Relax

It will open your heart.

There's a meeting of The American Psychosomatic Society today in Vancouver. One of the abstracts submitted was highlighted as having great potential to change clinical practice. I'm skeptical, since the therapy suggested forsakes the financial coffers of health practitioners, medical institutions, and pharmaceutical companies.

Inexpensive, no side effects, and occasionally blissful.

Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia taught young black men with elevated blood pressure to meditate. Meditation for 15 minutes twice a day caused these men to experience (in addition to a decrease in blood pressure) a 21% (!) increase in the ability of their blood vessels to dilate or open. A control group of matched men who did not meditate experienced a 4% decrease in that ability.

This could revolutionize the treatment for cardiovascular disease. Let's face it, keeping vessels open is the crux of any heart therapy.

If meditation isn't your bent, but you're still a fan of spacious vessels, there's always chocolate.