Meditation may improve cardiac risk factors

According to one of the report, Transcendental Meditation, a technique which also induces Relaxation may decrease blood pressure and reduce insulin resistance among patients with coronary heart disease.

Transcendental Meditation previously been shown to lower blood pressure but its effect on other risk factors associated with coronary heart disease, has not been thoroughly examined.

Team of Maura Paul-Labrador, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and colleagues conducted a 16-week trial of transcendental meditation in patients with coronary heart disease.

At the beginning and end of the trial, the patients fasted overnight and then gave a blood sample, participated in a medical history review and underwent tests of blood vessel function and heart rate variability.

Heart rate variability testing assesses the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, which controls the heart and other involuntary muscles.

At the end of the trial, patients in the transcendental meditation group had significantly lower blood pressure; improved fasting blood glucose and insulin levels, which signify reduced insulin resistance; and more stable functioning of the autonomic nervous system.