VANCOUVER, B.C. — Transcendental meditation may improve vascular function in African American teenagers with high-normal blood pressure, Vernon A. Barnes, Ph.D., said at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society.
Transcendental meditation (TM), a process by which “the mind is allowed to settle down to a state of least mental activity,” has been shown to decrease sympathetic nervous system tone, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activation, and cortisol levels, which are associated with reductions in blood pressure.
In a study by Dr. Barnes and his associates at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, systolic and diastolic blood pressures were significantly reduced in 50 African American adolescents with high-normal blood pressures who practiced TM twice a day for 4 months (Am. J. Hypertens. 2004;17:366–9).
In that study, 57 African American adolescents (mean age 16.2 years) were randomized to practicing TM for 15 minutes, twice a day for 4 months. One session was held in school during homeroom, the other was practiced at home. Another 54 teens received 15-minute didactic health education sessions about weight management, healthy diet, and physical activity each day at school, and also were assigned to walk 15 minutes a day.
At-home compliance with the meditation—in which “the ordinary thinking process becomes quiescent and a distinctive wakeful but deeply restful state” is achieved—was 76%, including weekends and holidays, Dr. Barnes told this newspaper.
Echocardiographic-derived measures of the subjects' endothelium-dependent vasodilation to reactive hyperemia (EDAD)—a functional measure of vascular remodeling that is inversely correlated with cardiac structure and function—were collected before and after the interventions, and again at 4 months' follow-up.
The procedure involved scanning the subjects' right brachial artery prior to and for 2 minutes following 4 minutes of hyperemia, which was induced by inflating the cuff to 200 mm Hg. EDAD was calculated as the percentage change from baseline diameter to maximum post-cuff release diameter. The sonographer was blinded to which group the subject was in, Dr. Barnes said.
From pre- to 4 months post intervention, EDAD in the TM group increased by 21%, from 12.4% to 15%, compared with a 4% decrease of 12.3% to 11.8% in the health education group.
“If this improvement is replicated among other at-risk groups and in cohorts of cardiovascular disease patients, this will have important implications for inclusion of TM in the efforts to prevent and treat CVD and its clinical consequences,” he said.
Other benefits were seen as well. Anecdotes related by the students corroborated school records documenting improved behavior related to school, fewer rule violations, and fewer days suspended. Students also reported improvements in sleep, athletic and school performance, and personal relationships, Dr. Barnes said.
This study, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, was singled out by the psychosomatic society as among those “having the highest potential to change clinical practice.”