That same conclusion applies to virtually the entire body of research reviewed by the AHRQ.
Everyone studies their own favorite form of meditation. and it wasn't merely TM-afiliated people complaining. As the info I already linked shows, there were quite a few non-TMers miffed at how their research was evaluated. Harald Walach, for example, has published on mindfulness as well as TM. http://www.mum.edu/inmp/walach.html http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Walach%20H%5BAuthor%5D BTW, have you ever noticed that the way that asanas are taught in TM is a mild form of mindfulness practice and that the more formal course is even more mindfulness oriented? It is only in your own mind that it is an either/or thing. L. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@...> wrote: > > > On Jul 18, 2012, at 3:55 AM, sparaig wrote: > > > Any review that big is bound to have issues. I believe I already > > linked to some of them. > > > IIRC the ONLY people who had any problem, was the TMO. In fact, they > were so miffed at having their inadequacies exposed, they had TMO- > affiliated statisticians forward a desperate response in the form of > their own review. Now THAT'S desperate. When your sinking ship is > only being held up by Oprah and Russell Brand, it's time to abandon > ship! > > It's pretty well known in Integrative circles that meditation is not > the best intervention for BP issues, so much so that my physician > prescribes yoga for moderately elevated BP. > > The fact is, it was already well known that Transcendental Meditation > blood pressure research was of poor quality, and that research was > published in the Journal of Hypertension itself (!): > > Insufficient evidence to conclude whether or not Transcendental > Meditation decreases > blood pressure: results of a systematic review of randomized clinical > trials. > > META-ANALYSIS > > Journal of Hypertension. 22(11):2049-2054, November 2004. > > Canter, Peter H; Ernst, Edzard > > Abstract: > > Objective: To carry out an independent, systematic review of > randomized clinical trials of > Transcendental Meditation (TM) for cumulative effects on blood pressure. > Method: Searches were made of electronic databases and the collected > papers and official web > sites of the TM organization. We included only randomized clinical > trials, without confounding > co-interventions, which measured the cumulative effects of TM on > blood pressure. > > Results: Six trials met the inclusion criteria but one, reported only > in abstract form, could not be > evaluated. Procedures for establishing baseline blood pressure were > adequate in only one trial. > Only one of the trials included a follow-on assessment and only one > of the evaluable trials > tested the effect of TM in hypertensive individuals. Three of the > five evaluable trials reported > statistically significant differences between intervention groups > favouring TM and two found no > significant differences between intervention groups. None of the five > studies was conducted by > independent authors without any affiliation to the TM organization. > > Conclusion: All the randomized clinical trials of TM for the control > of blood pressure published > to date have important methodological weaknesses and are potentially > biased by the affiliation > of authors to the TM organization. There is at present insufficient > good-quality evidence to > conclude whether or not TM has a cumulative positive effect on blood > pressure. >
