Mindfulness-based stress reduction helps lower blood pressure, reports study in Psychosomatic Medicine: A new study shows that “blood pressure is effectively lowered by mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for patients with borderline high blood pressure or ‘prehypertension.'” Prehypertension, which is associated with cardiovascular disease, is blood pressure higher than 120/80 but lower than 140/90. For subjects who spent two and a half hours a week on body scan exercises, sitting meditation and yoga, “systolic blood pressure (the first, higher number) decreased by an average of nearly 5 millimeters of mercury,” – more than five times the decrease seen in those who did no mindfulness intervention.