Some follow-up:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote:
<snip>
> Apparently Ms. Digital Stalker loves to post elaborate
> straw men to draw responses from certain writers. They
> are typically fictional, imaginary schemes Our Dear
> Editor concocts.
I have no idea what Vaj's fantasy is here about my
wanting to "draw responses from certain writers."
I exposed his lies as one more example of why readers
should not trust anything he says.
And as far as "typically fictional, imaginary schemes"
are concerned, Vaj has not rebutted--nor can he rebut--
a single one of the facts I've posted.
> My only response to this latest pathetic strawman campaign
> is LOL: No, no, no.
This, my friends, is not a rebuttal.
<snip>
> The TM, unpublished research does not get any such
> mention. Kinda surprising to find, now that I've received
> around 50 emails announcing it being posted somewhere.
> Amazing really the level of deception and the mass mailing
> suggesting importance.
Again, the presentation is listed in the final program
on the AHA conference Web site.
I don't know what people are telling Vaj in email, but
this is what Dick Mays originally posted here on November
17 (the only place I've seen it). "Remarkable" is his
term, not that of the press release. I don't see anything
in the press release that does anything but state the
facts of the study and the quoted opinions of the
investigators.
But note in the third paragraph that the study was funded
by a grant from NIH and was conducted at The Medical
College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. None of the other
researchers named appears to be associated with TM.
Here's the press release:
TM helped lower heart attack, stroke, and death by nearly 50 %
Dick Mays
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:40:14 -0800
Remarkable finding presented at the annual meeting of the
American Heart Association!
News Release
--------------------------------------------------
Medical College of Wisconsin For more information,
contact: Office of Public Affairs Toranj Marphetia
(tor...@mcw.edu) <mailto:(las...@mcw.edu)><mailto:
(las...@mcw.edu)> 8701 Watertown Plank Road Director of
Media Relations Milwaukee, WI 53226 Cellular: 414-303-
1242 Fax (414) 456-6166 Office: 414-456-4700 EMBARGO
PRESS RELEASE: NOVEMBER 16, 2009, 4:15 PM, ET.
CONTACT for MUM/INMP: Ken Chawkin, 641-470-1314,
kchaw...@mum.edu
Transcendental Meditation helped heart disease patients
lower risks of heart attack, stroke, and death by nearly
50 percent
Results of first-ever study to be presented at annual
meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando,
Nov. 16
Patients with coronary heart disease who practiced the
stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation® technique had
nearly 50 percent lower rates of heart attack, stroke,
and death compared to non-meditating controls, according
to the results of a first-ever study presented during the
annual meeting of the American Heart Association in
Orlando, Fla., on Nov.16, 2009.
The trial was sponsored by a $3.8 million grant from the
National Institutes of Health-National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute, and was conducted at The Medical College
of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in collaboration with the
Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at
Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.
The nine-year, randomized control trial followed 201
African-American men and women, average age 59 years,
with narrowing of arteries in their hearts who were
randomly assigned to either practice the stress-reducing
Transcendental Meditation technique or to participate in
a control group which received health education classes
in traditional risk factors, including dietary
modification and exercise.
All participants continued standard medications and other
usual medical care.
The study found:
* A 47 percent reduction in the combination of death,
heart attacks, and strokes in the participants
* Clinically significant (5 mm Hg average) reduction in
blood pressure associated with decrease in clinical
events
* Significant reductions in psychological stress in the
high-stress subgroup
According to Robert Schneider, M.D., FACC, lead author
and director of the Center for Natural Medicine and
Prevention, "Previous research on Transcendental
Meditation has shown reductions in blood pressure,
psychological stress, and other risk factors for heart
disease, irrespective of ethnicity. But this is the first
controlled clinical trial to show that long-term practice
of this particular stress reduction program reduces the
incidence of clinical cardiovascular events, that is
heart attacks, strokes and mortality."
"This study is an example of the contribution of a
lifestyle intervention-stress management-to the
prevention of cardiovascular disease in high-risk
patients," said Theodore Kotchen, M.D., co-author of the
study, professor of medicine, and associate dean for
clinical research at the Medical College. Other
investigators at the Milwaukee site included Drs. Jane
Kotchen and Clarence Grim.
Dr. Schneider said that the effect of Transcendental
Meditation in the trial was like adding a class of newly
discovered medications for the prevention of heart
disease. "In this case, the new medications are derived
from the body's own internal pharmacy stimulated by the
Transcendental Meditation practice," he said.
Fast Facts on Coronary Heart Disease
* Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of
death in the United States * There are nearly 1.5 million
heart attacks per year in the US, according to the
American Heart Association
* An American will suffer a heart attack every 34 seconds
* Coronary heart disease is also the leading cause of
health care costs. More than $475 billion is spent
annually on treating CHD, including:
- $100,000 for each coronary bypass surgery
- $50,000 for each angioplasty
- $30,000 for each diagnostic cardiac catheterization
* There are nearly 500,000 coronary artery bypass grafts
and 1.3 million angioplasties performed every year
* Stress is thought to contribute to the development of
CHD
