Complementary Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

Chapter 8 / Meditation and CVD 121
8 Meditation and Cardiovascular
Disease
Erin L. Olivo, PhD
CONTENTS
THE MIND–BODY CONNECTION
MEDITATION AS A MIND–BODY INTERVENTION
RESEARCH ON MEDITATION PRACTICE
MEDITATION FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS
REFERENCES
THE MIND–BODY CONNECTION
The connection between the mind and body is a concept that is increasingly
being accepted in mainstream Western culture. Technological
advances have made it possible to understand and map the connection
among emotion, mood, and biology. As a result, we now have a mounting
body of evidence that supports the link between psychological state,
autonomic activity, and the development of coronary heart disease
(CHD) (1–6). This basic mind–brain–body paradigm has been diagrammatically
represented by Sloan et al. (7), as seen in Fig. 1 below. In this
model, the autonomic nervous system is seen as a factor linking psychology
and chronic stress to CHD development and outcome.
Paralleling the advances in our understanding of the role of stress and
psychology in disease processes is the research conducted to find potential
interventions in this mind–brain–body paradigm. Scientific evidence
supports the use of various mind–body techniques to favorably alter
various physiologic and psychological aspects of health, particularly
From: Contemporary Cardiology
Complementary and Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine
Edited by: R. A. Stein and M. C. Oz © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
121