Positive Health Online

Abstract

WENNEBERG and colleagues, Department of Physiological and Biological Sciences, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield Iowa 52557 USA write that cardiovascular responses to stress reactivity has been proposed as a risk factor for hypertension. @m:METHODS: The authors evaluated the effects of stress reduction upon laboratory cardiovascular reactivity and ambulatory blood pressure in real life in 39 normotensive men (men with normal blood pressure) who had been pretested for ambulatory blood pressure and cardiovascular reactivity to stress using laboratory stressors. The men were randomly assigned to either practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) or a cognitive-based stress education control (SEC) for a period of 4 months. @r: After 4 months, there was no change in cardiovascular response to stressors between the TM and control groups. However, compared to controls, the men who regularly practised TM demonstrated a significant reduction in average ambulatory diastolic blood pressure of 9 mm Hg. @c:CONCLUSIONS: As ambulatory blood pressure monitoring has been demonstrated to be a superior predictor of cardiovascular complications of hypertension then clinical blood pressure, these results may have important implications for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in normotensive people.

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References

Wenneberg SR et al. A controlled study of the effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on cardiovascular reactivity and ambulatory blood pressure. Int J Neurosci 89(1-2): 15-28. Jan 1997. @i:23