Mindfulness may positively impact cardiovascular health
New research from Michigan Technological University suggests an hour of mindfulness meditation can reduce anxiety and positively impact cardiovascular health—in particular, blood pressure. Study findings were presented April 23 at the 2018 Experimental Biology Meeting in San Diego.
“We know a little bit about mindfulness and blood pressure, but very little about blood pressure patterns or the mechanisms for how mindfulness may reduce blood pressure,” said lead author John Durocher, PhD, assistant professor of Biological Sciences at MTU and colleagues in a press release.
The researchers sought to determine the impact of acute mindfulness on cognition and the cardiovascular system to improve anti-anxiety therapies and interventions.
The study incorporated three different sessions. In the first, researchers measured anxiety using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (a self-reporting questionnaire that measures anxiety levels) and also measured heart rate variability, resting blood pressure and pulse wave analysis.
The second session included the aforementioned cardiovascular testing and 20 minutes of introductory meditation, a 30-minute body scan (where the study subject was asked to focus “intensely” on one part of the body at a time) and 10 minutes of self-guided meditation. The researchers repeated the cardiovascular measurements immediately after the meditation session and then 60 minutes post-meditation.
"The point of a body scan is that if you can focus on one single part of your body, just your big toe, it can make it much easier for you to deal with something stressful in your life,” said research co-designer and MTU biomedical engineering graduate Hannah Marti. “You can learn to focus on one part of it rather than stressing about everything else in your life.”
The last session was a post-meditation anxiety test one week after meditation.
The researchers found that 60 minutes after meditating, the 14 study subjects exhibited lower resting heart rates and a reduction in the aortic pulsatile load.
This particular study is unique as it examined the impact of a single mindfulness meditation session on anxiety and cardiovascular health outcome.
As a senior news writer for TriMed, Subrata covers cardiology, clinical innovation and healthcare business. She has a master’s degree in communication management and 12 years of experience in journalism and public relations.