School-Induced Stress Can Be Addressed with Meditation

For high school and college students, practicing transcendental meditation (TM) could prove to be one of the easiest, surest ways of reducing the amount of emotional distress they are subject to on a daily basis. The conclusion belongs to a study carried out at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Back in 2009, nearly 60 percent of these students reported good emotional health statuses. A single year later, only 52 percent of them reported the same results. At this time, the average is the lowest in the past 25 years, scientists say.

But transcendental meditation can help in this regard. The technique can help reduce overall psychological distress by as much as 36 percent, the investigators learned. The work was led by Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research investigator Charles Elder, MD, PsychCentral reports.

“Decreased stress can have a positive impact on mental health, and can also reduce the risk for hypertension, obesity, and diabetes – major risk factors for heart disease,” the expert says.