HEALTHY NEWS
Sing to Your Health!
Scientists recently discovered that mantra and rosary recitation have possible physiological benefits for the heart. Reciting either Sanskrit mantras or the Ave Maria prayer regulated the breath and synchronized the heart rhythms of 23 participants in a study conducted by Italian researchers. The research team speculated this happened because prayer and mantra slow the breath rate to an optimal six breaths per minute.
Both the Buddhist mantra Om mane padme hum and the Ave Maria prayer were used in the study and are generally recited in a single 10-second breath cycle, corresponding to six breaths per minute. In contrast, the average person’s breath rate is 16 to 20 breaths per minute, according to Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., a cardiac surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital and the director of the Heart Institute at Columbia University, who has pioneered the use of complementary therapies for cardiac patients. “When your internal metronome slows, you get a variety of beneficial effects,” he says, “and you also lessen the risk of catastrophic events like heart attacks and strokes.”
To read more about the Ave Maria prayer and and chanting go to: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC61046/ or
http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/news/meditation/power_mantras1.aspx
