Transcendental Meditation and Yoga: Short- and Long-term Effects in Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients - a Pilot Study

Summary

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in Austria. The ESC guidelines recommend cardiac rehabilitation after coronary events (acute coronary syndrome, myocardial infarction, etc) with the highest level of evidence. Drug therapy and non-pharmacological measures such as a targeted and individualized exercise program, stress management programs, reduction of cardiovascular risk parameters through training, nutritional counseling, smoking cessation, etc. reduce the cardiovascular risk of recurrence. The reduction of psychosocial stress is regarded as one of the major factors in cardiac rehabilitation, alongside physical training and nutrition.

In this study, transcendental meditation (TM) and yoga will be added on top of regular cardiac rehabilitation to investigate the efficiency of these methods to possibly improve the quality of life of recovering patients. Both methods are believed to reduce stress for users, while being relatively easy to introduce to and implement in daily life for beginners, carrying no extra cost for them further down the line. The main hypothesis is that cardiac patients undergoing rehabilitation plus TM or yoga therapy will show changes in endothelial function, micobiome and stress levels. Three groups of 10 participants from a cardiac cardiac rehabilitation will be subjected to standard rehabilitation, rehabilitation with meditation, and rehabilitation with yoga, respectively. The vascular state of each patient will be closely monitored over the 4 weeks, as well as after a 1-year follow up. Furthermore, the expected stress reductions will be assessed in short term and long-term by researching hair cortisol levels, on top of self-reporting questionnaires.

Conditions

• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Vascular Diseases
• Stress, Psychological

Interventions

OTHER

Transcendental Meditation

In the beginning, the patients from group B will receive an introductory lecture about transcendental meditation (TM) which includes general information, the procedure itself and other techniques of relaxation and personal development. In this first session the method is learned by practice, in the following 3 meetings additional instructions are given about the correct practice of the TM technique; TM is practiced twice a day for 20 minutes. The method is easy to learn and effortless. To guarantee the right performance of TM by the patients, there will be two group meetings per week and one individual personal meeting with the TM teacher.After discharge from the rehabilitation program (after 4 weeks) there will be meetings offered according to the patients need. This will then be arranged individually.

OTHER

Yoga

In addition to the standard rehabilitation exercise training, the patients in this group will receive a 20-minute workshop where they learn how to do the yoga exercise. The initial yoga workshop will be held by Dr. Gilda Wüst who is a yoga expert with a lot of experience based in St. Radegund. After this, yoga sessions will be included (additionally to the regular/standard exercise) into their daily timetable. Two yoga sessions will be done every day, one in the morning (6:30-6:50) and one in the evening (16:30-16:50) and will last for about 20 minutes.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Medical University of Graz

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nandu Goswami, MD · [email protected]

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

40 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-10-01

Primary Completion

2020-10-01

Completion

2020-12-31

Countries

• Austria

Study Locations