This article was contributed by Megan Lee

It’s that time of year when schedules somehow seem three times more full with work, school, and social gatherings, but the days seem shorter. On TV and in newspapers, articles appear weekly on ways to reduce holiday stress. Holiday cheer and spending time with family can keep us afloat during the holiday season, but when the holidays are over and life returns to normal, what happens when the stress doesn’t melt as fast as the snow?

Due to economic changes and an increase in unemployment rates, many Americans have reported more stress over the last year. Frequent feelings of stress can get under our skin and damage our body. While stress does not contribute to ulcers, a popularly held belief, stress does have long-term effects on health. Stress has been linked to low immunity to common illnesses, depression, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

There are numerous stress reduction techniques that can help maintain health, such as diet, exercise, and relaxation. One ancient form of stress reduction is receiving renewed attention by health professionals. Transcendental meditation, once popular in the 1960s and 70s, is thought to have physiologic effects on the body that reduce the damaging effects of stress. The National Institutes of Health have spent over twenty million dollars on researching transcendental meditation and its possible effects on blood pressure, heart disease, and the immune system. While this is a small sum compared to other medical studies, research in alternative medicine is growing.

New studies involving Transcendental Meditation

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