Needless to say, I was surprised to see the recent headline in The Wall Street Journal: "Meditation Has Limited Benefits, Study Finds." I've been researching the effects of meditation on health for 30 years and have found that it has compelling benefits. Over the past year, I have been invited by doctors in medical schools and major health centers on four continents to instruct them on the scientific basis of mind-body medicine and meditation in prevention and treatment of disease (especially cardiovascular disease).
Research on Transcendental Meditation, for example, has found reduced blood pressure, increased insulin resistance (useful for preventing diabetes), slowing of biological aging and even a 48 percent reduction in the rates of heart attack, stroke and death. I would consider those to be benefits. And so does the American Heart Association, which last year released a statement saying that decades of research indicate TM lowers blood pressure and may be considered by clinicians as a treatment for high blood pressure.
Research on meditation has also shown a wide range of psychological benefits. For example, a 2012 review of 163 studies that was published by the American Psychological Association concluded that Transcendental Meditation had relatively strong effects in reducing anxiety, negative emotions, trait anxiety and neuroticism while aiding learning, memory and self-realization. Mindfulness meditation had relatively strong effects in reducing negative personality traits and stress and in improving attention and mindfulness. Using an index that integrates both positive and negative factors related to psychological health from these studies, Transcendental Meditation scored significantly better.
The review concluded that "the effects found in the current analyses show that meditation affects people in important ways."
Why, then, did The Wall Street Journal report that meditation has limited benefits? The article was summarizing a review published in a specialty journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Internal Medicine) that examined 47 studies. That review was narrowly focused on research showing that meditation alleviates psychological stress, so objective benefits such as reduced blood pressure were outside its scope. In addition, the review only looked at studies in which the subjects had been diagnosed with a medical or psychiatric problem. The authors excluded studies of otherwise normal individuals with anxiety or stress as well as any study that wasn't on adults.
These selection criteria resulted in the omission of many rigorous studies, which, when taken as a whole, show that there are indeed benefits for reducing stress and anxiety. A 2013 meta-analysis (a type of rigorous review) of 10 controlled studies found that at least one meditation, Transcendental Meditation, significantly reduced anxiety. And the greater the starting level of anxiety in the test subjects, the greater was the reduction with meditation.
In a commentary that accompanied the article published by the AMA, Allan Goroll, MD, states, "The modest benefit found in the study by Goyal et al begs the question of why, in the absence of strong scientifically vetted evidence, meditation in particular and complementary measures in general have become so popular, especially among the influential and well educated."
I can answer that. Complementary and alternative approaches (now called integrative healthcare) have indeed been shown in rigorous scientific studies to have some major effects on mind and body health. But what is equally important is that people who use natural approaches are taking a more active role in their health. This is called self empowerment. This is what medical professionals should desire for their patients and themselves. This is the grail. We want people to adopt healthier behaviors and outlooks and attitudes, to take more responsibility. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the majority of chronic diseases could be prevented by proper self care. That is, by people managing their own stress and lifestyle.
In addition, think for a moment about acupuncture. There's been extensive research on its effectiveness in treating pain. Some of that research shows it to be better than a placebo; much of it shows it to be about the same as a placebo. But most of the research shows that it's better than no treatment. It is astounding that people can reduce their own pain, yet medical journals are typically fixated on the fact that it's often no better than a placebo.
Finally, people meditate because it can fundamentally change their self perceptions and sense of suffering. And, yes, research also supports this. In studies on long-term and even short-term practitioners of Transcendental Meditation, subjects report the experience of a fundamental level of unity and wholeness in their awareness. This gives them a deep feeling of peace, connectedness and relief from stress. EEG and brain imaging research shows that meditators' brains actually function differently than those who haven't learned the technique.
So to Dr. Goroll and all those who wonder why anyone would meditate, my observation, based on decades of published scientific research, is that meditation greatly contributes to a healthy, balanced mind and body. To ignore the evidence is to ignore the scientific basis of medicine.
As can be seen in the presentations on meditation at the world economic summit in Davos and the cover story of Time magazine last week, the benefits of meditation are coming to be widely accepted by health professionals, business leaders and the media. It's now time for the medical profession to catch up and provide this information to those who depend on them for the most advanced advice for mind and body health.
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and the David Lynch Foundation (DLF), a nonprofit organization that brings Transcendental Meditation to at-risk communities. On Feb. 11, DLF will host Meditation, Creativity, Performance and Stress, a panel discussion led by Andrew Ross Sorkin featuring Ray Dalio, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Mario Batali. For tickets and information, click here.