypertension