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TM for blood pressure?
According to a paper published in The American Journal of Cardiology, transcendental meditation or TM is effective in reducing the rate of death from cardiovascular disease in people with high blood pressure.
In a retrospective 18-year follow-up of two randomised controlled trials, transcendental meditation was associated with significantly lower mortality than other mental relaxation techniques or standard drugs for high blood pressure.
The two studies analysed 202 patients with high blood pressure. Their average age was 72.
The authors conceded that their sample was small, that the results should be considered preliminary and that larger clinical trials would be needed to confirm their findings.
But their analysis reported that the death rate of study participants using TM techniques was 23 per cent lower from all causes and 30 per cent lower from cardiovascular disease, compared with the participants using the two other treatment methods.
Dr. Arthur Hartz, a professor in the family medicine department at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and a co-author of the study, said avoiding unnecessary medicine was always a good idea.
But, he added, "TM classes are expensive, and all behavioural interventions require considerable effort to learn, and time and discipline to maintain. My guess is that they represent the best therapy for only a small percentage of patients with hypertension."
Meet, mingle, stay healthy
Being lonely may be hazardous to your health. In a study published in Health Psychology, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University reported that lonely and socially isolated students had weaker immune responses to flu shots than their more outgoing peers.
The group, led by Sarah Pressman, a doctoral student, studied 83 healthy young men and women in their first year of college who received their first flu shots at a university clinic.
SECRET OF HEALTH De-stress in the company of friends
The students first responded to questionnaires about their social lives, and then carried hand-held computers to record the degree of their feelings of isolation or loneliness for two weeks after they got the shots.
The researchers took blood samples to measure circulating antibodies before the inoculation, and then after one month and after four months.
Having few social contacts and holding subjective feelings of loneliness were associated with weaker antibody responses to one component of the vaccine, the A/New Caledonia virus.
The researchers point out that loneliness and social isolation are two quite separate phenomena: A person can have few friends but still not feel lonely, or feel very much alone even when surrounded by friends.
Although compromised immunity may be a health risk, Pressman is cautious about drawing conclusions.
"At this point," she said, "we can't say that if you're lonely you're more likely to get sick. There is, however, evidence that loneliness is associated with poor health behaviours such as poor sleep and abnormal cardiovascular function."
The scientists are unsure why isolation and loneliness are linked to the immune response, but they speculate that the psychological stress they cause may be a factor.
(Courtesy: New York Times)
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