The Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention was established to scientifically investigate time-tested systems of natural health care, particularly the ancient Vedic approach to health, for the prevention and treatment of major chronic diseases. Over the last 20 years, the Institute has received over $30 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health along with private foundations. This research has primarily focused on cardiovascular health, cancer, and aging in underserved high-risk populations. Institute studies employ the most rigorous available research methods (especially randomized, controlled, and blinded clinical trials) for efficacy and mechanisms of effect.

Our latest research findings have demonstrated:

• The feasibility and efficacy of the Transcendental Meditation® Program in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors
• Reductions in hypertension over short-term and long-term follow-up periods
• Reduced need for antihypertensive medications
• Improvements in metabolic syndrome
• Improvements in heart failure patients
• Reduced brain reactivity to stress
• Greater well-being and quality of life
• Longevity — reduced mortality rates
• Reduced health care utilization and related expenditures
• Effects of multimodality natural medicine interventions consisting of meditation, diet, exercise, and nutritional supplements on cardiovascular disease

These studies have included related findings on behavioral and physiological mechanisms for the clinical outcomes investigated in our trials.

Many of these published studies have received wide-scale media coverage in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, and television and radio shows.

Ongoing collaborative clinical trials include the effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on:

• Physiological mechanisms of hypertension
• Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality
• Primary prevention of hypertension
• Regression of atherosclerosis (coronary artery disease)
• Pathophysiological mechanisms of coronary heart disease
• Comparisons with other behavioral modalities in cardiovascular disease
• Quality of life  and survival rates in breast cancer patients
• Neurophysiology, cognitive development and health in college students

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a component of the National Institutes of Health, awarded Maharishi University of Management an $8 million grant (from 1999–2006) to establish a specialized center of research (SCOR) to study natural medicine in relation to cardiovascular disease in minority populations.

Based on more than 20 years of research and clinical experience with the evidence-based, natural medicine approaches to cardiovascular disease, Dr. Robert Schneider and Dr. Jeremy Fields have published a widely-acclaimed book, TOTAL HEART HEALTH; How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease with the Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health (Basic Health Publications, 2006). See www.TotalHeartHealth.info for more information and reviews.