Study: Meditation Aids Teen Blood Pressure
From: Mozz (joda_at_dagobah.net)
Date: 08/29/04
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Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 13:34:14 GMT
ATLANTA - A study by the Medical College of Georgia found that two
15-minute meditation sessions each day — once at home, the other at
school — helped teenage students lower their blood pressure over four
months. Their blood pressure even continued to drop for four months
after the meditation sessions ended, researchers said Friday.
One high school senior who benefited from the study was Nick Fitts.
Fitts had a lot on his mind going into the research — two jobs, no car
and rocky relations with his mother.
The stress raised his blood pressure enough to put him at risk for
developing hypertension, even though he kept active with track, band
and junior ROTC.
When college officials asked Fitts to join a study of whether
meditation could lower blood pressure, he thought they were out of
their minds. But getting into his mind was the key.
Fitts says the program helped him.
"The meditation calms me down and makes me think better about things,"
said Fitts, now a nursing student at the University of South Carolina
at Aiken.
Researchers screened 5,000 students and found 156 had blood pressure
similar to Fitts. Half of that group received the meditation sessions
and the other half, a control group, were placed in health education
classes. All students wore blood pressure monitors 24 hours a day.
The control group did not have any reduction in blood pressure,
according to the study in the American Journal of Hypertension.
One in four adults have hypertension, which is a risk factor for heart
attack and stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (news - web sites), and health officials say teens who have
higher-than-normal blood pressure are more likely to develop the
chronic disease when they're older.
"It's no longer considered to be an adult disease," said Vernon
Barnes, a physiologist at the medical college and lead author of the
study.
Meditation is just one of several things — including healthy eating,
exercise and even medication — that can help lower blood pressure,
said Dr. Elizabeth Ofili, chief of cardiology at Morehouse School of
Medicine in Atlanta.
She added that people regularly need to have their blood pressure
checked: "It's never too early to be aware of the risk of blood
pressure."
Besides reducing their blood pressure, students who meditated also had
lower rates of absenteeism, school rule violations and suspensions
than those in the control group, Barnes said.
"It's noteworthy for educators — meditation might be included in the
school day as a program for reducing stress in the schools," Barnes
said.
Fitts said he now meditates 45 minutes each morning.
"I make peace with me," he said.
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