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Cardiovascular disease could be combated by meditation

Thursday 7th June 2012
Cardiovascular disease could be combated by meditation
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Many celebrities swear by their meditation routines and recent research has now found that the practice could be a key way of combating cardiovascular disease in teens.

A team of researchers at Georgia Health Sciences University believe that regular meditation could play a role in decreasing the chance of teenagers developing any form of cardiovascular disease. The illness is highly prevalent across the world and teenagers can be at a high risk of getting the potentially fatal disease that can lead to major problems such as strokes and other complications with a person's blood pressure.

The Georgia team conducted a study of 62 black teenagers, as they stated that statistics show that one in ten black youths have high blood pressure, and found that those which conducted 15 minutes of meditation twice a day had lower left ventricle mass, an indicator of cardiovascular disease. In the controlled experiment, half of the group was taught transcendental meditation and told to practice twice a day for a four month period, while the other half was given advice on how to lower their blood pressure without the aid of meditation.

As well as the meditation group seeing a drop in lower left ventricle mass, their behaviour in school showed signs of improvement as they became more relaxed and concentrated to their work. During the meditation the researchers noted that the body gives out less-than-normal stress hormones and the study's lead author Dr. Vernon Barnes likened it to a period of deep rest.

He said: "Transcendental meditation results in a rest for the body that is often deeper than sleep. Increased mass of the heart muscle's left ventricle is caused by the extra workload on the heart with higher blood pressure.

"Some of these teens already had higher measures of left ventricular mass because of their elevated blood pressure, which they are likely to maintain into adulthood."

According to NHS figures, in 2007 cardiovascular disease accounted for one-third of all deaths in England, with 159,000 people being victim to the deadly illness, highlighting the importance of potential treatments to handling it.

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written by Mathew HortonADNFCR-1780-ID-801379833-ADNFCR

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