Transitioning to True Health Care:Potential of the Transcendental Meditation® Technique and Associated Consciousness-Based® Technologies. Part 2
Transitioning to True Health Care:
Potential of the Transcendental Meditation® Technique and Associated
Consciousness-Based® Technologies.
Part 2. Areas for Potential Implementation and Further Research
Kenneth G. Walton and David W. Orme-Johnson
Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa
ABSTRACT
As described in Part 1 of this two-part document, ample studies support the general claim that practice of the TM technique can reduce or remove effects of stress and improve health. Research in some areas may be strong enough to support inclusion of this technique in existing prevention and treatment programs. All areas of previous research on these technologies would benefit from further studies, both larger RCTs and more long-term naturalistic projects. In addition, there appears to be evidence to support research on higher states of consciousness, and a new definition of “health”, under the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. This program promotes ideas aimed at filling major gaps in our understanding of human health, the kind of endeavors that might struggle to gain funding through traditional channels. Here we list a few of the areas for possible implementation or further research.
Areas for Possible Implementation and Expanded Research
Prevention and Treatment of Cardiometabolic Disease and Stroke
Hypertension is a major risk factor for both cardiometabolic disease and stroke. In a current report authored by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, and endorsed by 11 other medical committees, psychosocial stress is now recognized as a causal factor in hypertension (see Jones et al.1). The report also recognizes the Transcendental Meditation technique as an effective way to lower stress and to prevent or reduce hypertension.1
A systematic review of TM research in this area covers work through May of 2024.2 Further, a recent trial confirms earlier research indicating that factors related to cardiometabolic disease and stroke, such as carotid intima media thickness (CIMT, a surrogate measure of atherosclerosis), insulin resistance, hemoglobin A1c, and obesity, are all affected positively by TM practice in Black women patients with or at risk for cardiometabolic disease.3 In this study, TM was associated not only with a slowing of CIMT progression but also with an elevation of HDL (“Good”) cholesterol, both of which are associated with lower risk of stroke.
The results of 5-to-8-year follow-up studies of TM RCTs that were focused on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), including death, also have implications for further research and implementation. MACE reductions of 30% to 66% have been reported, with the magnitude of effect depending on initial severity of disease and on degree of compliance with the recommended twice-daily TM practice.4-5
Adding weight to the body of research suggesting a positive effect of TM in reducing cardiometabolic disease and stroke, other workers now report the existence of a previously unknown neural pathway mediating adaptation to stress.6 This pathway links the amygdala to the liver and appears to be involved in precipitating hyperglycemia and hyperphagia under chronic stress. New research is needed to determine the possible involvement of this pathway in cardiometabolic adaptations facilitated by TM.
Implementation ideas: 1) Medicare coverage of TM instruction. 2) Government support for TM educational classes in medical schools. 3) Support for TM instruction in primary and secondary education.
Ideas for new research: 1) Multi-site Phase III clinical trials; 2) A naturalistic observational study, patterned after the Framingham Heart Study, for determining progressive health-related changes in subjects who learn and continue to practice the TM-technique; 3) Further research on mechanisms of TM’s effects; 4) Societal studies, possibly retrospective, in communities where the number of individual TM practitioners reaches 1% or the number practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi programs in a group reaches √1%; both of these percentages are threshold values within specific societal units and were verified in past studies.
Prevention and Treatment of Addictions
Research indicates that practice of the TM technique produces a wide range of effects that are opposite to those associated with the causes of addictions.7-9 This leads to an expected benefit of TM in a range of addictions, not merely in one category.
In a statistical meta-analysis of 19 studies, effect sizes for TM ranged from .55 for alcoholism to .87 for cigarette use, with the effect size for illicit drug use at .83.7 Effect sizes for TM were statistically far greater than those for other interventions. Moreover, whereas for most treatments, the abstinence rate declines sharply over time, for TM abstinence remains high or even increases with time.7 This was true even in a randomized, controlled trial of extreme “skid-row” alcoholics followed for 18 months using validated objective verification techniques.10
A more recent study has confirmed that addition of TM to an Alcohol Use Disorder treatment program made those who practiced TM twice-daily (as recommended) less likely than the rest of the sample to return to any drinking (25% vs. 59%; p = .02) or heavy drinking (0% vs. 47%, p < .001) post-discharge.11
Implementation ideas: 1) Medicare coverage of TM instruction. 2) Government support for adding TM instruction to addiction treatment programs. 3) Programs to add TM instruction for prevention of addictions in primary and secondary education.
Ideas for new research: 1) Multi-site, multi-substance Phase III trials for addiction treatment; 2) Naturalistic observational studies of TM for prevention of addictions; 3) Further research on mechanisms; 4) Societal studies, possibly retrospective, in communities where the number of individual TM practitioners reaches 1% or the number practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi programs in a group reaches √1%.
Mental Health
Stress is a causal factor in most diseases, both physical and mental (see Part 1 and here12-13 for general and here, e.g.14-16, for more on mental diseases). The most obvious examples of mental diseases induced by stress are Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, and health-damaging addictions. Stress also plays a critical role in criminal behaviors.
As presented in Part 1, comprehensive reviews and quantitative metanalyses show the TM technique to be highly effective and rapidly acting in treating PTSD, compared to alternative active treatments17-18, with an average effect size for TM of 1.01.18 TM is also effective at reducing trait anxiety, with an average effect size of 0.50 compared to alternative active treatments.19-20 It is important to acknowledge that one meta-analysis21 reached a different conclusion regarding the effectiveness of TM for trait anxiety because of a combination of narrower selection criteria and the omission of four studies that appeared to meet its criteria, as discussed in detail here20. When all studies are included and strength of design is accounted for in the analysis, the TM technique is effective, with an effect size of 0.5 or greater.
Individual studies also report the TM technique reduces depression.22
Ideas for implementation and new research in this area would parallel those in areas A and B.
Criminal Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention
As discussed under the last section of Part 1, Practical Effect of Growing Enlightenment—"True Health”, practice of the TM technique promotes psychosocial development in prisoners, both for advancing through the stages of waking state and for the cultivation of higher states.23-25 These developments in consciousness appear to provide a basis for the practical outcomes of reduced recidivism and improved clinical health observed in different prison studies after introducing TM.24, 26-27
Incarceration is costly and places a burden on society. Parole programs also are expensive and are of questionable value in preventing reoffending. Initial exploration of the possible benefit of sentencing probationers to learn and practice the TM technique has been promising.28 If widely applied, TM for prisoners and probationers could save billions of dollars in the U.S. alone.29
Ideas for implementing and researching effects of the TM program on the physical and mental health of prisoners and parolees are far ranging.
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