The authors of one new study are saying that exercise doesn't work as well for black teen girls — a claim that leaves us with more questions than answers — but there is also some positive (if not totally surprising) health news out about African American out this week.
In a refreshing change from all the doom and gloom, a study of black teens with high blood pressure published in the Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine journal found that those who meditated twice a day for 15 minutes had lower left-ventricular mass, an indicator of future cardiovascular disease. From the Huffington Post:
For the study, which was published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, half of the teens were trained in transcendental meditation and asked to meditate for 15 minutes with a class and 15 minutes at home for a four-month period. The other half was exposed to health education on how to lower blood pressure and risk for cardiovascular disease, but no meditation.
Researchers also measured the mass of the heart muscle's left ventricle before and after the study, a test that signals how hard the heart is working to pump blood through the body. "Increased mass of the heart muscle's left ventricle is caused by the extra workload on the heart with higher blood pressure," explained Dr. Vernon Barnes, a physiologist in the Medical College of Georgia and the Georgia Health Sciences University Institute of Public and Preventive Health, and author of the study.
Read more at the Huffington Post.