It is curious that Michael quoted this in the manner he did, I think he misread its significance. The study, if I recall correctly, came to the conclusion that the studies on meditation, so far, were of insufficient quality to come to the conclusion that meditation was a benefit to health. Various TM practising scientists, like Vernon Barnes (who was a TM-Sidhi administrator at one point, I believe), were rather vocal in condemning the report. Also the TM practising scientists not at MUM who were quoted in various venues criticising the report often did not reveal their connexion to the TM org. I found the report rather interesting. The report was commissioned by the US government and produced by the University of Alberta
The conclusion of the report was: 'Scientific research on meditation practices does not appear to have a common theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence. Future research on meditation practices must be more rigorous in the design and execution of studies and in the analysis and reporting of results.' So the basic conclusion is better quality studies with larger population samples is needed to define health benefits of meditation. I have attached the full report to this post. I finally found it as its original location on the Internet had changed. It is now at http://archive.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/meditation/medit.pdf http://archive.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/meditation/medit.pdf -------------------------------------- ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote : Wow, this is shocking that he'd do that. It is really sad. These FFL and TM neganauts here, who don't even live in Fairfield, seem so cranky for their own vile reasons that they even willfully misrepresent the science on meditation. Great example here of anti-science. What could any good soul trust about any of their volcanic eruptions of their held old hate posted on the internet. -Buck authfriend posts: Did you misread this, Michael? The study being criticized was a government-funded report, not a TM study. Read the first sentence again. mjackson74@...> wrote : Here is what the real world thinks of all your precious "science" about TM: Top researchers criticize new meditation and health study Rush PR News/July 26, 2007 Scientists stated, "A controversial new government-funded report, which found that meditation does not improve health, is methodologically flawed, incomplete, and should be retracted. " New York, NY (rushprnews) July 26, 2007 - This is the consensus of a growing number of researchers in the U.S. and abroad who have reviewed the report and are critical of its conclusions. "Meditation Practices for Health: State of the Research" was a health technology assessment report conducted at the University of Alberta and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the NIH-National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The report was released earlier this month. Respected reviewer urged authors to withhold publication—"Analytical strategy looked haphazard and ad hoc" Professor Harald Walach of the University of Northampton and School of Social Sciences and the Samueli Institute for information Biology in England reviewed the paper before its release and strongly urged the authors to withhold publication. "When I looked carefully into the details of the study, the whole analytical strategy looked rather haphazard and ad hoc," Walach said. Relevant studies excluded from AHRQ findings Robert Schneider, M.D., F.A.C.C., is one of the leading researchers on the health effects of meditation in the nation. Dr. Schneider has been the recipient of more than $22 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health over the past 20 years for his research on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique and natural medicine on cardiovascular disease. He says that relevant findings were excluded from the report, including peer-reviewed studies on the effects of this meditation technique on hypertension, cardiovascular disease, myocardial ischemia, atherosclerosis, changes to physiology, and improvements to mental and physical health. Dr. Schneider cited two studies published in the American Journal of Cardiology in 2005, which demonstrated that individuals with high blood pressure who were randomly assigned to TM groups had a 30% lower risk for mortality than controls. These studies should have been included in the AHRQ report, Dr. Schneider said, but were inexplicably excluded. In addition, 75 published studies were overlooked, even though these were sent to the authors by one of the reviewers. Dr. Schneider said the AHRQ report incorrectly analyzed studies and incorrectly rated the quality of the studies while applying statistical methods poorly, arbitrarily, and unsystematically. The report also included errors in collecting data from research studies, in recording data from papers, and in classifying studies. Several peer-reviewers pointed out major errors and inadequacies in the report prior to publication. However, these critiques by outside reviewers were largely ignored. (For critiques of the report, see http://www.mum.edu/inmp/welcome.html) http://www.mum.edu/inmp/welcome.html) Dr. Schneider also cited a study published in the American medical Association's journal Archives of Internal Medicine in 2006—one year after the AHRQ review ended in 2005—which confirmed that the Transcendental Meditation technique lowers high blood pressure in heart disease patients. The study was conducted at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and was funded by a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Schneider directs the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, which was supported by an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health as a specialized center of research in complementary and alternative medicine and cardiovascular disease. . Om
