Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentIf the level of medical utilization of these high-cost patients could bereduced, the financial impact on the entire nation would be significant.Research has shown that certain types of preventive interventions cansignificantly reduce the medical utilization and expenses of high-costpeople. For example, in a study in Quebec, Herron (1993) found that astress-reduction program utilizing the Transcendental Meditation programdecreased the medical payments of high-cost cases an average of18% per year over three years (cumulative: 54%). The mechanism explainingthis effect has only recently been understood. During the last tenyears, a substantial body of research has found that stress has a powerfulnegative effect on health (Chrousos & Gold, 1992). Prolonged mental orphysical stress weakens the immune system and thereby increases diseasesusceptibility. Almost everyone is exposed to undue stress, and hence thepotential benefits of stress reduction are widespread.Certain types of stress reduction appear to be more effective inreducing medical utilization and expenses than other preventive interventions;the outcomes of prevention programs can vary widely. Forexample, lifestyle interventions are probably the most widely usedmethods of health promotion and disease prevention. Lifestyle changes,however, can take many years to affect health status and expenses. Bly,Jones, and Richardson (1986) reported on Johnson and Johnson’s Livefor Life Program, which is a comprehensive attempt to develop andmaintain healthier lifestyles in the corporate setting. Over a five-yearperiod, the Live for Life group showed a slower rate of increase inmedical expenses than control groups. Note that this program, whichutilized several lifestyle interventions, including smoking cessation,weight control, nutrition education, and fitness and blood pressureprograms, failed to reduce medical expenses (Bly et al., 1986). Whenlifestyle interventions are compared with certain types of stress reductionfor their effectiveness in reducing medical expenditures, stressreduction produces larger expense decreases. Consequently, the mostpowerful stress-reduction interventions are recommended to reducehealth care expenditures in high-cost groups that incur the majority ofexpenses in most populations.370