Health Benefits of Meditation Challenged

There is no definitive evidence supporting the use of meditation for health problems, a new review claims.

Researchers from the University of Alberta/Capital Health Evidence-based Practice Centre in Canada conducted a comprehensive review of medication synthesizing the state of research on a variety of meditation practices including: the specific meditation practices examined; the research designs employed and the conditions and outcomes examined; the efficacy of different meditation practices for the three most studied conditions; the role of effect modifiers on outcomes; and the effects of meditation on physiological and neuropsychological outcomes.

Comprehensive searches were conducted in 17 electronic databases of medical and psychological literature up to September 2005. Other sources of potentially relevant studies included hand searches, reference tracking, contact with experts and gray literature searches.

Researchers used a Delphi method to develop a set of parameters to describe meditation practices. Included studies were comparative, on any meditation practice, had more than 10 adult participants, provided quantitative data on health-related outcomes and were published in English. Two independent reviewers assessed study relevance, extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality of the studies.

Five broad categories of meditation practices were identified: mantra meditation, mindfulness meditation, yoga, tai chi and Qi Gong.

Characterization of the universal or supplemental components of meditation practices was precluded by the theoretical and terminological heterogeneity among practices. Evidence on the state of research in meditation practices was provided in 813 predominantly poor-quality studies. The three most studied conditions were hypertension (high blood pressure), cardiovascular (heart) diseases and substance abuse. Sixty-five intervention studies examined the therapeutic effect of meditation practices for these conditions.

Meta-analyses based on low-quality studies and small numbers of hypertensive participants showed that TM®, Qi Gong and Zen Buddhist meditation significantly reduced blood pressure. Yoga helped reduce stress. However, yoga was no better than mindfulness-based stress reduction at reducing anxiety in patients with cardiovascular diseases.

The authors noted that no results from substance abuse studies could be combined. The role of effect modifiers in meditation practices has been neglected in the scientific literature. The physiological and neuropsychological effects of meditation practices have been evaluated in 312 poor-quality studies. Meta-analyses of results from 55 studies indicated that some meditation practices produced significant changes in healthy participants.

The study authors concluded that many uncertainties surround the practice of meditation. Additionally, scientific research on meditation practices does not appear to have a common theoretical perspective and is often characterized by poor methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence. The researchers suggested that future research on meditation practices must be more rigorous in the design and execution of studies and in the analysis and reporting of results.

In a related study, scientists provided evidence asserting that yoga and other mind-body therapies are effective at lowering blood pressure. A review of 12 published randomized trials found favorable effects of mind-body therapies on blood pressure, with yoga the most beneficial.

Researchers from Yale University conducted a systematic review to assess the efficacy of the mind-body therapies - mediation, yoga and visualization - versus placebo or active control in the treatment of hypertension (high blood pressure).

The team reviewed randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials comparing mind-body techniques (meditation, yoga and guided imagery) alone or in combination with conventional treatment to conventional treatment alone or no intervention/waiting list control. Relevant trials were identified in the register of trials maintained by the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field Registry, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medline, EMBASE, PsycInfo and CINAHL.

The review found that mind-body therapies significantly reduced systolic blood pressure by an average of 11.52 millimeters of mercury and diastolic blood pressure by 6.83 millimeters of mercury. Significant results were seen in systolic blood pressure reductions by yoga and meditation therapy, while only yoga therapies demonstrated significant reductions in diastolic blood pressure.

The study suggested that the absolute reductions in blood pressure were comparable to pharmacologic monotherapy in both effect size and temporality. Additionally, reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure to the degree found in yoga interventions were associated with reductions in vascular death rates as well as decreased overall cardiac (heart) risk.

The study authors concluded that there is some high-quality scientific literature supporting the use of mind-body therapies as a treatment for hypertension, and the magnitude of effect is clinically significant.

For more information about meditation, please visit Natural Standard’s Health & Wellness database.

Comments

[Leigh]

I think this information can be very helpful for individuals with hypertension who want to avoid starting antihypertensive medications. I would be interested to see a long-term study comparing meditation to pharmacological monotherapy to see if meditation would be an equivalent alternative to conventional first-line approaches.

[kdl]

I knew it! Yoga is way too slow to be relaxing. I find it almost impossible to relax because I want to keep moving. I can feel my blood pressure rising as i sit there wasting time meditating.

[Au Contraire]

Why on earth would anyone waste the money and time trying to "disprove" the usefulness of meditation? Is it potentially harmful? Is it a waste of time for people to take time out of their stressful lives to slow down and relax their minds and bodies? Are people abandoning necessary conventional therapies for this "sham" form of treatment? I doubt it.

Perhaps there are some cases in which meditation practices will not be sufficient to lower blood pressure to normal range, ameliorate heart disease, or help someone break an addiction. But even in these cases, I'd be willing to bet that mediation as adjunct to other treatments would be helpful. The ill effects of stress on mental and physical health are irrefutable; any effective means of reducing stress, especially one that does not involve taking medications that may potentially have harmful side effects, should be viewed as a boon and encouraged. Meditation slows down the heart rate, lowers blood pressure (as the second study mentioned in this article states) and provides scores of people (me, for instance!) with a much needed period of inner peace. Isn't that benefit enough?!

[D. Scully]

This review didn't seem to talk about meditation for people whose quality of life may improve by joining a community where this form of spirituality is practiced. Who could disagree with the idea that making friends is a good idea? Also, developing a way to relax before a major illness could be hugely beneficial for people who are experiencing stress because of physical problems.

[Josh]

This article does not change how I feel about meditation or yoga. I find both therapies to be very helpful in my daily life. They help me relax and relieve stress.

[Emma]

I don't think this study was trying to disprove relaxation therapies or even suggests that they may be ineffective. It seems as if the purpose was to evaluate the significance of all of the studies that have been conducted thus far. This particular study does not state that yoga and meditation are not useful, but rather, questions the quality of the studies designed to determine the usefulness of these therapies. It concludes that the results of existing studies are too inconclusive to determine efficacy.

[dalz]

It's important to remember that even though meditation can help individuals with hypertension as an integrative form of therapy it should NEVER be used as a sole remedy without medical supervision.

[Tomlin]

I agree with Au Contraire. Regardless of what a study may show, I think that meditation might be a great compliment to any treatment for blood pressure.

Meditation is very difficult for those who are just beginning it, and I’d imagine that the health benefits (as they are measured by Western medicine) don’t start to manifest in any “provable” way till a person has practiced for at least a year. To that end, I’d imagine that any person who decides to toss their hypertension pills in favor of a new meditation regimen would not get any quick and easy results.

I can see that meditation, if practiced over a long time, might be great to prevent some emotional and physiological problems. But I have less faith that a crash course in the practice will help any newcomer from the MTV generation. As Generation X ages, I suppose we’ll all have to wait and see.

[maria s.]

Does anyone know what the basis or principles behind these different types of meditation or mind-body therapies are? Is this a way of channeling energy? I would like to maybe join a class, but I'm not really sure what it involves.

[Bill Flemming]

There's an article about these Mind/Body therapies that conflicts with these comments. In older adults, meditative practices and techniques, such as progressive muscle relaxation, can actually be very good for chronic pain. See the article at http://shamvswham.blogspot.com/2007/09/wham-mindbody-therapies-effective-for.html

Bill

[Leigh]

I personally have never tried meditation, but I'm sure if I started on my own, I would get MORE stressed because I wouldn't know what I was doing, and as a result, I would probably think of the stressors of my day MORE. I wonder if the study participants were beginners or if they had been practicing for an extended period of time...

[Water Point]

I’d rather relax by drinking some juice and siting in a comfy chair reading a book than siting on a hard floor and trying to empty my mind of the thought that I’m not really in the mood to meditate. People who get stressed out less frequently tend to experience fewer health problems, right? I would expect that most peoples’ blood pressure decreases some when they are at the beach. I will call it “Beach Therapy.”

[Laminar flow]

I agree with Bill. Integrative therapies are underrated for the treatment of mental illnesses. Water Point mentioned that her friend had some serious problems when getting on supplements to treat bipolar disorder, and I think that people with very serious mental illnesses should look to medications first. But for people who have mild to moderate bipolar disorder, exercise and other CAM treatment approaches may be the best bet.

[CR]

Meditation isn’t for everyone, and it doesn’t always mean “trying to empty your mind,” as Water Point puts it. For those patients interested in using it, I don’t see the harm, as long as they’re not abandoning other therapies. Subjective opinion goes a long way in either direction.

[Sean]

I don't feel this is something that can necessarily ever be proven conclusive. I think meditation and other relaxation therapies are dependent on the subject. Some people cannot bear to sit still or have minds that refuse to slow down and clear out to focus on one peaceful thought. I agree with Leigh; I think I'm the type of person that would just end up creating to-do lists in my head. Although these therapies are mostly necessary for high-stress people like myself, I think, for many, our lifestyles and mindsets block any potential benefits they may have.

[Richard]

The reason why people live longer in countries with pharmaceutical drugs is because they work better than wishy-washy treatments like meditation. Researchers should stop wasting their money on this stuff.

[dalz]

I participated in a zen meditation for the first time this past week, and my blood pressure was so low that I nearly passed out...not to mention the circulation in my leg got cut off! I'm for sure going to have meditation in my daily practice from now on.

[Elliot]

Some of the positions you have to get into to meditate look pretty uncomfortable. I thought this was supposed to be relaxing. How can you relax if you are in some totally unnatural and contorted position?

[JR]

I can personally attest to the benefits of yoga. After practicing for eight months, three times a week, I lost about 10 pounds and was able to come off my blood pressure medication. My doctor was thrilled! The health benefits of yoga can be profound. I'm not recommending people to stop taking all their medications, but to work toward that with the help of your doctor is a good goal. Probably the best thing to do is to add yoga to a well-rounded health regimen, so that it is truly 'complementary' medicine.