Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Meditate or die.

Science Mag. Nov 16, 2009:

Meditation can cut the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death by almost 50% in patients with existing coronary heart disease, according to a new clinical trial. The findings indicate that relaxation and mental focusing can be as effective as powerful new drugs in treating heart disease.


The team asked one of the groups to also practice transcendental meditation for 15 to 20 minutes a day, following instructions from meditation experts. Over 5 years (and up to 9 years for some patients), the patients who practiced transcendental meditation on top of standard treatment experienced 47% fewer heart attacks, strokes, and deaths compared with the control group. For comparison, statin drugs, which reduce cholesterol levels, tend to lower the risk of life-threatening events by 30% to 40% relative to existing treatments. Common blood pressure drugs reduce these outcomes by 25% to 30%.

Unfortunately, the effect is not strong enough to change patients' behavior. I wish it were 10 times better than the regular drugs. Darn, and there's no distribution system for it either. yet.

tags: mousetrap, health, 10x, tool, system

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