[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickmays@... wrote: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension (Published online April 22, 2013) Interesting, but when you read the article: http://newsroom.heart.org/news/alternative-therapies-may-help-lower-blood-pressure You realise there is more to it than meets the eye. Exercise is a better way of reducing blood pressure for instance. As is slow breathing. And it isn't really beyond medication and diet as they recommend alternative therapies don't replace standard treatment. Still, if you've got to crow about which technique is best they do recommend TM above other types of meditation, but it isn't as good as isometric hand grip exercises. I dunno, the press release doesn't look so good to me now Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association An estimated 29% of American adults suffer from hypertension and it is projected to affect 1.5 billion people by 2025. It accounts for 13.5% of all deaths and half of all strokes and ischemic heart disease. The global hypertension-related public health burden is enormous. The American Heart Association just published a scientific statement on alternative approaches to reducing blood pressure, which included a critical evaluation of research on meditation techniques, including the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Here is what the AHA's statement said about the TM technique and other meditation practices: TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time. Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The following is a take on the AHA's statement by Dr. Robert Schneider, M.D., leading researcher on the effects of TM on hypertension: While the AHA statement is conservative, they and other official medical councils generally are, especially with vanguard therapies. However, the fact that the AHA statement concluded that only Transcendental Meditation is effective in lowering BP and that other meditation and relaxation techniques are neither effective nor recommended is major. In addition, the AHA statement reports that long-term T M practice leads to lower heart disease clinical events. This was also not found for any other behavioral intervention. Finally, it is noteworthy that this is the first time in 50 years of teaching and researching Transcendental Meditation that it has been recognized and recommended by a national medical organization that provides professional practice guidelines to physicians, health care payers and policy makers. This type of guideline statement has been what insurance companies have been requesting from us for many years. For these reasons, this week's Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association may be considered historic.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
I sent notice about this to David Orme-Johnson, Fred Travis, Dr Rosenthal, etc, earlier this week. David summarized the study and sent it to all his friends the next day. Dr. Schneider is only now making remarks on the paper. So, 2-3 days from hearing unexpectedly about an announcement to getting formal responses from Dr. Schneider. This gives you a feel for how the TM organization responds to an unexpected event, rather than to a planned event. If the TM organization had any inkling that this was coming, they would have had a press release out within hours of publication on Monday, instead of releasing something on Thursday. My local TM center is currently contacting every cardiologist in town after I talked to them yesterday. While we were talking, they got David's notification in the email. This paper could be very big, just as Dr Schneider suggests. I called it HUGE in my email to David. Another study was released at the same time out of Germany that says that high workplace stress can double your chances of heart attack or stroke. Combine those two papers and you have a foothold in every major company in the world. Like I said, HUGE. L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickmays@... wrote: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension (Published online April 22, 2013) Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association An estimated 29% of American adults suffer from hypertension and it is projected to affect 1.5 billion people by 2025. It accounts for 13.5% of all deaths and half of all strokes and ischemic heart disease. The global hypertension-related public health burden is enormous. The American Heart Association just published a scientific statement on alternative approaches to reducing blood pressure, which included a critical evaluation of research on meditation techniques, including the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Here is what the AHA's statement said about the TM technique and other meditation practices: �TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time.� Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The following is a take on the AHA's statement by Dr. Robert Schneider, M.D., leading researcher on the effects of TM on hypertension: While the AHA statement is conservative, they and other official medical councils generally are, especially with vanguard therapies. However, the fact that the AHA statement concluded that only Transcendental Meditation is effective in lowering BP and that other meditation and relaxation techniques are neither effective nor recommended is major. In addition, the AHA statement reports that long-term T M practice leads to lower heart disease clinical events. This was also not found for any other behavioral intervention. Finally, it is noteworthy that this is the first time in 50 years of teaching and researching Transcendental Meditation that it has been recognized and recommended by a national medical organization that provides professional practice guidelines to physicians, health care payers and policy makers. This type of guideline statement has been what insurance companies have been requesting from us for many years. For these reasons, this week's Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association may be considered historic.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
Well, this only evaluated the effects of TM on blood pressure. A German think tank released a study the same day that found that workplace stress can double your chances of heart attack and stroke. BP is only one factor of many that TM apparently effects, and the recent finding that shows a 48% drop in your chance of having a fatal heart attack or stroke if you do TM fits right in with the German study results. The AHA report also calls for head-to-head studies on various meditation techniques. THat is HUGE since your average Buddhist-oriented meditation researcher insists that TM isn't worth studying in the first place, and they have been getting all the research grants to study mindfulness by itself. Now, they're going to have to grit their teeth and study TM side by side with mindfulness in order to get the big grant money, or so I suspect. Just as TM researchers are jumping around, mindfulness researchers are very dejected right now, I am betting. L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickmays@ wrote: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension (Published online April 22, 2013) Interesting, but when you read the article: http://newsroom.heart.org/news/alternative-therapies-may-help-lower-blood-pressure You realise there is more to it than meets the eye. Exercise is a better way of reducing blood pressure for instance. As is slow breathing. And it isn't really beyond medication and diet as they recommend alternative therapies don't replace standard treatment. Still, if you've got to crow about which technique is best they do recommend TM above other types of meditation, but it isn't as good as isometric hand grip exercises. I dunno, the press release doesn't look so good to me now Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association An estimated 29% of American adults suffer from hypertension and it is projected to affect 1.5 billion people by 2025. It accounts for 13.5% of all deaths and half of all strokes and ischemic heart disease. The global hypertension-related public health burden is enormous. The American Heart Association just published a scientific statement on alternative approaches to reducing blood pressure, which included a critical evaluation of research on meditation techniques, including the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Here is what the AHA's statement said about the TM technique and other meditation practices: TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time. Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The following is a take on the AHA's statement by Dr. Robert Schneider, M.D., leading researcher on the effects of TM on hypertension: While the AHA statement is conservative, they and other official medical councils generally are, especially with vanguard therapies. However, the fact that the AHA statement concluded that only Transcendental Meditation is effective in lowering BP and that other meditation and relaxation techniques are neither effective nor recommended is major. In addition, the AHA statement reports that long-term T M practice leads to lower heart disease clinical events. This was also not found for any other behavioral intervention. Finally, it is noteworthy that this is the first time in 50 years of teaching and researching Transcendental Meditation that it has been recognized and recommended by a national medical organization that provides professional practice guidelines to physicians, health care payers and policy makers. This type of guideline statement has been what insurance companies have been requesting from us for many years. For these reasons, this week's Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association may be considered historic.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
Its just a matter of time before all or most of the TM research is de-bunked. From: sparaig lengli...@cox.net To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, April 26, 2013 8:24 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension I sent notice about this to David Orme-Johnson, Fred Travis, Dr Rosenthal, etc, earlier this week. David summarized the study and sent it to all his friends the next day. Dr. Schneider is only now making remarks on the paper. So, 2-3 days from hearing unexpectedly about an announcement to getting formal responses from Dr. Schneider. This gives you a feel for how the TM organization responds to an unexpected event, rather than to a planned event. If the TM organization had any inkling that this was coming, they would have had a press release out within hours of publication on Monday, instead of releasing something on Thursday. My local TM center is currently contacting every cardiologist in town after I talked to them yesterday. While we were talking, they got David's notification in the email. This paper could be very big, just as Dr Schneider suggests. I called it HUGE in my email to David. Another study was released at the same time out of Germany that says that high workplace stress can double your chances of heart attack or stroke. Combine those two papers and you have a foothold in every major company in the world. Like I said, HUGE. L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickmays@... wrote: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension (Published online April 22, 2013) Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association An estimated 29% of American adults suffer from hypertension and it is projected to affect 1.5 billion people by 2025. It accounts for 13.5% of all deaths and half of all strokes and ischemic heart disease. The global hypertension-related public health burden is enormous. The American Heart Association just published a scientific statement on alternative approaches to reducing blood pressure, which included a critical evaluation of research on meditation techniques, including the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Here is what the AHA's statement said about the TM technique and other meditation practices: �TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time.� Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The following is a take on the AHA's statement by Dr. Robert Schneider, M.D., leading researcher on the effects of TM on hypertension: While the AHA statement is conservative, they and other official medical councils generally are, especially with vanguard therapies. However, the fact that the AHA statement concluded that only Transcendental Meditation is effective in lowering BP and that other meditation and relaxation techniques are neither effective nor recommended is major. In addition, the AHA statement reports that long-term T M practice leads to lower heart disease clinical events. This was also not found for any other behavioral intervention. Finally, it is noteworthy that this is the first time in 50 years of teaching and researching Transcendental Meditation that it has been recognized and recommended by a national medical organization that provides professional practice guidelines to physicians, health care payers and policy makers. This type of guideline statement has been what insurance companies have been requesting from us for many years. For these reasons, this week's Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association may be considered historic.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
Good stuff. Though it *did* take 30+ years for TM to fix my high blood pressure, since I was genetically predisposed to it. My BP was around 145/90 for most of my life. My doctor wanted to prescribe this stuff, and I said I didn't want to take it, because I had heard it caused dizziness. He said, no, its OK. So I filled the prescription and saw the first warning in bold letters, May Cause Dizziness, so I threw the pills away. Finally, after consistently dissolving any psychological causes for the high BP; fear, anxiety, and PTSD-like symptoms, and beginning to live a more non-dual consciousness, my BP has stabilized at 120/80. After confirming it at his office, I mentioned it to my doctor, and he offhandedly congratulated me, though couldn't give any explanation. TM has also contributed to my typical low pulse, 47 to 60 bpm, average. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@... wrote: I sent notice about this to David Orme-Johnson, Fred Travis, Dr Rosenthal, etc, earlier this week. David summarized the study and sent it to all his friends the next day. Dr. Schneider is only now making remarks on the paper. So, 2-3 days from hearing unexpectedly about an announcement to getting formal responses from Dr. Schneider. This gives you a feel for how the TM organization responds to an unexpected event, rather than to a planned event. If the TM organization had any inkling that this was coming, they would have had a press release out within hours of publication on Monday, instead of releasing something on Thursday. My local TM center is currently contacting every cardiologist in town after I talked to them yesterday. While we were talking, they got David's notification in the email. This paper could be very big, just as Dr Schneider suggests. I called it HUGE in my email to David. Another study was released at the same time out of Germany that says that high workplace stress can double your chances of heart attack or stroke. Combine those two papers and you have a foothold in every major company in the world. Like I said, HUGE. L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickmays@ wrote: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension (Published online April 22, 2013) Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association An estimated 29% of American adults suffer from hypertension and it is projected to affect 1.5 billion people by 2025. It accounts for 13.5% of all deaths and half of all strokes and ischemic heart disease. The global hypertension-related public health burden is enormous. The American Heart Association just published a scientific statement on alternative approaches to reducing blood pressure, which included a critical evaluation of research on meditation techniques, including the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Here is what the AHA's statement said about the TM technique and other meditation practices: �TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time.� Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The following is a take on the AHA's statement by Dr. Robert Schneider, M.D., leading researcher on the effects of TM on hypertension: While the AHA statement is conservative, they and other official medical councils generally are, especially with vanguard therapies. However, the fact that the AHA statement concluded that only Transcendental Meditation is effective in lowering BP and that other meditation and relaxation techniques are neither effective nor recommended is major. In addition, the AHA statement reports that long-term T M practice leads to lower heart disease clinical events. This was also not found for any other behavioral intervention. Finally, it is noteworthy that this is the first time in 50 years of teaching and researching Transcendental Meditation that it has been recognized and recommended by a national medical organization that provides professional practice guidelines to physicians, health care payers and policy makers. This type of guideline statement has been what insurance companies have been requesting from us for many years. For these reasons, this week's Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association may be considered historic.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@... no_reply@... wrote: Good stuff. Though it *did* take 30+ years for TM to fix my high blood pressure, since I was genetically predisposed to it. You should have spent your time squeezing things, much more effective according to the AHA. My BP was around 145/90 for most of my life. My doctor wanted to prescribe this stuff, and I said I didn't want to take it, because I had heard it caused dizziness. He said, no, its OK. So I filled the prescription and saw the first warning in bold letters, May Cause Dizziness, so I threw the pills away. Finally, after consistently dissolving any psychological causes for the high BP; fear, anxiety, and PTSD-like symptoms, and beginning to live a more non-dual consciousness, my BP has stabilized at 120/80. After confirming it at his office, I mentioned it to my doctor, and he offhandedly congratulated me, though couldn't give any explanation. TM has also contributed to my typical low pulse, 47 to 60 bpm, average. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: I sent notice about this to David Orme-Johnson, Fred Travis, Dr Rosenthal, etc, earlier this week. David summarized the study and sent it to all his friends the next day. Dr. Schneider is only now making remarks on the paper. So, 2-3 days from hearing unexpectedly about an announcement to getting formal responses from Dr. Schneider. This gives you a feel for how the TM organization responds to an unexpected event, rather than to a planned event. If the TM organization had any inkling that this was coming, they would have had a press release out within hours of publication on Monday, instead of releasing something on Thursday. My local TM center is currently contacting every cardiologist in town after I talked to them yesterday. While we were talking, they got David's notification in the email. This paper could be very big, just as Dr Schneider suggests. I called it HUGE in my email to David. Another study was released at the same time out of Germany that says that high workplace stress can double your chances of heart attack or stroke. Combine those two papers and you have a foothold in every major company in the world. Like I said, HUGE. L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickmays@ wrote: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension (Published online April 22, 2013) Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association An estimated 29% of American adults suffer from hypertension and it is projected to affect 1.5 billion people by 2025. It accounts for 13.5% of all deaths and half of all strokes and ischemic heart disease. The global hypertension-related public health burden is enormous. The American Heart Association just published a scientific statement on alternative approaches to reducing blood pressure, which included a critical evaluation of research on meditation techniques, including the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Here is what the AHA's statement said about the TM technique and other meditation practices: �TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time.� Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The following is a take on the AHA's statement by Dr. Robert Schneider, M.D., leading researcher on the effects of TM on hypertension: While the AHA statement is conservative, they and other official medical councils generally are, especially with vanguard therapies. However, the fact that the AHA statement concluded that only Transcendental Meditation is effective in lowering BP and that other meditation and relaxation techniques are neither effective nor recommended is major. In addition, the AHA statement reports that long-term T M practice leads to lower heart disease clinical events. This was also not found for any other behavioral intervention. Finally, it is noteworthy that this is the first time in 50 years of teaching and researching Transcendental Meditation that it has been recognized and recommended by a national medical organization that provides professional practice guidelines to physicians, health care payers and policy makers. This type
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@... wrote: Well, this only evaluated the effects of TM on blood pressure. A German think tank released a study the same day that found that workplace stress can double your chances of heart attack and stroke. BP is only one factor of many that TM apparently effects, and the recent finding that shows a 48% drop in your chance of having a fatal heart attack or stroke if you do TM fits right in with the German study results. The AHA report also calls for head-to-head studies on various meditation techniques. THat is HUGE since your average Buddhist-oriented meditation researcher insists that TM isn't worth studying in the first place, and they have been getting all the research grants to study mindfulness by itself. Now, they're going to have to grit their teeth and study TM side by side with mindfulness in order to get the big grant money, or so I suspect. Just as TM researchers are jumping around, mindfulness researchers are very dejected right now, I am betting. But if they really cared about peoples health - as opposed to just banging their respective drums - they'd be singing the praises of hand squeezing and slow breathing. According to the evidence anyway L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickmays@ wrote: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension (Published online April 22, 2013) Interesting, but when you read the article: http://newsroom.heart.org/news/alternative-therapies-may-help-lower-blood-pressure You realise there is more to it than meets the eye. Exercise is a better way of reducing blood pressure for instance. As is slow breathing. And it isn't really beyond medication and diet as they recommend alternative therapies don't replace standard treatment. Still, if you've got to crow about which technique is best they do recommend TM above other types of meditation, but it isn't as good as isometric hand grip exercises. I dunno, the press release doesn't look so good to me now Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association An estimated 29% of American adults suffer from hypertension and it is projected to affect 1.5 billion people by 2025. It accounts for 13.5% of all deaths and half of all strokes and ischemic heart disease. The global hypertension-related public health burden is enormous. The American Heart Association just published a scientific statement on alternative approaches to reducing blood pressure, which included a critical evaluation of research on meditation techniques, including the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Here is what the AHA's statement said about the TM technique and other meditation practices: TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time. Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The following is a take on the AHA's statement by Dr. Robert Schneider, M.D., leading researcher on the effects of TM on hypertension: While the AHA statement is conservative, they and other official medical councils generally are, especially with vanguard therapies. However, the fact that the AHA statement concluded that only Transcendental Meditation is effective in lowering BP and that other meditation and relaxation techniques are neither effective nor recommended is major. In addition, the AHA statement reports that long-term T M practice leads to lower heart disease clinical events. This was also not found for any other behavioral intervention. Finally, it is noteworthy that this is the first time in 50 years of teaching and researching Transcendental Meditation that it has been recognized and recommended by a national medical organization that provides professional practice guidelines to physicians, health care payers and policy makers. This type of guideline statement has been what insurance companies have been requesting from us for many years. For these reasons, this week's Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association may be considered historic.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
Good one! I heard you've been accepted into the third grade next year. Congrats! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ no_reply@ wrote: Good stuff. Though it *did* take 30+ years for TM to fix my high blood pressure, since I was genetically predisposed to it. You should have spent your time squeezing things, much more effective according to the AHA. My BP was around 145/90 for most of my life. My doctor wanted to prescribe this stuff, and I said I didn't want to take it, because I had heard it caused dizziness. He said, no, its OK. So I filled the prescription and saw the first warning in bold letters, May Cause Dizziness, so I threw the pills away. Finally, after consistently dissolving any psychological causes for the high BP; fear, anxiety, and PTSD-like symptoms, and beginning to live a more non-dual consciousness, my BP has stabilized at 120/80. After confirming it at his office, I mentioned it to my doctor, and he offhandedly congratulated me, though couldn't give any explanation. TM has also contributed to my typical low pulse, 47 to 60 bpm, average. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: I sent notice about this to David Orme-Johnson, Fred Travis, Dr Rosenthal, etc, earlier this week. David summarized the study and sent it to all his friends the next day. Dr. Schneider is only now making remarks on the paper. So, 2-3 days from hearing unexpectedly about an announcement to getting formal responses from Dr. Schneider. This gives you a feel for how the TM organization responds to an unexpected event, rather than to a planned event. If the TM organization had any inkling that this was coming, they would have had a press release out within hours of publication on Monday, instead of releasing something on Thursday. My local TM center is currently contacting every cardiologist in town after I talked to them yesterday. While we were talking, they got David's notification in the email. This paper could be very big, just as Dr Schneider suggests. I called it HUGE in my email to David. Another study was released at the same time out of Germany that says that high workplace stress can double your chances of heart attack or stroke. Combine those two papers and you have a foothold in every major company in the world. Like I said, HUGE. L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Dick Mays dickmays@ wrote: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension (Published online April 22, 2013) Beyond Medications and Diet: Alternative Approaches to Lowering Blood Pressure A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association An estimated 29% of American adults suffer from hypertension and it is projected to affect 1.5 billion people by 2025. It accounts for 13.5% of all deaths and half of all strokes and ischemic heart disease. The global hypertension-related public health burden is enormous. The American Heart Association just published a scientific statement on alternative approaches to reducing blood pressure, which included a critical evaluation of research on meditation techniques, including the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Here is what the AHA's statement said about the TM technique and other meditation practices: �TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time.� Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The following is a take on the AHA's statement by Dr. Robert Schneider, M.D., leading researcher on the effects of TM on hypertension: While the AHA statement is conservative, they and other official medical councils generally are, especially with vanguard therapies. However, the fact that the AHA statement concluded that only Transcendental Meditation is effective in lowering BP and that other meditation and relaxation techniques are neither effective nor recommended is major. In addition, the AHA statement reports that long-term T M practice leads to lower heart disease clinical events. This was also not found for any other behavioral intervention. Finally, it is noteworthy that this is the first time in 50 years
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... wrote: But if they really cared about peoples health - as opposed to just banging their respective drums - they'd be singing the praises of hand squeezing and slow breathing. According to the evidence anyway The AHA evaluation was directly on blood pressure, not any other risk factor for heart disease. If the only thing you were hoping to accomplish was to lower your BP, then you are correct, hand squeezing and slow breathing would be better. But for almost any specific thing that TM is known to affect, I can almost always find a specific therapy or process that affects that one specific thing better than TM, so your point doesn't really add anything to the discussion, as far as I am concerned. TM, due to its stress-reduction/normalization effect, has a more holistic effect than anything else that I am aware of (aside from getting enough to eat and drink and sleep and staying warm in freezing weather -oh, and having a proper supply of oxygen handy). Have I missed anything? L L
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote: But if they really cared about peoples health - as opposed to just banging their respective drums - they'd be singing the praises of hand squeezing and slow breathing. According to the evidence anyway The AHA evaluation was directly on blood pressure, not any other risk factor for heart disease. If the only thing you were hoping to accomplish was to lower your BP, then you are correct, hand squeezing and slow breathing would be better. But for almost any specific thing that TM is known to affect, I can almost always find a specific therapy or process that affects that one specific thing better than TM, so your point doesn't really add anything to the discussion, as far as I am concerned. What it adds to a discussion on HBP is that the TM press release was misleading. TM press releases are often misleading (I know, I used to help write them) nothing unusual, most companies like to blow their achievements up and omit other embarrassing details. If you were recommending a therapy for HBP to someone who didn't want to take drugs you would look at the evidence and prescribe hand squeezing or slow breathing but you would also urge them to get with a traditional drug programme. If you were following the AHA guidelines in the paper that is. That's something else my point adds. TM, due to its stress-reduction/normalization effect, has a more holistic effect than anything else that I am aware of (aside from getting enough to eat and drink and sleep and staying warm in freezing weather -oh, and having a proper supply of oxygen handy). Have I missed anything? You see, you aren't arguing from a scientific viewpoint but from a belief based one. It's your *opinion* that TM is holistic enough to make it's lack of veracity as a treatment compared to alternatives *less* relevant than its ability to fulfill something *you* think is important, when someone with HBP might just want something that works best for the task at hand and doesn't care if he also gets a glimpse of some allegedly higher state of consciousness. L L
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
from the press release: �TM may be considered in clinical practice to lower BP. Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials, all other meditation techniques (including MBSR [Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction]) received a Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C recommendation . Thus, other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time.� Here is a link to the full report: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/04/22/HYP.0b013e318293645f.full.pdf+html?sid=0aea85a1-f240-4b68-8174-07ecc3e2cfec The only relevant lines from the summary on research on meditation/relaxation that is missing is: The overall evidence is that TM modestly lowers BP. It is not certain whether it is truly superior to other meditation techniques in terms of BP lowering because there are few head-to-head studies. ... In fact the only head to head study on BP between TM and mindfulness that I am aware of DOES show that TM has a larger effect on BP than mindfulness. The TM researchers will be very happy to cooperate with mindfulness researchers in establishing which is better, I am confident. It is the mindfulness researchers who don't want to work with the TM researchers, as far as I can tell, because the mindfulness researchers don't believe that TM has any real effect worth investigating. L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote: But if they really cared about peoples health - as opposed to just banging their respective drums - they'd be singing the praises of hand squeezing and slow breathing. According to the evidence anyway The AHA evaluation was directly on blood pressure, not any other risk factor for heart disease. If the only thing you were hoping to accomplish was to lower your BP, then you are correct, hand squeezing and slow breathing would be better. But for almost any specific thing that TM is known to affect, I can almost always find a specific therapy or process that affects that one specific thing better than TM, so your point doesn't really add anything to the discussion, as far as I am concerned. What it adds to a discussion on HBP is that the TM press release was misleading. TM press releases are often misleading (I know, I used to help write them) nothing unusual, most companies like to blow their achievements up and omit other embarrassing details. If you were recommending a therapy for HBP to someone who didn't want to take drugs you would look at the evidence and prescribe hand squeezing or slow breathing but you would also urge them to get with a traditional drug programme. If you were following the AHA guidelines in the paper that is. That's something else my point adds. TM, due to its stress-reduction/normalization effect, has a more holistic effect than anything else that I am aware of (aside from getting enough to eat and drink and sleep and staying warm in freezing weather -oh, and having a proper supply of oxygen handy). Have I missed anything? You see, you aren't arguing from a scientific viewpoint but from a belief based one. It's your *opinion* that TM is holistic enough to make it's lack of veracity as a treatment compared to alternatives *less* relevant than its ability to fulfill something *you* think is important, when someone with HBP might just want something that works best for the task at hand and doesn't care if he also gets a glimpse of some allegedly higher state of consciousness. L L
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@... wrote: In fact the only head to head study on BP between TM and mindfulness that I am aware of DOES show that TM has a larger effect on BP than mindfulness. The TM researchers will be very happy to cooperate with mindfulness researchers in establishing which is better, I am confident. It is the mindfulness researchers who don't want to work with the TM researchers, as far as I can tell, because the mindfulness researchers don't believe that TM has any real effect worth investigating. The real reason ofcourse is that they fear studies will show TM to be far superior to any Buddhist meditation. In fact, future research will be so strong in favor of TM that it will blow their (funny) hats off :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... wrote: What it adds to a discussion on HBP is that the TM press release was misleading. TM press releases are often misleading (I know, I used to help write them) Interesting claim. I guess the british lurkers here would be intersted to know which pressreleases were written by you and not Peter Warburton.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: In fact the only head to head study on BP between TM and mindfulness that I am aware of DOES show that TM has a larger effect on BP than mindfulness. The TM researchers will be very happy to cooperate with mindfulness researchers in establishing which is better, I am confident. It is the mindfulness researchers who don't want to work with the TM researchers, as far as I can tell, because the mindfulness researchers don't believe that TM has any real effect worth investigating. The real reason ofcourse is that they fear studies will show TM to be far superior to any Buddhist meditation. In fact, future research will be so strong in favor of TM that it will blow their (funny) hats off :-) The original post by Dick Mays is selective use of information. Here is the conclusion of the paper that was quoted: 'Numerous alternative approaches for lowering BP have been evaluated during the past few decades. The strongest evidence supports the effectiveness of using aerobic and/or dynamic resistance exercise for the adjuvant treatment of high BP. Biofeedback techniques, isometric handgrip, and device-guided breathing methods are also likely effective treatments. There is insufficient or inconclusive evidence at the present time to recommend the use of the other techniques reviewed in this scientific statement for the purposes of treating overt hypertension or prehypertension.' Thus, based on the evidence evaluated in this paper, no meditation technique makes the cut in comparison to aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise was by far the best: Procedure/Treatment SHOULD be performed based on data derived from multiple randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses. For TM the result was: Procedure/Treatment MAY BE considered, additional studies with broad objectives needed; additional registry data would be helpful. Data derived from a single study or nonrandomized studies. Movement hype. Since practicing TM, my blood pressure has increased. This is not a clinical trial though, my personal result does not count for or against the possibility that TM might reduce blood pressure generally in a large group, that is BP would go down in more people than up. It is just not certain that it actually does this. The real reason to practice a meditation technique is to find out what is real. Could this actually work?
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
wasn't it Tibetan Lama Risotto No Tuba who proclaimed, Knowledge Is Structured In Funny Hats.? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: In fact the only head to head study on BP between TM and mindfulness that I am aware of DOES show that TM has a larger effect on BP than mindfulness. The TM researchers will be very happy to cooperate with mindfulness researchers in establishing which is better, I am confident. It is the mindfulness researchers who don't want to work with the TM researchers, as far as I can tell, because the mindfulness researchers don't believe that TM has any real effect worth investigating. The real reason ofcourse is that they fear studies will show TM to be far superior to any Buddhist meditation. In fact, future research will be so strong in favor of TM that it will blow their (funny) hats off :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
Actually, both biofeedback and TM received the same rating for evidence and effectiveness. The wording in the summary of the biofeedback section is the same as for TM: may be considered. Looking more carefully at the two modalities, it looks like TM may actually be more effective than biofeedback, but I'm running late, and the text is rather small so I won't claim for sure until I reread it when I get back. My guess is that, given the equivalent wording and roughly equivalent (?) results for TM and biofeedback, not mentioning TM while mentioning biofeedback in the conclusion was an oversight, but of course, I am often wrong. L --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartaxius@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: In fact the only head to head study on BP between TM and mindfulness that I am aware of DOES show that TM has a larger effect on BP than mindfulness. The TM researchers will be very happy to cooperate with mindfulness researchers in establishing which is better, I am confident. It is the mindfulness researchers who don't want to work with the TM researchers, as far as I can tell, because the mindfulness researchers don't believe that TM has any real effect worth investigating. The real reason ofcourse is that they fear studies will show TM to be far superior to any Buddhist meditation. In fact, future research will be so strong in favor of TM that it will blow their (funny) hats off :-) The original post by Dick Mays is selective use of information. Here is the conclusion of the paper that was quoted: 'Numerous alternative approaches for lowering BP have been evaluated during the past few decades. The strongest evidence supports the effectiveness of using aerobic and/or dynamic resistance exercise for the adjuvant treatment of high BP. Biofeedback techniques, isometric handgrip, and device-guided breathing methods are also likely effective treatments. There is insufficient or inconclusive evidence at the present time to recommend the use of the other techniques reviewed in this scientific statement for the purposes of treating overt hypertension or prehypertension.' Thus, based on the evidence evaluated in this paper, no meditation technique makes the cut in comparison to aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise was by far the best: Procedure/Treatment SHOULD be performed based on data derived from multiple randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses. For TM the result was: Procedure/Treatment MAY BE considered, additional studies with broad objectives needed; additional registry data would be helpful. Data derived from a single study or nonrandomized studies. Movement hype. Since practicing TM, my blood pressure has increased. This is not a clinical trial though, my personal result does not count for or against the possibility that TM might reduce blood pressure generally in a large group, that is BP would go down in more people than up. It is just not certain that it actually does this. The real reason to practice a meditation technique is to find out what is real. Could this actually work?
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@... wrote: wasn't it Tibetan Lama Risotto No Tuba who proclaimed, Knowledge Is Structured In Funny Hats.? That's right, it's the guy on the left :-) 480 × 360 - blogs.transparent.com http://www.google.no/imgres?hl=nobiw=1167bih=639tbm=ischtbnid=kkIiB\ USX6mAfsM:imgrefurl=http://blogs.transparent.com/japanese/traditional-j\ apanese-hats/docid=bZy4ZKufGiZlQMimgurl=http://img.youtube.com/vi/Rlyb\ T_mfNNo/0.jpgw=480h=360ei=mep6Udz-CqOo4ASNkICgBAzoom=1ved=1t:3588,r\ :7,s:0,i:100
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote: What it adds to a discussion on HBP is that the TM press release was misleading. TM press releases are often misleading (I know, I used to help write them) Interesting claim. I guess the british lurkers here would be intersted to know which pressreleases were written by you and not Peter Warburton. Help write them Nabby. Help write them.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The American Heart Association Recommends TM for Hypertension
Yes, I could tell... Something about the subtle, yet forceful way he holds his flute. I have had some very deep experiences meditating with such a hat on. Unfortunately, here in the ignorant, materialistic West, I must settle for wearing an overturned plastic wastebasket, from IKEA, with a hole carved delicately for my breathing. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, doctordumbass@ wrote: wasn't it Tibetan Lama Risotto No Tuba who proclaimed, Knowledge Is Structured In Funny Hats.? That's right, it's the guy on the left :-) 480 × 360 - blogs.transparent.com http://www.google.no/imgres?hl=nobiw=1167bih=639tbm=ischtbnid=kkIiB\ USX6mAfsM:imgrefurl=http://blogs.transparent.com/japanese/traditional-j\ apanese-hats/docid=bZy4ZKufGiZlQMimgurl=http://img.youtube.com/vi/Rlyb\ T_mfNNo/0.jpgw=480h=360ei=mep6Udz-CqOo4ASNkICgBAzoom=1ved=1t:3588,r\ :7,s:0,i:100
