Mindfulness meditation lowers muscle sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure in African-American males with chronic kidney disease.
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
; 307(1): R93-R101, 2014 Jul 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24829497
ABSTRACT
Mindfulness meditation (MM) is a stress-reduction technique that may have real biological effects on hemodynamics but has never previously been tested in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. In addition, the mechanisms underlying the potential blood pressure (BP)-lowering effects of MM are unknown. We sought to determine whether MM acutely lowers BP in CKD patients, and whether these hemodynamic changes are mediated by a reduction in sympathetic nerve activity. In 15 hypertensive African-American (AA) males with CKD, we conducted a randomized, crossover study in which participants underwent 14 min of MM or 14 min of BP education (control intervention) during two separate random-order study visits. Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), beat-to-beat arterial BP, heart rate (HR), and respiratory rate (RR) were continuously measured at baseline and during each intervention. A subset had a third study visit to undergo controlled breathing (CB) to determine whether a reduction in RR alone was sufficient in exacting hemodynamic changes. We observed a significantly greater reduction in systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean arterial pressure, and HR, as well as a significantly greater reduction in MSNA, during MM compared with the control intervention. Participants had a significantly lower RR during MM; however, in contrast to MM, CB alone did not reduce BP, HR, or MSNA. MM acutely lowers BP and HR in AA males with hypertensive CKD, and these hemodynamic effects may be mediated by a reduction in sympathetic nerve activity. RR is significantly lower during MM, but CB alone without concomitant meditation does not acutely alter hemodynamics or sympathetic activity in CKD.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Sympathetic Nervous System
/
Black or African American
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Blood Pressure
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Muscle, Skeletal
/
Meditation
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Renal Insufficiency, Chronic
/
Mindfulness
/
Hypertension
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
/
Diagnostic_studies
Limits:
Aged
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
Journal subject:
FISIOLOGIA
Year:
2014
Document type:
Article