The daily practice of Transcendental Meditation can help students with hypertension.

Study shows improved heart structure in teens
by Global Good News staff writer
2 June 2009

Black adolescents at risk for hypertension as adults improved their heart structure through daily practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique, according to findings presented recently at the annual meeting of the
Society of Behavioral Medicine in Montreal.

A study of 62 inner-city black adolescents in Augusta, Georgia, with high-normal blood pressure showed that those who practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique for 15 minutes twice a day reduced their
risk of future heart failure by decreasing the size of the main pumping chamber of their hearts, according to Vernon A. Barnes, physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia and 1996 Ph.D. graduate of Maharishi University
of Management.

After practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique for eight months, they showed a significant decrease in left ventricular mass compared to an increase in controls who participated in health education classes.

"If this benefit could be maintained into adulthood, one could significantly reduce risk for cardiovascular implications," Dr. Barnes said. "Left ventricular hypertrophy is one of the earliest events in the development of cardiovascular diseases. This is not a problem that occurs suddenly at older age, but seems to develop at a much younger age than previously thought."

The research of Dr. Barnes and his colleagues at the Georgia Prevention Institute was supported by funding from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

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