A new study published in Frontiers of Medicine looked at the effects of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and health education on carotid intima-media thickness and major adverse cardiovascular events in Black men and women.
“This study was a follow-up assessment of cardiovascular events in individuals with evidence or early CV disease, who underwent a one-year intervention of either Transcendental Meditation or health education,” study author Dr. Keith Norris told us. “We were interested in seeing if there might be a long-term positive impact on CV events such as hospitalization due to myocardial infarction, unstable angina, coronary revascularization, stroke, or heart failure, or as death from CVD.”
The researchers postulated that practicing Transcendental Meditation over a year would have a beneficial effect that could have long-lasting effects such as reducing adverse cardiovascular events over several years.
“We chose this study topic in particular due to the importance of better understanding non-pharmacological interventions such as Transcendental Meditation or health education in the treatment of cardiovascular and related diseases,” Norris told us. “This is especially important for populations in the United States that have been and continue to be marginalized and feel a high degree of distrust or mistrust of the health system, and suffer from higher rates of heart disease such as African Americans/Black persons. However, we feel that this intervention has potential to be effective for everyone.”
The researchers assigned approximately 100 study participants to receive training with and to practice Transcendental Meditation, and about 100 study participants to receive health education. This was done over a one-year period and about 65 people in each group finished the entire study. For this particular study, the researchers went back to follow, whether or not the study participants had major adverse cardiovascular events over the next 14 years.
“We found that after five years, participants in the Transcendental Meditation group were more than half as likely to have suffered an adverse cardiovascular event and this was statistically significant,” Norris told us. “At 10 years follow-up, there was still a statistically significant reduction in adverse cardiovascular events in the Transcendental Meditation group, but at 14 years follow up there was no difference between groups.”
The researchers were surprised by the results. They did not think they would continue to see a positive effect on heart health for such a long period of time. However, they cannot know whether or not people in the two groups continued to practice what they learned during that one year.
« Also, we are unable to control for a myriad of other factors that might statistically affect health during a period of time,” Norris told us. “However, we find the results to be very intriguing, which suggests to us the importance of conducting much more rigorous long-term study on the effects of Transcendental Meditation on heart health.”
Going forward, the researchers believe these results suggest a potential benefit of Transcendental Meditation that can be used as part of a holistic approach to heart health. There would need to be more rigorous research findings to assert that it has the impact of pharmacologic treatment, but the researchers believe that for now it should be used for the prevention of heart disease or in conjunction with pharmacologic treatment in persons who have existing heart disease, especially given its safety profile.
“We believe that it is as important as ever to study and understand the impact of lifestyle changes, including contemplative practices, such as Transcendental Meditation, Mindfulness, and more on our health,” Norris told us. “The cost of healthcare continues to rise with Americans suffering from increasing rates of chronic diseases. Many of these could potentially be prevented or attenuated by the introduction of lifestyle changes. Findings in our study suggest that Transcendental Meditation is one approach that has emerging evidence of its efficacy to reduce adverse heart events.”