Category: Cardiovascular

Background and aim Mental stress represents a pivotal factor in cardiovascular diseases. The mechanism by which stress produces its deleterious effects is still under study, but one of the most explored pathways is inflammation-aging and cell senescence. In this scenario, circulating microRNAs appear to be regulatory elements of the telomerase activity and alternative splicing within the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer (NF-κB) network. Anti-stress techniques appeared to be […]

Stress is a term used to define the body’s physiological and psychological reactions to circumstances that require behavioral adjustment [1,2,3], and the relaxation response is a psychophysiological state that is opposite to that of the stress or fight–flight response [4]. A variety of mind/body techniques can be used to elicit a relaxation response and achieve the therapeutic effects associated with reduced blood pressure. For example, researchers at the Cochrane Review [5] investiga […]

Background: The effect of intercessory prayer (IP) on outcome in cardiac cases has been evaluated previously, but results are controversial. The goals of the Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) are to evaluate the effects of receipt of additional study IP and awareness of receipt of additional study IP on outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. STEP is not designed to determine whether God exists or whether God does or does not […]

We report extremely prominent heart rate oscillations associated with slow breathing during specific traditional forms of Chinese Chi and Kundalini Yoga meditation techniques in healthy young adults. We applied both spectral analysis and a novel analytic technique based on the Hilbert transform to quantify these heart rate dynamics. The amplitude of these oscillations during meditation was significantly greater than in the pre-meditation control state and also in three non-meditation […]

Immediately before they underwent femoral angiography, 45 patients were given one of three types of audiotapes: a relaxation response tape recorded for this study, a tape of contemporary instrumental music, or a blank tape. All patients were instructed to listen to their audiotape during the entire angiographic procedure. Each audiotape was played through earphones. Radiologists were not told the group assignment or tape contents. The patients given the audiotape with instructions to […]

We previously reported reduced blood pressure, psychological symptoms, and other cardiac risk factors in hypertensive patients who participated in a nonpharmacologic, outpatient behavioral program. The present study is a 3 to 5 year follow-up of 59 (60%) of the same patients (who served as their own controls) to assess continued efficacy of the program. At entry into the study, patients had hypertension for a median of 6 years. Therefore, it is unlikely that placebo effect could expla […]

This study evaluated the efficacy of the relaxation response on the postoperative recovery of 27 cardiac surgery patients randomly assigned to one of two groups. Thirteen experimental group patients received educational information and practiced eliciting the relaxation response before and after surgery. The 14 patients in the control group received only information. Experimental and control groups were compared before and after surgery on both physiological and psychological recovery […]

Hypertension is one of the leading health problems in the United States. It is commonly accepted that as many as 60 million Americans have hypertension, with the majority (>70%) having mild elevations (diastolic pressure range, 90-104 mm Hg). The treatment of hypertension accounts for more office visits to health care providers and more treatment than any other medical diagnosis. A 1980 National Institutes of Health survey showed that about 2% of visits to health care providers wer […]

To determine whether decreased sympathetic-nervous-system activity achieved by the relaxation response could decrease premature ventricular contractions (P.V.C.S), eleven ambulatory patients with proven, stable ischæmic heart-disease and P.V.C.s were investigated. The patients, who were taking no medication for the P.V.C.S, were trained to elicit regularly the relaxation response through a non-cultic psychological technique. The frequency of the P.V.C.s was measured by computer analys […]

A wakeful hypometabolic state may be induced by simple, non-cultic mental techniques or by traditional meditational practices. The hypometabolic state seems to represent an integrated hypothalamic response ("relaxation response") which is consistent with a state of decreased sympathetic-nervous-system activity. A prospective investigation was designed to test whether regular elicitation of the relaxation response might lower blood-pressures in hypertensive patients who were maintained […]