Meditation may lower heart risk in blacks: Study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Obese African American heart patients who regularly practice transcendental meditation are 48 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or die, a new study found on Tuesday.

Regular meditation also lowered blood pressure and reduced stress levels, while greater time spent meditating was associated with longer survival, according to the research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality And Outcomes.

"We hypothesised that reducing stress by managing the mind-body connection would help improve rates of this epidemic disease," said Mr Robert Schneider, lead researcher and director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention in Fairfield, Iowa.

"It appears that transcendental meditation is a technique that turns on the body's own pharmacy - to repair and maintain itself," added Mr Schneider, who led researchers conducting the study from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.