July 9, 2007 -- Meditation is increasingly popular as a complementary treatment for high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health conditions, but its therapeutic value remains unproven, researchers say.

That is the finding from one of the largest and most comprehensive reviews of the research on meditation and health ever conducted.

Investigators from the University of Alberta Evidence-based Practice Center analyzed 813 English-language studies designed to assess the impact of meditation on health problems. They found that the three most studied health conditions were high blood pressure, heart disease, and substance abuse. Other conditions that had been studied included fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.

They concluded the studies were not of high enough quality to prove or disprove the value of meditation as a therapeutic treatment.

“There is an enormous amount of interest in using meditation as a form of therapy to cope with a variety of modern-day health problems, especially hypertension, stress, and chronic pain, but the majority of evidence that seems to support this notion is anecdotal, or it comes from poor-quality studies,” researchers Maria Ospina, MSc, and Kenneth Bond, MA, note in a news release.