Improve Vascular Function and blood Pressure with Meditation
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Studies have also linked meditation to healthier arteries and improved blood flow to the heart.” – CardioSmart
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) is an insidious disease because there are no overt symptoms. The individual feels fine. But it can be deadly as more than 360,000 American deaths, roughly 1,000 deaths each day, had high blood pressure as a primary or contributing cause. In addition, hypertension markedly increases the risk heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease. It is also a very common disorder with about 70 million American adults (29%) having high blood pressure and only about half (52%) of people with high blood pressure have their condition under control. Treatment frequently includes antihypertensive drugs. But these medications often have adverse side effects. So, patients feel lousy when taking the drugs, but fine when they’re not. So, compliance is a major issue with many patients not taking the drugs regularly or stopping entirely.
Obviously, there is a need for alternative to drug treatments for hypertension. Mindfulness practices have been shown to aid in controlling hypertension. Indeed, meditation, tai chi, and yoga, have also been shown to be helpful for heart health. These practices have also been shown to reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress and to be helpful for producing the kinds of lifestyle changes needed to prevent heart disease such as smoking cessation, and weight reduction. They have also been shown to be effective in maintaining cardiovascular health and the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Hence it is reasonable to review and summarize what has been learned concerning the effects of mindfulness training on cardiovascular health.
In today’s Research News article “Buddhist meditation for vascular function: A narrative review.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6881634/?report=classic), Amarasekera and colleagues review and summarize the published research studies on the effects of meditation on vascular endothelial function and blood pressure. They found 5 published research reports.
They report that the research found that meditation practice increased mindfulness and decreased stress and blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic. They also found that meditation improved vascular endothelial function, including a reduction in vascular stiffness and an increase in flow mediated dilatation. These benefits occurred in both old and young individuals.
The findings of the research to date suggests that meditation practice produces significant improvements in vascular function. This is particularly important as today’s sedentary life styles are associated with increased blood pressure and impaired vascular function which in turn is associated with poorer health. It is likely that the ability of meditation practice to increase mindfulness and to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress are responsible for the cardiovascular improvements.
So, improve vascular function and blood pressure with meditation.
“it is not the stress in our life, but the reaction to stress that is so potentially harmful to our health, including cardiovascular health. Hence . . . meditation and relaxation techniques are extremely important and useful to minimize these unhealthy reactions to stress.” – Joon Sup Lee
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Amarasekera, A. T., & Chang, D. (2019). Buddhist meditation for vascular function: A narrative review. Integrative medicine research, 8(4), 252–256. doi:10.1016/j.imr.2019.11.002
Abstract
Background
High blood pressure represents an important risk factor for diseases related to cardiovascular system and is directly associated with high oxidative stress, inflammation and vascular endothelial dysfunction. Recently, there is promising data available to suggest that meditation-based low-cost and low-risk lifestyle modification strategies may provide beneficial effects on chronic inflammation, oxidative stress and maintenance of blood pressure, both in young and older adults. This review aims to summarize the evidence regarding the effectiveness of Buddhist meditation for vascular endothelial function and blood pressure.
Method
A search was conducted using Ovid MEDLINE, Scopus, CINAHL and PsycINFO for articles published from 1990 to 2018.
Results
Relevant articles (n = 407) were reviewed and 5 met selection criteria. Several lines of studies have provided compelling data showing that Buddhist meditation approach was effective in improving inflammation and vascular function (endothelial vasodilation and arterial stiffness) in both young and elderly cohorts. Particularly, Buddhist meditation approach has shown to be effective in reducing plasma inflammatory markers, increasing nitric oxide concentration and improving vascular endothelial function and glycemic control, which in turn can be favorable factors for demonstrated positive effects of Buddhist meditation on blood pressure and vascular function.
Conclusion
This paper presents brief overview of clinical outcomes of complementary therapeutic approach of Buddhist meditation in vascular function. In future, well-structured systematic reviews are essential to report specificity of Buddhist mindfulness-based approach on vascular function, blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6881634/?report=classic