Meditation can reduce blood pressure.

• Position: Your Life - Brief article

Mindfulness-based stress reduction can reduce high blood pressure, which affects nearly 60,000,000 adults in the U.S., according to researchers at Ohio's Kent State University. MBSR-which involves the practice of meditation, body awareness, and some gentle yoga--has been shown to be effective in preventing and treating depression and anxiety and alleviating stress, but scientific studies of its effects on blood pressure are rare.

Joel W. Hughes, and David M. Fresco, both associate professors of psychology, suggest that MBSR "may be an appropriate complementary treatment" for patients who prefer lifestyle changes and stress-management approaches to treating high blood pressure, or hypertension. The adults who entered the study were 'pre-hypertensive," meaning that they displayed higher levels of blood pressure but not quite high enough to take medication.

One question left unanswered by the study is whether meditation can help individuals whose hypertension has crossed into the range commonly treated by...