Transcendental Meditation is a frequent source of heated debate. Just check out the entry on Wikipedia. It’s a positive read except that much of it is contested. Such is the risk of the “free encyclopedia.” Robert Todd Carroll has a more skeptical view of TM.

Anyway, with that in mind, here’s a study of the effectiveness of transcendental meditation on functional capacity and quality of life of African Americans with congestive heart failure.

It was done by department of medicine from the University of Pennsylvania.

23 adult Black patients hospitalized with congestive heart failure participated in either transcendental meditation or health education.

When measured at 3 and 6 months after starting treatment, the meditation group could walk further in 6 minutes, had fewer rehospitalizations, and better overall functioning.

The researchers are encouraged and plan another study.

2/11/07 23:44 JR

Hi, I’m JR

John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.