Very recent study made; Clipping from the new dept. of gh2000.com News Meditation reduces atherosclerosis in hypertensive patients march 4, 2000 Stroke 2000;31:568-573 Stress reduction using transcendental meditation is associated with a reduction in carotid atherosclerosis, according to a study in the March issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. A team of researchers, led by Dr. Amparo Castillo-Richmond, of the College of Maharishi Vedic Medicine in Fairfield, Iowa, studied 138 African American adults with high normal blood pressure or stage 1 or 2 hypertension. They were randomly assigned to either a meditation program or an education program about cardiovascular disease risk factors. For 6 to 9 months, participants in the meditation group meditated for 20 minutes twice a day, while the education group performed home exercises for the same amount of time each day. Due to limited funding, pre- and post-test measurements of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) were available for only 60 participants. However, the researchers did not detect any differences between those who completed the study and those who did not. At the end of the study, the mean IMT declined by 0.098 mm in the meditation group, but it increased by 0.054 mm in the health-education group. The researchers estimate that the decline in the meditation group indicates an 11% reduction in the risk of acute myocardial infarction and a 7.7% to 15% drop in stroke risk. "The results have potentially important implications for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis and its clinical and epidemiological consequences," the authors conclude. In a comment to Reuters Health, Dr. Castillo-Richmond said that she and her colleagues now are attempting to reproduce the findings in a larger group of subjects. Light,Love peace, Malou Villarta, RN Holistic Nurse http://www.angelfire.com/va2/thevisionsries (website for a meditation study group ) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -