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for the last 30 years my colleagues and ihave been sponsored by the national institutes of health and large private foundations inorder to evaluate natural methods to lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and preventheart disease. this work has been published in major medical journals in the united statesand around the world. and today i'd like to share with you the results of our work inhow to lower stress and how to lower blood pressure naturally. a very exciting eventhappened just in june of 2013, when the american heart association reviewed this research andall available research on alternative methods to lower blood pressure, on stress reductionmethods, meditation and relaxation... and what they concluded is that the transcendentalmeditation technique is the only mediation
practice that has been shown to lower bloodpressure. that's a remarkable finding, and i'm going to review with you some of the researchon which the american heart association based their findings. another key point that theamerican heart association noted is that not only does this particular form of meditation,tm, lower blood pressure consistently, but it is the only mediation practice that hasbeen shown to reduce death, heart attack, and stroke. this research was published bythe american heart association's journal just about one year ago, and my colleagues andi were involved in that, and that's also part of this recommendation to consider this practicefor your own health and well being. but what is transcendental meditation anyway? thismeditative practice is described as a simple,
natural, and effortless technique to allowyour active thinking mind to become more quiet, to become more settled, until a person experiencesa silent, inner state. this silent inner awareness has been called transcendental consciousness,or pure consciousness...scientists like to call it a least excited state of awareness...wherea person is awake, but not thinking. and there are dramatic physiological correlates of restassociated with this state of deep rest and alertness of the level of the mind, so it'sbeen called a state of "restful alertness." physiologically, the brain shows high levelsof alpha eeg activity, an high levels of coherence, or synchrony, between different parts of thebrain, which is unique with this form of mind/body practice. physiologically, there are lowerlevels of stress hormones, lower levels of
metabolic activity, lower activity of thesympathetic nervous system, which is the stress related part of the nervous system. all indicatinga state of deep rest, on the level of body, along with this relaxed, wakeful state onthe level of the mind. and many doctors and scientists think of this as a fourth majorstate of consciousness, this state of restful alertness, which is different from waking,dreaming, and sleeping, but which is very beneficial for health and well being. thisis a study that my colleagues and i did more than 25 years ago. it's a classic study wherewe recruited 102 subjects with high blood pressure, and we randomly assigned them tothree groups. one group, uh, participated in a standard education, control intervention,where they learned about conventional methods
to alter their diet and exercise more. thesecond group learned a conventional relaxation technique called progressive muscle relaxation.the third group learned transcendental meditation. and both of the active groups practiced athome for 20 minutes twice a day, sitting in any comfortable position, and easily integratedit into their normal daily routines. here are the results. after three months, therewas essentially no change in the education group. the relaxation group had a small reductionin their blood pressure. the transcendental meditation group, however, had a large change,a relatively large change, in their systolic blood pressure and in their diastolic bloodpressure, which was twice as great as with the relaxation group. these results were publishedin the top journal in the field of high blood
pressure, called "hypertension," and showedin a strong scientific setting, probably for the first time, that an effective mind/bodypractice could lower blood pressure as much as some medications for high blood pressure,and that could start after one month and be consistent over several months practice. overthe ensuing 20 or 25 years there have been many studies on tm and other relaxation andstress management practices for their effects on blood pressure. and recently, all of thesedifferent studies on a variety of techniques were reviewed in a study of all the studies,called a meta-analysis. and this was published in a top medical journal...and the resultsshowed that when you look at the strong scientifically conducted studies, that muscle relaxationand stress management, many biofeedback techniques,
and combinations of treatments, just don'thave significant effects in reducing blood pressure. however, when you look at multiplestudies, and put them all together, transcendental meditation continued to be effective in loweringblood pressure, where the others weren't. and this meta-analysis, or study of all thestudies, was one of the key sources of information that the american heart association used whenit conducted its review and published its finding on the distinctive effectiveness oftm. now stress and anxiety are very much related to high blood pressure, and may contributeto heart disease and other conditions as well. a group based at stanford university reviewedall the published scientific literature on anxiety, and this was another meta-analysis,a big study of all the other 146 studies on
various meditative and relaxation practices.and what they found is that there was some effect is that there was some effect in reducedanxiety with some relaxation techniques, uh, some biofeedback, various meditation practices.however, on average, most of these practices had...had results that were the same or insome cases less than placebo. yet, when you look at the studies of transcendental meditation,the effect was about twice as great in reducing anxiety as for other relaxation techniques.why could this be? physicians and scientists believe that it's because that during thismeditation practice, people experience the state of restful alertness, this state ofinner silence associated with this brainwave coherence and this very restful state of physiology...it'sthat unique state, that fourth state of consciousness,
or fourth state of physiology we can say,that seems to be responsible for these effects on anxiety, and probably effects on bloodpressure and other health outcomes. in the past year, a group in europe did a revised,or uh, uh, a more, an up to date analysis of all the available literature on psychologicalstress and mental health, with various meditation practices, looking at the strong scientificstudies. and in this study, which came out, again, just in the past few months, transcendentalmeditation was significantly more effective in improving psychological health and reducingstress than studies of mindfulness meditation or other meditation practices. about fiveyears ago my colleagues and i conducted a study in another high stress group. thesewere college students at american university
in washington d.c. and we, in uh, our collaboratorsrandomly assigned half the subjects to practice tm for a semester, and half the subjects tocontinue their normal studies. and what we found, using standardized psychological testing,is that the students who were practicing tm for a semester has significantly lower levelsof anxiety, significantly lower levels of depression, lower levels of anger and hostility,along with improvements in coping ability. that means they were able to cope with stressin their daily lives more effectively, and they show that, in reduced levels of psychologicalstress, anxiety, depression, anger, and hostility. and furthermore, these changes in psychologicalstress were correlated with lower blood pressure in the subjects who were at high risk forhigh blood pressure. there are other risk
factors for heart disease. one of them iscalled insulin resistance. this is a condition found in many people who are overweight, whichis more than half of the american population, uh, and also people who have high blood pressure.and this means that the handling of insulin and sugar is not ideal, and it's...it's acondition that pre-disposes to diabetes and heart disease. our colleagues at cedars sinaimedical center, along with our institute, with funding from the national institutesof health, conducted a clinical trial, a strong scientific study, on the effects of tm inheart disease patients compared to conventional health education. we measured their insulinresistance before and after four months of practice, and found that the transcendentalmeditation practicing group had significant
reductions in their insulin resistance. andin this case, lower is better, because when you're not resisting your own insulin, thatmeans your processing your own glucose, your own body sugar, your own insulin better, andthen you have less tendency for diabetes and heart disease. this was published in the americanmedical association's journal, "that archives of internal medicine." now the american heartassociation, again, just within the past few months, reviewed this literature on bloodpressure, they also reviewed the literature on long term effects of meditation, and theyreported that lower blood pressure through transcendental meditation practice is alsoassociated with substantially reduced rates of death, heart attack, and stroke. let meshow you where that came from. that was a
study that took us 10 years to conduct...andsponsored by the national heart, lung and blood institute, which is part of the nih...uh,this was done in milwaukee and, uh, based at the medical college of wisconsin. and,in this study, our collaborative team recruited about 200 patients with heart disease, assignedhalf of them to a conventional education program, half to practice tm for 20 minutes twice aday, all continues their usual medications and saw their doctors as normally... thenwe follow them, for more than five years, on average, although it took us more thanthat to do the whole study, uh, but each subject was followed individually for more than 5years. and the results showed that there was a 48% reduction in the rate of death, heartattack, and stroke in the transcendental meditation
group. this is really remarkable, becausethis effect was as strong, or greater, than studies of conventional medications to treatheart disease and prevent heart attack and stroke. however, these patients were alreadytaking usual medicines, and taking their standard medical care. so it's like the discovery ofa new class of therapy, a new class of medications, but in this case, using the bodies own internalpharmacy, based on this experience of restful alertness for 15 or 20 minutes twice a day.not only are rates of heart disease reduced in studies of transcendental meditation, otherstudies of several thousand tm practitioners have found lower rates of hospitalizationfor other serious conditions also. this study shows 40% to 50% reductions in hospitalizationrates over several years time, in a group
of 3,000 tm practitioners, compared to severalhundred thousand controls. recently the wall street journal reviewed all this informationon...on meditation and health, and what they concluded is that it should be doctor's orders...20minutes, twice a day of meditation, to prevent heart disease, lower blood pressure, lowerstress, and improve your health. i agree with the wall street journal, that anyone withhigh blood pressure...with, with stress and anxiety, or any risk factor for heart disease,should consider this practice of tm for their own health and well being. questions fromthe audience...first question...will my blood pressure drop immediately after learning tm?or will i have to wait? based on my clinical experience and that of other doctors and practitioners,i would say that many people who learn tm
report that they experience immediate benefits,in their psychological health, in reduction of stress, reduced blood pressure, and improvedwell being. scientists have done studies looking at, uh, monthly measurements of blood pressure,and in those studies, blood pressure begins to go do down measurably in groups, uh, onthe average, after even one month, and continue to two months, to three months, and... andeven long term. so i would say that the benefits for many people can be immediate, and thenover time they can be even cumulative. second question...may i discontinue my medicationsafter learning tm? again, continue to work with your doctor or healthcare professional,and as your blood pressure drops with tm practice, then you can coordinate with your doctor orhealth care practitioner to adjust your medications
properly. next question...i've been hearingabout mindfulness meditation, how are the effects of tm different from it? based onthe research that i've seen, there are some effects of mindfulness meditation, particularlyin the mental health or psychological health arena, however, when you look at the physicalhealth arena, the american heart association has pointed out in particular that transcendentalmeditation is the only meditation technique that's shown to reduce blood pressure, andthey particularly commented about other meditation techniques, including mindfulness, and saidthat either the data shows no change in blood pressure or there's just not enough informationto tell. so if you want to go with the scientific evidence...in the blood pressure area, inthe heart disease area...then tm appears to
be the most effective technique, and that'swhat the aha is saying in the...in the bp area. in terms of psychological health, thereis recent meta-analysis data, that means a study of all the studies, which is just publishedrecently, which shows that while mindfulness does have studies showing improvements inpsychological health, the effect of tm practice are significantly greater, in improving psychologicalwell being and reducing mental stress. next question...i've tried other meditations andthey're not very easy, can i do tm? over the past couple decades and many studies, we'veworked with people of...of lower socioeconomic status, people who are low income, peoplewho are low education, people who are high income and people high education...we've workedwith younger people, we've worked with older
people...and what we found in...in our studiesand projects, in that anyone can practice transcendental meditation. it seems to tapinto, uh, an inherent ability in the human nervous system, in everyone's physiology,to experience the state of restful alertness, to settle down and relax, and yet stay awake...so i would say, based on my experience, anyone can do it, and i haven't heard of anyone whocan't. next question...can children and teens with stress and anxiety practice tm? therehave been studies on, uh, school children, done at the medical college of georgia, andin other places, showing that transcendental meditation can be incorporated into a schoolroutine. in these projects, children come in and their first class of the day, theirhomeroom class, is meditation, with tm, for
10 minutes, and then the last class of theday is tm. studies have been done in schools where there are many adhd children, or childrensuffering from that disorder, and in those schools, children, uh, learned very well thispractice, and they even have reductions in their adhd symptoms, and other symptoms ofstress and anxiety. so yes, children and teens can learn the practice, according to the publishedstudies...and, too show benefits, both in terms of lower blood pressure, lower heartdisease risk, and reduced stress. and remember that heart disease begins in childhood...wehave such an increase in rates of overweight and rates of...of high blood pressure, evenin children now, and rates of stress...and that has effects not only on the children'squality of life at the time, but that will
have great effects on their health over thenext 10, 20, or 30 years. so yes they can, and yes, the data suggests that, uh, the wouldhave a lot of benefit, both short term and long term, from practicing this technique.
