Psychosocial stress and cardiovascular disease Part 2: effectiveness of the Transcendental Meditation program in treatment and prevention.
Behavioral medicine (Washington, D.C.) January 1, 2002 Kenneth G Walton, Robert H Schneider, Sanford I Nidich et al.
This review article argues that the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program, a natural medicine approach, can reduce psychosocial and traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). The authors report that randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, and other controlled studies indicate the technique reduces blood pressure, carotid artery intima-media thickness, myocardial ischemia, left ventricular hypertrophy, and mortality. They contend that the magnitude of these effects compares favorably with conventional secondary prevention interventions. The paper suggests that TM may be a viable behavioral intervention for CVD, though it does not provide specific effect sizes or sample sizes.