The promising role of Transcendental Meditation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic diseases: A systematic review
Author: Mahesh Kumar Khanal1, Leila Karimi1, Peter Saunders1, Robert H Schneider2,3, John Salerno3, Karen Livesay1, Karen T Hallam1, Barbora de Courten1,4
Affiliation:
1 School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
2 College of Integrative Medicine, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa, USA.
3 Institute for Prevention Research, Vedic City, Iowa, USA.
4 Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Conference/Journal: Obes Rev
Date published: 2024 Jul 28
Other:
Pages: e13800 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1111/obr.13800. , Word Count: 222
Psychological distress has a demonstrable impact on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and risk factors. Transcendental Meditation (TM) has been shown to reduce stress and improve health and well-being. The current review aimed to synthesize the evidence on the effects of TM on cardiometabolic outcomes and identify gaps for future research. We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, and Web of Science databases for relevant literature. Forty-five papers that reported studies of TM on cardiometabolic risk factors and diseases were included. Evidence shows that TM is effective in reducing blood pressure (BP). We found some evidence that TM can improve insulin resistance and may play a role in improving dyslipidemia, exercise tolerance, and myocardial blood flow, and in reducing carotid intima-media thickness and left ventricular mass. Studies show that long-term TM practice can reduce the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and CVD mortality. This review identified that certain studies have high participant drop-out rates, and fewer studies targeted comprehensive cardiometabolic outcomes beyond BP with longer follow-up periods. We found that most studies were conducted in specific populations, which may limit generalizability. In conclusion, TM has the potential to improve cardiometabolic health; however, research gaps highlight the need for larger phase III multicenter clinical trials with long-term follow-ups.
Keywords: blood pressure (BP); cardiovascular diseases (CVD); dyslipidemia; hypertension; insulin resistance; metabolic syndrome (MS); obesity.
PMID: 39072971 DOI: 10.1111/obr.13800
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