Meditation Promotes Health

Practitioners of various relaxation methods have long accepted meditation can have beneficial health effects by reducing blood pressure, heartbeat and respiratory rate.
Blood pressure rises in response to our emotions, say researchers, suggesting that it may be possible to lower blood pressure with good thoughts.

On the contrary, we can raise our blood pressure just by thinking of a traumatic experience.
Therefore it seems reasonable that calming thoughts can also lower blood pressure. But it was not until the advent of biofeedback training that these claims were scientifically validated.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects a very large percentage of the adult population.
It can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and hardening of the arteries.
It is our emotional reaction to various pressures in life which creates stress. Our body responds to any threat, physical or psychological: muscles tense, blood pressure rises, and heart rate increases.

Like primitive warriors, we are prepared for any battle. But we --modern "hunter-warriors"-- are desk-bound. We have little or no opportunity to react physically to the threat and release the pressure. We are therefore left with a pounding heart and soaring blood pressure.

But each time we get angry, frustrated or excited and our blood pressure rises, it fails to return down to normal. Bit by bit, millimeter by millimeter, our normal pressure at rest creeps upward until we have essential (not caused by disease) hypertension.

Dr. Herbert Benson, who conducted studies with Transcendental Meditation (TM) at Harvard and Beth Israel Hospital in 1968, emphatically stated that essential high blood pressure can be lowered by a simple form of Transcendental Meditation (TM). He describes the technique in his book, The Relaxation Response. He writes:
"Our hypotheses is that the 'relaxation response' decreases and counteracts the increased sympathetic nervous system activity that accompanies the arousal of the fight-or-flight response. This sympathetic nervous system activity is reflected in the measures...of oxygen consumption, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure which increase with the fight-or-flight response and decrease with the elicitation of the relaxation response."

Results of TM were demonstrated by a study of 36 volunteers with high blood pressure. The subjects were monitored for six weeks with special test machines to verify their high blood pressure readings. After the six-week period the volunteers were instructed in TM and began meditating daily. Their blood pressure was measured every two weeks at random times of the day, "but never while meditating."

After several weeks of meditation, their average systolic (upper) blood pressure dropped 10 millimeters, and their average diastolic (lower) reading lowered 4.6 millimeters. Although meditation had not cured them, as long as it continued, their blood pressure remained normal. When seven of the subjects stopped practicing TM, their blood pressure returned to pre-meditation hypertensive levels within four weeks.

Here are the four steps to Dr. Benson's relaxation response which laboratory tests at Harvard showed produces the same physiological changes as TM:

1. Sit comfortably in a quiet place.
2. Close eyes and relax all muscles.
3. Breathe easily and naturally through your nose. Inhale, then as you exhale say in your mind the word "one." Repeat the word "one" silently each time you breathe out.
4. "One" is a mantra, a mental device to anchor your thoughts. Your thoughts will wander--your mind will tend to reflect on problems, events and desires. Do not wrestle with these thoughts, just replace them with the thought of "one" and your steady rhythm of breathing.
Meditate for 10 to 20 minutes, twice daily. When the time is up--you may check a clock but do not use an alarm--remain quiet for a few moments, first with eyes closed, then opened.
Do not practice within two hours after a meal because digestive processes will interfere with the technique. And do not worry if the technique doesn't seem to work for you at first. It has worked for thousands of other subjects and, given time, it will work for you.

Here's to a Happy Yuletide Season--and a healthier you!