Mind-Body Interventions

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The 2005 Expert Consensus Document on Complementary Medicine published by the American College of Cardiology concludes that: “although stress does not directly cause hypertension, it can clearly affect its development.”

2005 Expert Consensus Document (PDF) (see below)

(Eamon Curry, Stress Reduction, flickr. CC: BY 2.0.)

As you recall from the first unit on Mind-Body Therapies, there are many different mind-body techniques that can be used as adjunctive therapy in all sorts of health conditions. Please refer to that module to review descriptions of these practices if necessary. This ACC Consensus Statement identifies the following non-pharmacological treatments as effective interventions to decrease blood pressure: meditation, acupuncture, biofeedback, and music therapy. For the purposes of this module we will only examine the clinical issues and evidence that relates to the use of meditation for hypertension treatment.

It is worth noting that there is good evidence for a number of movement system practices in reducing blood pressure, which are both exercise and mind-body interventions. Please see this list of references for relevant studies.

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