PRESS RELEASE
2 April 2004   ABC Channel 7    First News   Sarasota, FL    WWSB - TV

A study by the Medical College of Georgia found that two 15-minute meditation sessions each day - once at home, the other at school - helped teenage students lower their blood pressure over four months. Their blood pressure even continued to drop for four months after the meditation sessions ended, researchers said.  Rising blood pressure runs the risk for developing hypertension.  A study was conducted to see if meditation could lower blood pressure.  It was known that meditation calms the mind and produces better thoughts but getting into the mind of children and adolescents was the challenge.

Of 5,000 students screened researchers found 156 had high blood pressure. Half of that group received the meditation sessions while the control group was placed in health education classes. All  wore blood pressure monitors 24 hours a day.

The control group did not have any reduction in blood pressure, according to the study in the American Journal of Hypertension.

One in four adults have hypertension, which is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and health officials say teens who have higher-than-normal blood pressure are more likely to develop the chronic disease when they're older.

"It's no longer considered to be an adult disease," said Vernon Barnes, a physiologist at the medical college and lead author of the study.   "Besides reducing their blood pressure, students who meditated also had lower rates of absenteeism, school rule violations and suspensions than those in the control group. It's noteworthy for educators - meditation might be included in the school day as a program for reducing stress in the schools."

Channel 7 News Reports:  A Detroit school is using Transcendental Meditation in their curriculum and reports a high increase in test scores and improved conduct for all of their students.  The students are eager to attend the early morning assemblage to experience the positive vibrations of their collective meditators.  The cost is $2,500.00 per student.

Piqua Press offers a much less complicated Meditation Program at a cost of only $399.00 per student and is ofogram does not infringe upon any religious beliefs held by the student or his family.
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REPORT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 1997 a startling 21 percent of high school students had contemplated suicide in the previous year and that 8 percent had tried to kill themselves.
These figures are shocking to say the least.  Everything is “cause and effect” so what is the cause that is promoting this surge in teen suicides?  Feeling their inability or perhaps their lack of desire to enter adulthood and embrace a culture, not of their making, and not to their liking, to become something which they do not wish to be, but must do so, because the pay is better.
Stress, real or imagined, runs rampent amongst the flowing juices of our teenagers of today. The only tool available to combat this problem, that does not have unwanted after effects, is meditation.  The only meditation designed especially for adolescents is "My Secret Source" Meditation.
Stress is derived from innumerable sources; it is expressed in innumerable ways.
Depression is the major cause of teen suicides.  Depression is usually caused by stress.  Mental relaxation through meditation is the uncompromising tool that works.  "My Secret Source" will quickly develop positive results in the adolescent who is wavering on the brink.