Much research has been done over the past couple of decades showing that transcendental meditation, or TM, can be an effective method for reducing stress, but a recent study that appeared in the American Journal of Cardiology shows that it can also help adults with high blood pressure live longer.

This current study was actually based on two previous studies that compared TM with other relaxation techniques on groups of older white and African American subjects suffering from pre-hypertension or mild hypertension. The earlier studies showed TM to be a very effective method of both reducing stress and decreasing blood pressure. When researchers waded back into the data, they discovered that the subjects in the TM groups had a 23% decrease in mortality compared to subjects using other relaxation methods. Additionally, the TM groups enjoyed a 30% decrease in cardiovascular risk and a whopping 49% reduced cancer risk. Yet one more reason to dust off that mantra.

This study was based on research conducted at Harvard, the University of Iowa, the Medical College of Georgia, and the Center for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University.

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