Older Women with Breast Cancer Benefit from Transcendental Meditation

PREVIOUS STUDIES HAVE shown that stress often accompanies a diagnosis of cancer, and patients who report high levels of stress often have worse outcomes. A 2-year trial conducted at Saint Joseph Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, has found that transcendental meditation (TM) offers women with breast cancer a way to beat stress and improve their quality of life.

The study enrolled 130 women ≥55 who had a diagnosis of breast cancer. Researchers randomly assigned the women to a group that would learn and practice transcendental meditation (n = 64) or to a usual care group (n = 66). They were surveyed on various quality of life (QOL) concerns every 6 months using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy—Breast (FACT-B), Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy– Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-SP), and the Short-Form (SF)-36 mental health and vitality scales.

The women in the experimental group reported significant improvements in overall QOL compared with the control group, including FACT-B total score (P = .037), emotional well-being (P = .046), and social well-being (P = .003) subscales. They also scored better on the SF-36 mental health scale (P = .017). According to Sanford Nid ich, lead author and a senior researcher at the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, “The women in the study found their meditation practice easy to do at home and reported significant benefits in their overall quality of life.”

TM was introduced in India in the 1950s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and is widely practiced throughout the world. Certified teachers lead students through a 7-step course that involves using a sound mantra for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day while seated comfortably, eyes closed. The authors recommended that this TM stress reduction program “be adopted in public health programs.” Co-author Rhoda Pomerantz, MD, chief of gerontology at Saint Joseph Hospital, said in a press release, “I believe this approach should be appreciated and utilized more widely.”

Several institutions collaborated in the NIH-funded study, including the Center for Healthy Aging at Saint Joseph Hospital, North-western University, Indiana State University, and the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management. The study was published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies.