BackgroundMental stress is one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Meditation and music listening are two techniques that are able to counteract it through the activation of specific brain areas, eliciting the so-called Relaxing Response (RR). Epidemiological evidence reveals that the RR practice has a beneficial prognostic impact on patients after myocardial infarction. We aimed to study the possible molecular mechanisms of RR underlying these findings.MethodsWe enrolled 30 consecutive patients after myocardial infarction and 10 healthy controls. 10 patients were taught to meditate, 10 to appreciate music and 10 did not carry out any intervention and served as controls. After training, and after 60 days of RR practice, we studied the individual variations, before and after the relaxation sessions, of the vital signs, the electrocardiographic and echocardiographic parameters along with coronary flow reserve (CFR) and the carotid's intima media thickness (IMT). Neuro-endocrine-immune (NEI) messengers and the expression of inflammatory genes (p53, Nuclear factor Kappa B (NfKB), and toll like receptor 4 (TLR4)) in circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells were also all observed.ResultsThe RR results in a reduction of NEI molecules (p < 0.05) and oxidative stress (p < 0.001). The expression of the genes p53, NFkB and TLR4 is reduced after the RR and also at 60 days (p < 0.001). The CFR increases with the relaxation (p < 0.001) and the IMT regressed significantly (p < 0.001) after 6 months of RR practice.ConclusionsThe RR helps to advantageously modulate the expression of inflammatory genes through a cascade of NEI messengers improving, over time, microvascular function and the arteriosclerotic process.

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A simple and sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the measurement of cortisol and cortisone in urine. Our findings indicate that the proposed analytical method is suitable for routine purposes and useful in many pathological conditions.

Stress appears to be the basis of many diseases, especially myocardial infarction. Events are not objectively “stressful” but what is central is how the individual structures the experience he is facing: the thoughts he produces about an event put him under stress. This cognitive process could be revealed by language (words and structure). We followed 90 patients with ischemic heart disease and 30 healthy volunteers, after having taught them the Relaxation Response (RR) as part of a 4-day Rational–Emotional–Education intervention. We analyzed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software the words that the subjects used across the study following the progression of blood galectin-3 (inflammation marker) and malondialdehyde (oxidative stress marker). During the follow-up, we confirmed an acute and chronic decrease in the markers of inflammation and oxidative stress already highlighted in our previous studies together with a significant change in the use of language by the subjects of the RR groups. Our results and the precise design of our study would seem to suggest the existence of an intimate relationship and regulatory action by cognitive processes (recognizable by the type of language used) on some molecular processes in the human body.