Meditation lowers blood pressure

Meditation programs lowered blood pressure by a few points on average in randomized trials, but the size of the effect varied widely and the certainty of the evidence is low to moderate. In a 2024 Cochrane review of trials lasting at least 12 weeks in adults with, or at high risk of, heart disease, Transcendental Meditation lowered systolic pressure (the top number) by about 2.3 mmHg more than other activities matched for time and attention, across 8 trials, a result rated moderate certainty; its effect on diastolic pressure (the bottom number) was unclear. Mindfulness programs lowered systolic pressure by about 6 to 7 mmHg in pooled trials, but the trials disagreed so much that the reviewers rated this low certainty, and against matched activities the range of likely effects included no difference.

Only two trials in that review, 311 people in all, reported heart attacks, strokes or deaths, and neither showed a clear difference (low to very low certainty); none of the cited sources reports a trial of meditation as a replacement for blood pressure medicine; in the trials of people with heart disease that described treatment, participants were taking medication. How pressure is measured matters: in the largest cited trial that used 24-hour monitoring, a 2014 Canadian trial of unmedicated adults with mild hypertension, an eight-week mindfulness course did not lower blood pressure recorded over 24 hours by a portable monitor, compared with a waiting list. National guidelines differ. UK guidance on hypertension (NICE, 2019) removed an earlier recommendation on relaxation therapies, a group that includes meditation, after finding no evidence of benefit on heart events or quality of life. The 2025 US hypertension guideline states that Transcendental Meditation may be reasonable for preventing or treating raised blood pressure, as an addition to lifestyle changes or medication, a recommendation it grades as weak; it describes the evidence for mindfulness-based and other stress-reduction approaches as less robust. None of the cited trials tested changing or stopping blood pressure medicine.

The largest single mindfulness trial cited, a 2023 US study of 201 adults with office blood pressure of 120/80 or above, tested a program built for blood pressure: eight weekly group sessions of two and a half hours, a day-long session, and at least 45 minutes of daily home practice recommended, combining meditation and yoga with modules on diet, physical activity, alcohol and taking medication. After six months, systolic pressure had fallen 5.9 mmHg from the start and was 4.5 mmHg lower than in a group given enhanced usual care (95% confidence interval 0.1 to 9.0 mmHg). Participants in the program also sat about 350 fewer minutes a week than the comparison group, so the effect of meditation cannot be separated from the lifestyle coaching. The staff who measured blood pressure and the analyst did not know who was in which group; the program's developer was one of its three teachers and did not run the analysis. It was funded by the US National Institutes of Health.

For Transcendental Meditation, taught by certified teachers and practised for 15 to 20 minutes twice a day, the Cochrane review found systolic pressure 6.3 mmHg lower than in no-intervention groups, but in only 2 trials of 139 people, rated low certainty. A 2019 review of 9 Transcendental Meditation studies in 851 US adults with hypertension or heart disease, all published between 1995 and 2015, found no difference in blood pressure between meditation and control groups; pressure fell within the meditation groups (by 3.5 mmHg systolic, against 1.3 mmHg in controls), and every study that described treatment reported that participants were taking medication. The 2025 US guideline describes short-term trials of Transcendental Meditation as showing average falls of about 5/2 mmHg, judges meditation somewhat less effective than the DASH eating plan (a diet designed to lower blood pressure), structured exercise or lower-sodium, higher-potassium intake, and notes that the trials were small, short and varied in how meditation was taught.

For mindfulness, the Cochrane review pooled 9 trials (379 people) against no intervention, finding systolic pressure 6.6 mmHg lower (range of likely effects 0.1 to 13.2 mmHg) and diastolic 3.4 mmHg lower, and 6 trials (388 people) against matched activities, finding systolic 6.1 mmHg lower with a range from 12.8 mmHg lower to 0.6 mmHg higher. Most trials were small, participants knew they were meditating, and how groups were assigned was unclear in most; 65 further trials were ongoing when the review was completed. A 2026 grading of 11 pooled analyses of mindfulness and blood pressure rated the Cochrane review high in quality and each of the other ten low or critically low. In the 2014 Canadian trial of 101 adults, 24-hour pressure averaged 135/82 at the start and was essentially unchanged 12 weeks later in both groups (0.4/0.0 mmHg after the course, 0.4/-0.4 mmHg on the waiting list); a small fall seen within the course group was limited to women. In a 2026 Hong Kong pilot trial of 76 adults with high night-time blood pressure, whose medication was kept unchanged, systolic pressure during sleep was 6.7 mmHg lower after an eight-week mindfulness course than with usual care, while 24-hour, daytime and clinic readings did not differ clearly between the groups; blood pressure was not the pilot's main outcome.

Few high-quality studies have examined meditation and blood pressure, according to the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, whose page (last updated 2022) describes a 2017 American Heart Association statement as finding a possible benefit, with the specific effect on blood pressure not determined. None of the Cochrane trials comparing mindfulness with matched activities reported on unwanted effects. Across 83 studies of all kinds of meditation, a 2020 review found unwanted effects, most often anxiety or low mood, in 8.3 percent of meditators overall and 3.7 percent in experimental studies. The NICE committee stated that it did not intend to stop people trying relaxation therapies, that they have less evidence of benefit than other lifestyle changes or medicines, and that non-drug care for hypertension should focus on regular exercise and a healthy weight.