A Controlled Study of the Effects of the Transcendental Meditation® Program on Cardiovascular Reactivity and Ambulatory Blood Pressure

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Abstract
Cardiovascular responses to stress reactivity has been proposed as a risk factor for hypertension. In this study, we evaluated the effects of stress reduction on both laboratory cardiovascular reactivity and ambulatory blood-pressure in real life on 39 normotensive male subjects who were pretested for ambulatory blood pressure and cardiovascular reactivity to stress using a battery of laboratory stressors. Thereafter, subjects were randomly assigned to practice either the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique or a cognitive-based stress education control (SEC) for four months. After 4 months, there was no change in cardiovascular response to stresses between the TM and control groups. However, the subjects regularly practicing TM demonstrated a significant reduction of 9 mm Hg (p<. 04) in average ambulatory DBP compared to control. Since ambulatory BP monitoring has been shown to be a better predictor of cardiovascular complications of hypertension than clinic BP, this finding may have important implications for primary prevention of CVD in normotensive subjects.