NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Taking part in programs designed to modify behavior, such as anger management training and transcendental meditation sessions, seems to have a measurable impact on blood pressure in African Americans, according to preliminary results of the Health Education and Diet, Stress Management and Anger Reduction Therapy (HEAD SMART) study.

The findings were presented Sunday at the 15th International Interdisciplinary Conference on Hypertension and Related Risk Factors Among Ethnic Populations, held in Las Croabas, Puerto Rico.

"We're finding, at least with the first 84 people who have gone through the trial, that our behavioral and lifestyle modification interventions are having a significant effect on blood pressure," lead investigator Dr. Charlie Lollis told Reuters Health.

"Blood pressure, at least from the anger management and transcendental meditation (groups), is being reduced on average by 12 millimeters mercury (mm Hg) systolic and 7 to 8 millimeters mercury diastolic," said Lollis, a professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.

In this study, the researchers had specially trained certified health educators, a mental health therapist, and a certified transcendental meditation (TM) instructor, study co-author Dr. Kofi Kondwani, administer the various interventions. Study participants spent 13 weekly sessions learning anger management skills, or health behavior modifications, or TM.

Lollis pointed out that even in the lifestyle modification group, which was taught about diet and nutrition and other health behaviors but did not receive anger management or training, blood pressure was reduced by 8 mm Hg systolic and 6 mm Hg diastolic.

Blood pressure levels are recorded by two numbers, the upper or systolic and the lower, or diastolic. The upper number measures the pressure of the heart during a contraction while the lower number is a reflection of the heart at rest, between beats.

There are misconceptions about TM, Lollis said. And one of them is that TM is some sort of religion. It is not, nor does it require any religious involvement, she emphasized. "It's a simple mental technique...to achieve a restful state of alertness, kind of the art of doing nothing," she noted wryly.

Lollis believes that stress reduction techniques and TM are "really cost effective" and may soon represent adjunct therapeutic options for people with high blood pressure, as the evidence accumulates for the effectiveness of the interventions.

She and her colleagues plan to look at the long-term effects of these techniques, as well. "After 3 months (of the study), we showed significant effects, but what happens when you don't have the formal meetings...with the instructor?" she speculated. "Will the individuals continue to participate in the intervention on their own or will we start to find compliance drop?"

The researchers also will be investigating the effects of combining therapies, such as TM with lifestyle modification to see if the effects are additive, in terms of blood pressure reductions.

As to whether other diseases may also be affected by these interventions, Lollis said her team is about "to embark upon (a study) looking at the effects of TM for reducing atherosclerosis," that is, fatty plaque formation on artery walls.

"If we can take these interventions and use them (to prevent disease)," she commented, "then we can reduce some of the excess burden of healthcare costs and illness...particularly in African Americans who are so disproportionately represented among the leading causes of death."

　　(From HealthCentral.com)