It was during the 1950s when Mahesh Yogi is said to have developed transcendental meditation (TM). It is a type of meditation that evolved from Hindu meditative practices of repeating mantras as a way of emptying the mind of conscious thought and becoming enlightened. A study published in the September/October 2011 issue of American Journal of Health Promotion, demonstrated that people with a history of having high health care costs were able to decrease these costs by 28 percent, on average, after five years of practicing transcendental meditation. This is a noteworthy discovery because, according to the study, in most populations a small fraction of people account for the majority of health care costs. Chronic stress was determined as the number one factor contributing to high medical expenses.
During the study there were 284 participants who had their physicians costs analyzed over a five year period. In this group there were 142 TM practitioners and 142 non practitioners. In a year before the study began there were no significant differences between the groups in regard to their payments to physicians. After the first year of the study the TM group’s physicians costs decreased by 11 percent, while the other group showed no significant changes. When the five year study was completed the TM’s reduction in physician’s costs was around 28 percent, while the other group still showed no significant changes. The study results are notable since it is the doctor who decides a patient’s medical expenses such as tests, prescription drugs, hospitalizations surgeries and more.
In a September 13, 2011 Press Release from Medical News Today, Robert E. Herron, Ph.D, the author of the study, is quoted as saying “This article has major policy significance for saving Medicare and Medicaid without cutting benefits or raising taxes. Almost no intervention for cost containment has decreased medical expenditures by 28% over 5 years from a baseline. Now, it may be possible to rescue Medicare and Medicaid by adding coverage for learning the Transcendental Meditation technique.”
Source
Press Release
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/234302.php
Article
http://www.ajhpcontents.org/doi/abs/10.4278/ajhp.100729-ARB-258