Mindful meditation has beneficial effects. A study has found that 60 minutes after meditating, participants showed lower resting heart rates and a reduction in aortic pulsatile load — the amount of change in blood pressure between diastole and systole of each heartbeat multiplied by heart rate. Additionally, shortly after meditating, and even one week later, the group reported anxiety levels to be lower than pre-meditation levels. While it has been well-documented that meditation over the course of several weeks reduces anxiety, there have been few comprehensive research studies on the benefits of a single meditation session. The study was to understand the effect of acute mindfulness on cognition and the cardiovascular system in order to improve anti-anxiety therapies and interventions. The study by a team of Michigan Technological University researchers will be presented at the 2018 Experimental Biology meet, in San Diego, this week.
