Transcendental Meditation and Health

Transcendental Meditation is good for your health. 

Two of the most commonly reported effects after learning TM is sleeping better and improved health. Hundreds of doctors all over the world practise TM and recommend it to their patients, having carefully examined the scientific evidence.

"I feel a lot clearer, calmer and less stressed - basically I feel a lot happier. It is becoming more and more recognised by the medical world as having benefits... I cannot recommend it highly enough. It has worked for me and I know other people who have had the same experience."
Dr. Joseph Cassidy - GP in Glasgow

Better Health

Improve your health with TM A five year study of health insurance data of over 2000 people found that TM users required less than half the amount of health care as controls. They also needed less hospitalisation for 17 categories of disease, including 87% less for heart and vascular disease, and 55% less for cancer.
REFERENCE: Psychosomatic Medicine 49: 493-507 (1987)

 

Health insurance statistics show TM practitioners have a lower incidence of disease in all categories. 

  • 87% less heart disease 
  • 55% less tumours 
  • 87% less nervous system disorders 
  • 73% less lung, nose and throat 
  • 63% less injuries 
  • 65% less metabolic disorders 
  • 67% less bone and muscle disorders 
  • 49% less gastrointestinal disease

Prevention of illness
Scientific research shows that illnesses may improve with regular practise of Transcendental Meditation. These include insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure, angina, hardening of the arteries, abuse of alcohol, cigarettes and non-prescription drugs, migraine, ulcers, asthma. Many of these conditions are stress-related.

Improve your health with TMThe benefits of Transcendental Meditation for health are not limited to the cure and prevention of particular medical conditions. By reducing stress and tension, TM enables you to unfold your potential, enriching all aspects of your life. 

 

With regular practice TM helps to develop a state of perfect health: 

  • Better sleep 
  • More rewarding relationships 
  • Reduced abuse of alcohol and other drugs 
  • Increased energy 
  • Greater harmony in marriage 
  • Increased intelligence and creativity 
  • Reversal of the damaging effects of ageing 


Reversal of aging
Perhaps the most interesting research is on the effect of TM on ageing. Studies show that many of the changes associated with ageing are found to be decreasing in people who meditate. 

Researchers have discovered that the longer you have meditated, the lower your biological age (as measured by blood pressure, and visual and auditory performance) becomes when compared with your chronological age.

On average TM meditators have the biological age of a person 5 to 12 years younger. It is therefore not surprising that some researchers conclude that 'TM reverses ageing'.

Improve your health with TMMeditators who had been practising TM for more than 5 years performed at a level 12 years younger than their chronological age in tests of blood pressure, and visual and auditory performance.
REFERENCES: 1. International Journal of Neuroscience 16: 53-58 (1982); 2. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57(6): 950-964 (1989); 3. Age 10(4): 160 (1987)

Another study of people in their eighties showed a marked improvement rather than deterioration in their mental and physical health and well-being over a three year period of practising TM.

It appears that with TM people can enjoy a long and healthy life. As one doctor who practises TM says, "TM brings years to your life, and life to your years!"

Facts and Figures
  • After examining the impressive scientific research data on Transcendental Meditation, Holland's largest health insurance company, Silver Cross, now offers 30% reductions in health insurance premiums to people who practise TM regularly. BUPA also offers group discounts. 

  • In Great Britain over 1000 doctors have learned TM and many recommend it to their patients. The doctors have formed a professional body, British Association for the Medical Application of Transcendental Meditation, to promote the use of TM in the UK. 

  • The first scientific research on TM was published in 1970 in The Lancet. Since then, more than 600 research and review papers have been written on TM. These studies, authored by more than 360 researchers from over 200 universities and institutes in 30 countries, have appeared in more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific journals.