Transcendental Meditation and Yoga: Short- and Long-term Effects in Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients - a Pilot Study

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in Austria. The ESC guidelines recommend cardiac rehabilitation after coronary events (acute coronary syndrome, myocardial infarction, etc) with the highest level of evidence. Drug therapy and non-pharmacological measures such as a targeted and individualized exercise program, stress management programs, reduction of cardiovascular risk parameters through training, nutritional counseling, smoking cessation, etc. reduce the cardiovascular risk of recurrence. The reduction of psychosocial stress is regarded as one of the major factors in cardiac rehabilitation, alongside physical training and nutrition. In this study, transcendental meditation (TM) and yoga will be added on top of regular cardiac rehabilitation to investigate the efficiency of these methods to possibly improve the quality of life of recovering patients. Both methods are believed to reduce stress for users, while being relatively easy to introduce to and implement in daily life for beginners, carrying no extra cost for them further down the line. The main hypothesis is that cardiac patients undergoing rehabilitation plus TM or yoga therapy will show changes in endothelial function, micobiome and stress levels. Three groups of 10 participants from a cardiac cardiac rehabilitation will be subjected to standard rehabilitation, rehabilitation with meditation, and rehabilitation with yoga, respectively. The vascular state of each patient will be closely monitored over the 4 weeks, as well as after a 1-year follow up. Furthermore, the expected stress reductions will be assessed in short term and long-term by researching hair cortisol levels, on top of self-reporting questionnaires.