Complementary Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

122 Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine
Fig. 1. The mind–brain–body paradigm (7).
regarding cardiovascular risk factors and stress (8,9). The medical use
of these interventions, which can be generally categorized under the
label of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), has increased
significantly during the last decade (10,11). This interest is reflected in
the active use of such therapies by the general public. A study of trends
in the use of CAM approaches in the United States in the past decade
indicate that an approx 42% of the public reported use of CAM therapies
in 1997 (12). This same trend can be found in cardiac surgery patients.
Of the cardiac surgery patients surveyed at Columbia Presbyterian
Medical Center (New York) in 1998, 75% reported having used at least
one form of alternative treatment in the previous 12 mo (13). In addition,
it is likely that these rates of usage are on the rise, because CAM therapies
are increasingly being popularized by mainstream media.
MEDITATION AS A MIND–BODY INTERVENTION
One of the most widely used and well-studied CAM therapies is
meditation. Although there are many variations of meditative practice,
meditation can be broadly defined as any activity that involves the controlled
regulation of attention. One of the primary benefits of meditation
is the achievement of a “relaxation response,” a term coined by Herbert
Benson to describe the hypometabolic changes, such as reduction in