JP Stroke Foundation

Years of research have demonstrated the importance of preventative measures and therapeutic interventions for cardiovascular diseases. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, prompting a sense of urgency to find effective ways of managing the quality of life and life expectancy of those affected. This often poses an economic burden on the patient, urging researchers to find more affordable and less invasive therapeutic interventions. Recently, mindfulness therapy has polarized the medical field for its potential therapeutic effects on individuals suffering from cardiovascular diseases. This intervention stems from a concept known as mindfulness; the state of being aware of our own internal thoughts, feelings, emotions, external surroundings, and situations, while restricting automatic responses to unfamiliarity such as judgement or stress. One can indulge in mindfulness by simply meditating, focusing on slowing down your thoughts, and eliminating negativity. This type of meditation puts your mind and body in a state of calmness and effectively reduces your overall stress response. Evidently, mindfulness meditation can be practiced anywhere, making it more accessible than other treatments requiring in-hospital presence.

Mindfulness therapy is a type of psychotherapy, also known as a form of talk therapy, that aims to enhance one’s self-awareness and subsequently reduce these automatic responses. These types of therapies are conversation-based and often require a mental health professional that will assess, diagnose, and treat disruptive thought patterns and behaviours. Mindfulness therapy was quickly standardized into an 8-week program, where patients would learn to focus on their consciousness and present events without any judgement.

Research is conflicted on the preventative and therapeutic effects of mindfulness meditation and therapy. The current consensus is that mindfulness plays a critical role in regulating stress levels, anxiety, depression, and smoking. In essence, this is considered critical as the previously mentioned aspects are considered risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. A meta-analysis stated that mindfulness training can also help individuals stop smoking and was 26% more effective than the standardized (abstinence-follow up) way of quitting smoking addictions (2). Furthermore, mindfulness incites individuals with low physical activity levels to exercise and remain active. Practicing mindfulness has an indirect impact on our risk of developing cardiovascular diseases because of its effectiveness in reducing risk factors such as smoking, stress, inactive lifestyle, etc.

One of the main risk factors of cardiovascular diseases is hypertension. As most of you already know, hypertension is caused by high blood pressure and can give rise to many unwanted diseases if left unchecked. Hypertensive individuals do not exhibit recognizable symptoms and can only be made aware of their condition upon their visit to the doctor. Fortunately, recent data suggests that mindfulness meditation can reduce blood pressure. By addressing all the other risk factors for heart diseases, mindfulness ultimately lowers the risk of hypertension in individuals. Simply put, being mindful can help individuals smoke less, less depressed, less anxious, less stressed, positively motivated, and more. By reducing these maladaptive behaviours, you simultaneously lower the risk of hypertension. Additionally, research studies are exploring other therapeutic alternatives to incorporate in conjunction with mindfulness meditation such as dietary alterations and physical activity. As of right now, the scarcity of research on the therapeutic effects of mindfulness makes it impossible to say that this is the best psychological intervention for cardiovascular diseases. However, new studies have showed that mindfulness can be used as a potential modifier for risk factors of heart-related diseases and we are hopeful that more research in this field will help us understand exactly why and how it can be used as a treatment method.

Author: Jean Paul Sabat

References

1. Liu, M. Y., Li, N., Li, W. A., & Khan, H. (2017). Association between psychosocial stress and hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurological research, 39(6), 573–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616412.2017.1317904

2. Loucks, E. B., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Britton, W. B., Fresco, D. M., Desbordes, G., Brewer, J. A., & Fulwiler, C. (2015). Mindfulness and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: State of the Evidence, Plausible Mechanisms, and Theoretical Framework. Current cardiology reports, 17(12), 112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-015-0668-7

3. Olivine, A. (2022). What is mindfulness therapy? VeryWellHealth. Retrieved from: https://www.verywellhealth.com/mindfulness-therapy-5212796

4. Zou, H., Cao, X., & Chair, S. Y. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of mindfulness-based interventions for patients with coronary heart disease. Journal of advanced nursing, 77(5), 2197–2213. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14738

5. Zou, H., Cao, X., Geng, J., & Chair, S. Y. (2020). Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on health-related outcomes for patients with heart failure: a systematic review. European journal of cardiovascular nursing : journal of the Working Group on Cardiovascular Nursing of the European Society of Cardiology, 19(1), 44–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474515119881947