Transcendental Meditation in the Boardroom

Business Conference at American University on June 6

Find out why more executives are meditating their way to better health, improved family relationships, and greater success in the boardroom

Work/life pressures. Escalating stress. The unyielding demands for creative and innovative thinking in the boardroom. Despite the best efforts of HR and wellness departments to provide executives with the newest and best approaches to ease job stress and fuel the creative juices, the need is greater than ever.

And that is why more executives are turning not to the next newest thing, but to something old. Very old, in fact. Transcendental Meditation.

Why Transcendental Meditation?

To find out, I invite you to attend in person, or view via live webcast (TMBusiness.org),
a major business conference on “Executive Health, Creativity & Leadership: Exploring the Growing Use of Transcendental Meditation in the Boardroom.” The conference will be held in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, June 6, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., at American University, in the Katzen Arts Center.

Panelists will include:

• Ramani Ayer, Chairman and CEO of The Hartford Financial Services Group and one of America’s most respected Fortune 100 corporate leaders

• Jeffrey Abramson, Partner of The Tower Companies, one of D.C.’s largest developers (www.towercompanies.com)

• Steele Belok, M.D., faculty member at Harvard Medical School and an expert on meditation and heart health

• Nancy Lonsdorf, M.D., a Johns Hopkins-trained physician and an expert on stress and executive health

The conference will also feature a live EEG demonstration on the effects of Transcendental Meditation on brain functioning. Published research shows the brain becomes more coherent and orderly during the practice—which translates into more creative thinking, better decisions, less stress, better health, and even reduced health care costs. And with health costs spiraling out of control in business and no viable solution in sight, this may be an effective (and cost-effective) solution to easing that crushing burden.

Please contact me if you would like more information on the conference—or would like to interview any of the panelists.

Best wishes,

Norman Zierold

641-470-1313

nzierold@mum.edu

Transcendental Meditation May Improve Cardiac Risk Factors in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

CHICAGO – A relaxation technique known as Transcendental Meditation may decrease blood pressure and reduce insulin resistance among patients with coronary heart disease, according to a report in the June 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Transcendental Meditation, derived from the ancient Vedic tradition in India, is taught through a standard protocol involving lectures, personal instruction and group meetings, according to background information in the article. It has previously been shown to lower blood pressure but its effect on other risk factors associated with coronary heart disease, including those linked to the metabolic syndrome, has not been thoroughly examined. The metabolic syndrome refers to a cluster of symptoms that increase cardiac risk, including high blood pressure (hypertension), abdominal obesity, high cholesterol and insulin resistance, which occurs when the body is unable to use the insulin produced by the pancreas to process sugar into energy.

Maura Paul-Labrador, M.P.H., Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and colleagues conducted a 16-week trial of Transcendental Meditation in patients with coronary heart disease. Fifty-two participants (average age 67.7 years) were instructed in Transcendental Meditation and 51 control patients (average age 67.1 years) received health education. At the beginning and end of the trial, the patients fasted overnight and then gave a blood sample, participated in a medical history review and underwent tests of blood vessel function and heart rate variability. Heart rate variability testing assesses the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, which controls the heart and other involuntary muscles.

Overall, of the 103 participants who were enrolled, 84 (82 percent) completed the study. At the end of the trial, patients in the Transcendental Meditation group had significantly lower blood pressure; improved fasting blood glucose and insulin levels, which signify reduced insulin resistance; and more stable functioning of the autonomic nervous system. “These physiological effects were accomplished without changes in body weight, medication or psychosocial variables and despite a marginally statistically significant increase in physical activity in the health education group,” the authors write.

“These current results also expand our causal understanding of the role of stress in the rising epidemic of the metabolic syndrome,” they continue. “Although current low levels of physical activity, unhealthy eating habits and resultant obesity are triggers for this epidemic, the demands of modern society may also be responsible for higher levels of chronic stress.” Such stress causes the release of cortisol and other hormones and neurotransmitters, which over time damage the cardiovascular system.

“Our results, demonstrating beneficial physiological effects of Transcendental Meditation in the absence of effects on psychosocial variables, suggest that Transcendental Meditation may modulate response to stress rather than alter the stress itself, similar to the physiological impact of exercise conditioning,” the authors write. This method of controlling the body’s response to stress may provide a new target for the treatment and prevention of coronary heart disease, warranting further study, they conclude.

(Arch Inter Med. 2006;166:1218-1224. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)

Editor’s Note: This study was supported by grants from the National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine, National Institutes of Health; and a General Clinical Research Centers grant from the National Center for Research Resources.

MONDAY, JUNE 12, 2006

Media Advisory: Author contact: C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., call Sandy Van at 800-880-2397

Penn Study Shows Transcendental Meditation Reduces Congestive Heart Failure

Results of NIH-Funded Study Published in the Journal Ethnicity & Disease

(PHILADELPHIA) – Congestive heart failure causes the death of nearly 300,000 Americans, and accounts for more than 2.5 million hospital admissions per year in the U.S. According to a first-of-is-kind randomized study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Institute on Aging, a widely practiced, stress-reducing meditation technique can significantly reduce the severity of congestive heart failure. The study appears in the Winder 2007 issue of Ethnicity & Disease.
“The results of this study indicate that transcendental meditation can be effective in improving the functional capacity and quality of life of congestive heart failure patients” said Ravishankar Jayadevappa, PhD, lead author and Research Assistant Professor in Penn’s Division of Geriatric Medicine. “These results also suggest long-term improvements in survival in these individuals.”
Jayadevappa and fellow researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute on Aging evaluated 23 African American men and women, average age 64, who were recently hospitalized with New York Heart Association class II or III congestive heart failure. Participants were randomized to either the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique or health education – in addition to standard medical treatment.
Researchers measured changes in heart function with a six-minute walk test, and measures for quality of life, depression, and re-hospitalizations. Changes in outcomes from baseline to three and six months after treatment were analyzed.

Can Natural Medicine Prevent Cardiovascular Disease?

Clinical Trials were Presented during the Annual Meeting
of the American College of Cardiology on March 13 in Atlanta

Can meditation and other mind-body modalities of traditional systems of natural medicine prevent coronary heart disease and heart failure? That question will be addressed during the “Symposium on Integrative Cardiology” to be held the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology from March 11 to 14 in Atlanta.

For the first time, cardiologists will hear a presentation of controlled trials involving the use of the Transcendental Meditation technique and modalities of traditional Vedic medicine and Chinese . medicine. The symposium was held on Monday, March 13,11-12:30 in Hall B102, at the Georgia World Congress Center.

The symposium will be co-chaired by Robert Schneider, M.D., FACC, Director of the Institute of Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa; and Brian Olshansky, M.D., FACC Professor of Cardiology at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

Dr. Schneider said the aim of the studies was to evaluate feasibility and efficacy of the approaches used as adjuncts to conventional cardiological care for primary and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and heart failure.

“National surveys indicate that almost 50 percent of the American public uses complementary and alternative medicine modalities. This is likely due to the continued high rates of CVD and other chronic diseases in this country along with unacceptable rates of adverse side effects with modern/conventional medical care. This first of its kind ACC symposium will review the evidence basis/base for several of the most popular mind-body practices, such as meditation, herbal preparations, tai chi and others on cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic syndrome, coronary heat disease and heart failure,” Dr. Schneider said.

Studies to be presented include:

Review of Clinical Trials on the Transcendental Meditation Program in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention—Robert H. Schneider, Maharishi Vedic City, IA This presentation will review a series of controlled clinical trials on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on CVD risk factors, morbidity and mortality. The results show reductions in hypertension, myocardial ischemia, carotid atherosclerosis, and long-term mortality from all causes and CVD. Meta-analyses of controlled studies show reductions in psychosocial stress, smoking and alcohol abuse.

Effects of a Multimodality Vedic Medicine Program in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease: A Pilot Trial—Brian Olshansky, Iowa City, IA This presentation will present the results of the first pilot trial of the effects of a comprehensive application of a traditional system of natural medicine, the Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health in CHD patients. The interventions included stress reduction through meditation, yoga exercises, individualized Ayurvedic herbal preparations, and Vedic diet. The results suggest reductions in carotid atherosclerosis in the experimental group compared to controls.

Site: University of Iowa College of Medicine

A Double-Blind, Randomized Controlled Trial of a Traditional Antioxidant Herbal Preparation on Markers of Atherosclerosis—Otelio S. Randall Washington, D.C.
This presentation will review the rationale, design, and baseline characteristics for a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial of Vedic herbal preparations compared to vitamins C and E and to placebo in older patients at high risk for CVD. The primary outcomes are oxidized lipids, brachial artery reactivity, and carotid atherosclerosis.

Site: Howard University Medical School

Effects of Tai Chi in Patients With Heart Failure: Randomized Controlled Trial—Malissa J. Wood Boston, MA This talk will present the results of pilot on the effects of a Traditional Chinese Medicine practice, Tai Chi, in patients with heart failure. The results showed improvements in functional capacity measured by the 6-minute walk test, and BNP—brain natriuretic peptide.

Site: Harvard Medical School

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation in the Treatment of Coronary Heart Disease—C. Noel Bairey Merz Los Angeles, CA This talk will present the results of an RCT on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on components of the metabolic syndrome in patients with CHD. The results showed improvements in insulin resistance and blood pressure over four months of intervention in the active group compared to health education controls.

Site: Cedars Sinai Medical Center

Reports Transcendental Meditation Reduces Death Rate, Extends Lifespan

Results of Federally Funded Study to Be Published May 2, 2005

“These results suggest that effective stress reduction
decreases death rates from all causes”—Robert Schneider, M.D., FACC

The American Journal of Cardiology reported its May 2, 2005 issue that the Transcendental Meditation technique, a non-drug stress-reduction method, reduces death rates by 23% and extends lifespan.

The first-of-its-kind, long-term, randomized trial evaluated 202 men and women, average age 71, who had mildly elevated blood pressure. Subjects in the study participated in the Transcendental Meditation program; behavioral techniques, such as mindfulness or progressive muscle relaxation; or health education. The study tracked subjects for up to 18 years. Vital statistics were obtained from the National Death Index.

The study found that compared to combined controls, the TM group showed:

• 23% reduction in the rate of death from all causes

• 30% reduction in the rate of death from cardiovascular disease

• 49% reduction in the rate of death from cancer

Transcendental Meditation Reduces Risk Factors in Heart Disease

“Research has found the Transcendental Meditation program of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi reduces risk factors in heart disease and other chronic disorders, such as high blood pressure, smoking, psychological stress, stress hormones, harmful cholesterol, and atherosclerosis,” said Robert Schneider, M.D., FACC, principal author of the study and director of the Center of Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management. “These reductions slow the aging process and promote the long-term reductions in death rates.”

Researchers collaborated on the study from Harvard, University of Iowa, Medical College of Georgia, West Oakland Health Center, and Maharishi University of Management. The study was funded, in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Interviews and b-roll are available.

The Center of Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, was established by an $8 million grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a component of the National Institutes of Health, to serve as a Specialized Center for Research and to study natural medicine in relation to cardiovascular disease in minority populations.

Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention
National Institutes of Health-Funded Specialized Center for Research

MEDITATION AND MORTALITY

New study shows Transcendental Meditation
extends lifespan, reduces death rates

To be published in the American Journal of Cardiology
during “National Older Americans Month” on May 2

Dear Editor/Producer,

Medical research has established that daily Transcendental Meditation is good for combatting the daily stresses of life. In the short term, it can reduce the risk of heart disease by reducing its risk factors, such as high blood pressure, smoking, harmful cholesterol, psychological stress, and atherosclerosis.

But what are the long-term effects of such daily stress reduction?

A new study to be published in the American Journal of Cardiology on May 2 gives a clear indication. The study found that the Transcendental Meditation technique reduces death rates by 23% among elderly people with an average age of 71 years—who had mildly high blood pressure. The study tracked subjects for up to 18 years.

Interestingly, the study will be published during “National Older Americans Month,” which is sponsored by the Administration on Aging of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

With the growing interest in meditation and yoga by people of all ages, including the elderly, here is an excellent—and timely—“feel-good” story that gives hope and practical advice to all Americans.

You could interview scientists who conducted the study, medical doctors who prescribe the TM technique to their patients, and elderly people who are using it to make their golden years healthy, satisfying, and productive.

Would you like to discuss this idea further?

Cordially yours,

Norman Zierold
641-470-1313

Transcendental Meditation lowers blood pressure in black adolescents

Black adolescents at risk to be hypertensive adults can lower their blood pressure through daily Transcendental Meditation, according to research published in the April issue of the American Journal of Hypertension.

A study of 156 inner-city black adolescents in Augusta, Ga., with high-normal pressure showed that teens who practiced 15 minutes of Transcendental Meditation twice daily steadily lowered their daytime blood pressures over four months and that their pressures tended to stay lower, according to Dr. Vernon A. Barnes, physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia and principal author of the paper.

“Allowing your mind to go to that state of inner quietness and be there for a time has an effect on the physiology by reducing stress hormone levels like cortisol and reducing activation of the sympathetic nervous system which controls the fight-or-flight response,” says Dr. Barnes. “In a short time, we can teach this standardized meditation method that has been taught all over the world for 50 years. That technique can then be used throughout a lifetime without side effects or additional expense.”

Adolescents in the study who practiced Transcendental Meditation experienced an average 3.5 millimeter drop in their systolic pressure, the top number that indicates the pressure inside blood vessels that the heart is pumping against, and a 3.4 millimeter decrease in diastolic pressure, the bottom number that indicates pressure while the heart is at rest.

Participants in health education classes, who served as the control groups, experienced no significant change. Heart rate, probably one of the simplest measures of stress level reduction, also dropped in meditating students and remained consistent in the control groups, Dr. Barnes says.

“Even if your blood pressure comes down a few millimeters when you are young, if you can maintain that into adulthood, you can significantly reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease,” he says.

High blood pressure affects one in four adults in the U.S. and is a major risk factor for heart attack and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death, respectively, according to the National Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is not a problem that occurs suddenly at age 45 or 50,” Dr. Barnes says. “High blood pressure starts at a young age and it seems it’s starting at a younger age than we have previously thought. So we wanted to look at intervention with young people, specifically young African-Americans who likely will have the most severe problems with hypertension when they grow up.”

Dr. Barnes first identified students with high-normal pressure based on three consecutive screenings in the Richmond County, Ga., school system, then randomly assigned them to the Transcendental Meditation program or a 15-minute health education program based on National Institutes of Health guidelines that included no intervention.

The Transcendental Meditation group meditated for 15 minutes twice daily – once at school and once at home – and twice daily at home during the weekend. To ensure an accurate measure of blood pressure as the adolescents went about their lives, both groups wore 24-hour monitoring devices to check their blood pressure every 20 minutes from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and every 30 minutes from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Researchers also looked at parameters such as body mass index, weight, body surface area and environmental stress so that other changes that might affect blood pressure would be noted.

“Once the program stopped, we had a follow-up at four months and their blood pressures were still down,” Dr. Barnes says, but long-term studies are needed to see the impact of reduced pressure on disease development.

He noted that underlying physiologic pathways that enable meditation to lower blood pressure are unclear and also need further study. However, the practice that transcends thought has been shown to reduce sympathetic nervous system response and stress hormone levels which ultimately reduces the workload on the heart. “These events may result in improved myocardial and vascular function, leading to decreased (blood pressure) levels, thereby helping to prevent early onset of hypertension,” he and his colleagues at MCG’s Georgia Prevention Institute write.

He says that the health benefits of Transcendental Meditation are becoming more accepted in the medical community as these types of studies document its impact on the body and mind. The willingness of the teens to practice meditation is evidence, although perhaps less traditional documentation, of its benefits as well. “How do you get a teen-ager to sit for 15 minutes with his eyes closed twice a day every day for a long period of time? How can you possibly accomplish that?” he asks rhetorically.

The technique, which enables the most settled, relaxed state of mind, is an easy sell once people practice it, says Dr. Barnes, who has used the technique since 1972 and taught it since 1974. “Anyone can meditate and anyone can benefit. You don’t have to be under a huge load of stress and you don’t have to be hypertensive. There are many benefits in terms of developing your own potential,” he says, equating the experience to a mental bath that washes away the stress of the day.

Dr. Barnes’ research was supported by funding from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and an American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant. He also acknowledged the support of the Richmond County School System in helping make the research possible.