Archives of Internal Medicine
June 12, 2006
Maura Paul‐labrador, Donna M. Polk, James H. Dwyer et al.
282 citations
Transcendental meditation, practiced for 16 weeks, improved blood pressure and insulin resistance in patients with stable coronary heart disease compared with health education alone. Systolic blood pressure fell by 3.4 mm Hg in the meditation group while rising 2.8 mm Hg in controls; insulin resistance decreased by 0.75 units in the meditation group versus an increase of 0.52 units in controls. Heart rate variability, a measure of cardiac autonomic tone, also improved modestly. No effect was seen on endothelial function. The findings suggest that transcendental meditation may help manage coronary heart disease risk by modulating the body's response to stress.
Psychosomatic Medicine
January 1, 1998
Robert H. Schneider, Sanford Nidich, John W. Salerno et al.
95 citations
Oxidative stress, which may contribute to aging and chronic diseases like atherosclerosis, was lower in older adults who practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique compared to those who did not. Long-term practitioners (average 16.5 years) had serum lipid peroxide levels 15% lower than controls, as measured by the TBARS assay. The two groups did not differ in smoking, fat intake, or vitamin supplementation, and the lower red meat consumption among meditators did not account for the difference. These preliminary results suggest that stress reduction through Transcendental Meditation may be associated with reduced oxidative stress, though prospective trials are needed to confirm a causal effect.
Journal of Clinical Psychology
February 24, 2009
Melissa Tanner, Fred Travis, Carolyn Gaylord‐king et al.
58 citations
A 3-month randomized waitlist-controlled trial with 295 university students examined whether practicing the Transcendental Meditation program increases mindfulness, measured by the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills. Participants who learned TM showed greater increases in overall mindfulness scores over time compared to those on the waitlist. All mindfulness subscales were positively correlated at the start, and these correlations did not change over time or differ between groups. This suggests that previously reported positive correlations between observing and accepting-without-judgment skills only among meditators may stem from self-selection rather than a direct effect of meditation practice.
Heart Mind
September 18, 2023
Robert H. Schneider, Fred Travis, Tony Nader
9 citations
More than 50% of US physicians report at least one symptom of burnout, and 28% of cardiologists report mental health conditions. Burnout is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) through mechanisms like sympathetic nervous system activation and inflammation. The Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique has been studied in four recent trials among healthcare providers, showing reductions in burnout, stress, anxiety, and depression, and improvements in resilience. TM is also associated with reduced blood pressure and CVD risk. The authors propose a systems medicine model called the Square of Health, integrating spiritual, mental, physical, and environmental domains, with a unified field of consciousness as the foundation, to address burnout and CVD.