Kent State and Penn Win Federal Grant to Expand Mindfulness Research

The two universities have received $3.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to study whether lifestyle modification like meditation can keep hypertension patients off medication.

Photograph by Mark Mahaney

Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio, author of A Mindful Nation, announced yesterday that universities in Northeast Ohio and Philadelphia will get $3.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to study mindfulness meditation.

From the press release:

The study called “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for High Blood Pressure” will recruit and treat 180 patients from Northeast Ohio and Philadelphia for five years. Some of the patients will use mindfulness to reduce stress, and others will use an alternative program that doesn’t use meditation called Stress Management Education.

“I am a relentless advocate and proponent of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and have seen positive results in lowering stress and pain levels in both students and adults,” Ryan added in the press release. “The work of these doctors is a strong step in the direction of healthy living.”

Speaking to Mindful for Mindful‘s June 2013 issue, Ryan spoke of an overall goal “to get us to invest more in the most important asset we have in America—well-functioning human beings.” Beyond the grant announcement yesterday, Ryan is pushing this goal forward on another front: bringing mindfulness to veterans with posttrauamatic stress (PTSD) disorder.

Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) was featured in Mindful‘s June 2013 issue.